Welcome to the Life on Mars guide at The TVCalendar. A detective chief inspector from 2006 is investigating a serial killer when he is knocked over by a speeding car. Waking up, he finds himself apparently in 1973. Is he mad, in a coma, or has he travelled back in time? Initially struggling to come to terms with his situation, Sam Tyler has to come to terms with the old-fashioned technology and attitudes of the day, convinced that, if he can find out how he came to be trapped in the past, he can find the way home. The actor John Simm described the show as "a cross between Back to the Future and The Sweeney". It makes effective use of the disorientation of the unwitting time-traveller while taking a post-modern romp through 1970s fashions and technologies, with due tribute paid to the classic police dramas of the day, to fashion a truly unique programme. A sequel series, Ashes to Ashes, followed in 2008.