Good, Bad And Ugly Meet In 'Life On Mars'

SCOTT SIMON, host:

1973 was a great year. Well, maybe not for Richard Nixon. But there was ?American Graffiti,? ?Day For Night? and ?The Exorcist? at the movies, George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, more people watched Elvis in concert from Hawaii than had watched the moon landing, the Watergate scandal unfolded, and David Bowie sang about ?Life On Mars.?

(Soundbite of song, ?Life On Mars?)

Mr. DAVID BOWIE (Singer): (Singing) Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy. Oh man, wonder if he'll ever know. He's in the bestselling show, is there life on Mars?

SIMON: Which is also the song that sets off what's now considered a classic sci-fi British TV show, in which Manchester Chief Inspector Sam Tyler gets hit by a car in 2006 and wakes up in a world where everybody smokes and telephones still have dials. And he's wearing a pair of boots that John Travolta wouldn't be got in. Is Sam Tyler in a coma, a time warp? His 1973 boss, Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt, clearly hasn't heard of sensitivity training.

(Soundbite of TV series, ?Life On Mars?)

Mr. PHILIP GLENISTER (Actor): (As Gene Hunt) They reckon you got a concussion. Well, I couldn't give (unintelligible) your brains are falling out. Don't waltz into my kingdom acting king of the jungle.

Mr. JOHN SIMM (Actor): (As Sam Tyler) Who the hell are you?

Mr. GLENISTER: (As Gene Hunt) Gene Hunt, your DCI, and its 1973, almost dinner time (unintelligible).

SIMON: DCI Gene Hunt is played by Philip Glenister. He joins us from London.

Mr. Hunt - Mr. Hunt?

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIMON: You see how easy it is to confuse the two of you.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. PHILIP GLENISTER (Actor, ?Life On Mars?): Perfect.

SIMON: Nice to meet you, Mr. Glenister.

Mr. GLENISTER: Nice to speak with you. How you doing?

SIMON: I'm fine. Thank you.

Mr. GLENISTER: Good.

SIMON: Could you do a little translation? For example, what's hoops?

Mr. GLENISTER: Hoops, ah. Well, we still make them, actually, but they're spaghetti hoops. And they're out of a tin.

SIMON: Pasta, basically.

Mr. GLENISTER: Yes.

SIMON: It's a very good description. I think we might call those Spaghettios in the United States.

Mr. GLENISTER: Spaghettios, okay, yeah.

SIMON: So how do you feel about the confusion between Gene Hunt and yourself?

Mr. GLENISTER: Well, I've been playing him for a while now because I'm currently doing a sequel to ?Life On Mars? called ?Ashes to Ashes.?

SIMON: Right.

Mr. GLENISTER: So I've decided that basically I think he's my alter ego. He gets away with, well, a huge amount of things that I or anybody else wouldn't be allowed to say, unfortunately, in this day and age. So it's quite joyous just being able to sort of say all the things on behalf of everybody who wants to say those things, you know, which we're not allowed to do now.

SIMON: Let's play another clip if we could, where Sam Tyler, the policeman who goes back in time to 1973 is - I don't want to give away too much, but let's just say there's a significant piece of evidence that a judge could use to set(ph) somebody who both these policemen are convinced is a deeply bad person and likely to murder again. Here's the confrontation between your character, Gene Hunt, and Sam Tyler.

(Soundbite of TV series, ?Life On Mars?)

Mr. GLENISTER: (As Gene Hunt) Look, listen. You told me you were a deputy to the law.

Mr. SIMM: (As Sam Tyler) The law is putting bad people away and who want to show a court that note?

Mr. GLENISTER: (As Gene Hunt) Fine. You got principles.

Mr. SIMM: (As Sam Tyler) Hang on.

Mr. GLENISTER: (As Gene Hunt) Well?

Mr. SIMM: (As Sam Tyler) (Unintelligible) Want to get me suspended? If you like, you can try your hand. And as for this note, I'm making it your call.

SIMON: It's a very, very gripping sequence. And I don't want to tip off what happens.

Mr. GLENISTER: Hmm.

SIMON: But when of all is said and done, there's something to be said for DCI Hunt, isn't there?

Mr. GLENISTER: There's very much a western element about ?Life On Mars,? you know? It's a spaghetti western going on. And I think that Gene basically sees himself as the sheriff of his town and he's there to kick out the bad guys and embrace the good guys. It's just the way he goes about it. There's a particular piece in ?Life on Mars? which is one of my favorite moments, is when I have a copy of a poster of ?The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? in my office and Sam walks in, while I'm looking at this poster, and he says?

