A spokesperson for BBC drama has announced the long-anticipated third series of 'Life on Mars'. Following on from previous runs set in the 70's and 80's, the show will follow CID in Coventry during the 1990's. Opposite Philip Glenister's old school copper Gene Hunt will be new boy Ryan Boyce, who will be played by Dean Gaffney. Ryan works at the Apple shop where Sam Tyler, the protagonist from 'Life on Mars', bought an iPhone. He begins receiving tweets from Tyler, and when he is electrocuted by a faulty iPod shuffle Ryan is senting hurtling back twenty years to 1992.
The first episode immediately brings Ryan and Gene head-to-head as Coventry is wracked by a turf-war between Oasis and Blur fans. Other plotlines involve the duo facing a "Friends" obssessed serial killer, black-marketeers importing Adidas poppers and an OJ Simpson copycat stalking the city, not killing people.
To be titled 'Ebeneezer Goode', the series will be hitting our screens in the Autumn. Matthew Graham, creator and lead writer, explains the choice:
"We wanted to give it a name that was evocative of the decade. Hundreds were rejected before we settled on this one: Lightning Seeds' 'Sugar Coated Iceberg' was deemed too environmentally sensitive, we couldn't get the copywright for anything by The Cardigans and Belinda Carlisle is surprisingly litigious."
When asked why the title for the new series wasn't a David Bowie song like the previous two, he replied: "We never meant to have a Bowie theme. The first two were just a coincidence. Did he even do any songs in the 90's?"
