It’s 1981: the year of the Royal Wedding, the Brixton riots, Bucks Fizz winning the Eurovision Song Contest – and the year that Gene Hunt takes the Met by storm in Ashes To Ashes.

We hear how the new series was born; discovers some behind-the-scenes secrets; and catches up with Philip Glenister, who plays the gloriously maverick Gene Hunt.

Gene Hunt, the politically incorrect, loud-mouthed and sexist DCI from the hit drama Life On Mars, was, on the surface, an unlikely cult figure. However, the combination of his winning personality and somewhat “traditional” approach to policing helped to firmly establish him in the national consciousness.

When the highly acclaimed drama bowed out after two series, it did so at the height of its popularity. However, just because the writers and producers deemed that Sam Tyler’s (John Simm) story had reached its conclusion, did that also spell the end for his much-loved “Guv”? Jane Featherstone, joint MD of Kudos Film & Television and executive producer of both Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, explains the genesis of the new series.

“As Life On Mars was drawing to an end, the BBC approached us and asked if we thought there could be a sequel or follow-up with the character of Gene Hunt, but a few years later,” she explains. “We sat down and all realised that it could be brilliant to bring Gene into the early Eighties, a fascinating time of cultural, musical and political transition.”

From the start, the production team knew that Ashes To Ashes had to offer viewers a totally fresh journey and say new things about the much-loved Gene Hunt. Life On Mars had offered very little information on Gene’s past and personal life, making him something of an enigma. The introduction of a female DI, Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes), meant that a totally new dynamic could be created, without garnering comparisons to the good cop/bad cop “buddy” relationship experienced by Sam and Gene.

“The relationship between Gene Hunt and Alex Drake is critical to Ashes To Ashes,” continues Featherstone. “It is tumultuous, sexy, intellectual, instinctive – and totally different to his relationship with Sam.”

As the creative process continued, it became clear that the sexual tension between the two characters would be one of the key hooks to the series.

“Gene has never come across a woman like Alex before and she rocks his world,” explains Featherstone. “How is it possible to work with someone so incredibly confident and attractive, not to mention posh and from London, and bloody hell, a woman? Through Alex’s presence at the station, we see a different side to Gene – a more complex, gentler side, a man with dreams, hopes and fears.”

Despite a new era and leading lady being added to the mix, it’s not all change. Gene Hunt will still offer his unique take on the ghost of England’s past.

“We thought we’d bring him to London where his Northern views would come into sharp conflict with ‘the Southern ponces’ he finds there,” adds the show’s producer, Beth Willis. “And, of course, he should take his A-team of Ray Carling [Dean Andrews] and Chris Skelton [Marshall Lancaster] with him.”

With the series set in the early Eighties, the production team recognised a great opportunity to display the change in policing since 1973 – changes which have perhaps had an impact on the once supremely cocksure Gene?

Writer and co-creator Ashley Pharaoh explains: “All the research we did indicated that the police knew the Scarman Report [on the Brixton riots] was on its way and they knew it wasn’t going to be good news, so the threat of that hangs over the whole series. A very specific era of policing is coming to an end. I think there’s a slight sense of melancholy to Gene at times – he misses the North and the old days. But he’s a fighter, he refuses to give up.”

The next challenge was how to take Alex Drake – a police psychologist and thoroughly modern woman of the 21st century – into the world of Gene Hunt, a world she knows about only through her sessions with the now-deceased Sam Tyler.

Matthew Graham, co-creator, writer and executive producer, realised that the premise would have to be watertight to work on screen.

“Through Sam, Alex has learnt all about Gene Hunt, Ray Carling and Chris Skelton,” he explains. “Alex is called to an intense hostage crisis involving a drug dealer who shoots her in the head at point-blank range. Next thing she knows, she’s in 1981.”

As if waking up dressed as a prostitute in the early Eighties, with Ultravox ringing in your ears, isn’t bad enough, Alex is forced to confront a much larger problem.

“Alex is horrified to discover that sharing her delusion are the very characters she heard about from Sam Tyler, in particular a certain DCI Gene Hunt!” continues Graham. “Furthermore, 1981 was the very year her parents were mysteriously killed in a car bomb – is that somehow connected to her presence there?”

However, in the meantime, Alex must find a way to get on with her new boss, concludes Featherstone. “Alex finds that Gene is a compassionate man, fighting for justice and what he thinks is right, despite his incredibly dated views of womanhood. The result is funny, electric and surprising.”

It’s time to dig out that Rubik’s Cube – 1981, here we come!

Did you watch the first episode? Check out our review of the very first Ashes To Ashes.