(Soundbite of TV series, ?Life On Mars?)

Mr. SIMM: (As Sam Tyler) Which one are you?

Mr. GLENISTER: (As Gene Hunt) All three.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: You know, and I kind of think that kind of just sums up the man completely. He's kind of a bit Wyatt Earp - there's a bit of ?High Noon? in there, you know? And that's what I love about the show. It sort of has all these different dimensions to it.

SIMON: The scriptwriting, as has been noted by many critics, is absolutely fantastic.

Mr. GLENISTER: Hmm.

SIMON: What's the line? More nervous than a?

Mr. GLENISTER: The more nervous than (unintelligible) penguin shoot(ph).

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIMON: Yes.

Mr. GLENISTER: That's the baby(ph).

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: It's a corker. I don't know how they come up with them, quite frankly.

SIMON: You were in ?Calendar Girls,? with Helen Mirren?

Mr. GLENISTER: That's right, yeah.

SIMON: Any funny little stories you want to tell about Dame Helen, who is like the most beloved person in America?

Mr. GLENISTER: It was quite fun, the sequence I had to shoot, because I was playing the photographer, Lawrence, who obviously has to take the pictures of them all. And it was kind of fun seeing all those ladies of a certain age in - we call it, in this country, the buff, meaning in the nude. And they were incredibly supportive of each other, actually. I did offer to take my clothes off as well, but there was a big silence.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: ?around the room, which isn't very encouraging, really. When they had to do their particular set-up of the calendar, all of them would be on the studio floor, to be there with support, with a few glasses of champagne, I think, just to give them a bit of Dutch courage, so to speak. I wish I'd had more to do in it, really. But as I don't have boobs, it was bit tricky, really?

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIMON: I'm sure you've?

Mr. GLENISTER: Well, I've got man boobs.

SIMON: I'm sure you've got great ones when all is said and done?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: That's Gene Hunt.

SIMON: Yeah.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIMON: I can't believe I said that.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SIMON: And you've been working with Woody Allen?

Mr. GLENISTER: I have, which was a real treat. I mean, he's one of my sort of all time heroes, I think. Some of his films have been some of my favorite ever made, really. I have a ritual. I have to watch ?Love and Death,? every Christmas. I just love it and I find it quite Christmassy because all the Prokofiev music he uses in it, you know.

But it was great. It's so easy the way - you know, you just see your sides of your scenes and then he encourages you to just be as naturalistic and feel free to go off the page and ad-lib as much as possible and just stick to the main points and keep those in them. Other than that, you're free to do what you like, really, which is terrific, very enjoyable.

SIMON: And of course you'd be shot if you told us what the movie is about, right? He's?

Mr. GLENISTER: I don't know, honestly. I couldn't - I would be shot as well, but also you don't get to see a full script. as with most Woody Allen films, there's usually kind of three or four storylines going all on at once. And, you know, he's got an extraordinary cast again. He's got Anthony Hopkins, Freida Pinto from ?Slumdog Millionaire,? Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas, and me. So I'm sort of involved in Josh Brolin's storyline a little bit, you know, who is also delightful, real thrill, pleasure to meet.

SIMON: You have daughters, I believe?

MR. GLENISTER: I have two, two girls - Millie(ph) and Charlotte(ph), who are seven and four, yeah.

SIMON: Which raises just about my final question?

Mr. GLENISTER: Hmm.

SIMON: ?which is, how would you feel if your daughters met someone like Gene Hunt?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: That's a very good question. Do you know what, I - as long as he acted like me as Gene Hunt, I wouldn't probably mind, actually, because I think, I think overall - actually I think Gene's a decent guy, I really do. I think he's firm but fair. Just as long as he wasn't the same age as when they - as long as she's not 17 and he's sort of 50, yeah.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: Dad, this is my new boyfriend and he's called Gene and he's your age.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: Oh, good.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. GLENISTER: Oh, good, good, good.

SIMON: Mr. Glenister, so nice talking to you. Thanks very much.

Mr. GLENISTER: My pleasure, lovely to speak to you.

SIMON: Philip Glenister, he plays Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt on the British series ?Life On Mars,? now available on DVD from Acorn Media. He joined us from our studios in London. And to see a clip of DCI Gene Hunt in action, you can go to our blog npr.org/soapbox. You can also share your memories of 1973.

(Soundbite of song ?Life on Mars?)

Mr. DAVID BOWIE (Singer): (Singer) It's on America's tortured brow. That Mickey Mouse?

SIMON: I'm not sure I can remember 1973. If you'd like to wake up with Philip Glenister in 1973, you can head to npr.org to watch clips from the show. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.