LIFE ON MARS (Sun July 29, ABC – 8:30pm): Superb blend of sci-fi and crime drama that plays, bizarrely, like the bastard love-child of THE BILL and DOCTOR WHO. John Simms plays Sam Tyler, a competent police detective in 2006 London. Following a car accident, Tyler suddenly finds himself waking up as a detective in London of 1973. Sam’s temporal trauma is intriguingly vague – is he insane? Dreaming? Or has his soul drifted back 33 years in time whilst his comatose body remains in 2006? Simms must have been bitten by the time-traveling bug thanks to this series, as he’ll soon be seen as a certain Masterful villain on the new series of DOCTOR WHO.
