The new series, 'Ashes to Ashes', will be broadcast on BBC One next year. The action will move from Manchester to London and the year from 1973 to 1981. The lead character of Sam Tyler, who was played by John Simm, is to be replaced by a female side-kick, DCI Alex Drake, but DCI Gene Hunt, played by Philip Glenister, will return.
The new character will be a single parent and modern police officer who uses psychological profiling to catch criminals. The producers are yet to cast an actress for the role before filming begins in the summer.
It is believed Drake will enter the series after being kidnapped with her daughter, being injured in a rescue attempt and waking up in 1981.
'Life on Mars' has been a major success for BBC One. In the final episode of the second series, broadcast last night, Sam Tyler awoke from his coma to find that the world of Gene Hunt and 1973 were all in his imagination.
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