Life on Mars: Season 2, Episode 2

 "Have you ever heard of softly softly?"

"Yes, but I prefer Z-Cars..." 

I'm slowly coming round, on this re-watching on Life on Mars, that it's a programme where middling-to-good but not great scripts are saved by a great concept and cast, along with some frequently excellent direction and much fun with nostalgia. And yet occasionally, when a script from someone who isn't a showrunner turns up, the quality rises hugely. Ironically, for me as a Doctor Who fan in 2020, that outsider is usually Chris Chibnall, who so far has been the finest writer on Life on Mars.

This is a superb, character-driven episode which really pays off the appearance last episode of Kevin McNally's Superintendent Harry Woolf, as we gradually uncover the horrible truth that this exemplar of policing, Gene's mentor, has gone dodgy. This is nicely paralleled with Sam meeting his own future mentor in 1973- and finding an unsure young man dealing with racism by keeping his head down ("Why should I have to fight all the battles?" 

It's very much a western in tone, especially in the final Mexican stand-off where Glen hints at the great man he will become and Gene faces what his mentor has become. Philip Glenister is extraordinary. But we also get good character moments for the likes of Chris and Ray, and Annie's first days as a DC, and Onslow from Keeping Up Appearances being tied up.

It's not often I say this of Life on Mars, much as I love it, but this is a superb bit of telly.