One of the best actors of his generation, and long a cult star and unlikely sex symbol, Simm, 36, has been threatening to hit the big time for a while. State of Play raised his profile. But it was the time-travelling cop show Life on Mars that put him on the map. Not only did the show pull in more than seven million viewers, the DVD became one of last year's biggest sellers. In November, Life on Mars won Best Drama Series at the International Emmy Awards. And Hollywood producer David E Kelley (of Ally McBeal fame) is planning to make a US version.
By way of heralding its much-anticipated return to BBC1 tonight, Matthew Graham, the co-creator of drama series Life On Mars, is recalling the show's genesis (its working title, he recalls, was Ford Cortina), and evoking a world with which readers of a certain age will probably be all too familiar. The year is 1973, and John Simm, a 21st-century detective with 21st-century sensibilities and morals, is stranded in a time when the police, as Graham puts it, were "a state within a state" and ethics came a poor second to nailing villains. Most of the cars on the road seemed to be brown. Britain gave off a funny aroma, equal parts cigarette smoke, overcooked vegetables and what connoisseurs of aftershave knew as "the great smell of Brut".
It's been a fabulous awards week at BBC AMERICA. First, we got those twin Golden Globes earlier this week. Now, we're the leading network up for Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which are handed out by the Mystery Writers of America. The nominations were announced today, and we received five nominations, including four out of the five nods for Best Television Feature/Mini-Series. Here are the categories in which BBC AMERICA shows are represented:
The Closer - "Blue Blood"
Teleplay by James Duff & Mike Berchem
(Turner Network Television)
Dexter - "Crocodile"
Teleplay by Clyde Phillips
(Showtime)
House - "Clueless"
Teleplay by Thomas L. Moran
(Fox/NBC Universal)
Life on Mars - Episode 1
Teleplay by Matthew Graham
(BBC America)
BEST TELEVISION FEATURE/MINI-SERIES TELEPLAY
Conviction
Teleplay by Bill Gallagher
(BBC America)
Cracker: A New Terror
Teleplay by Jimmy McGovern
(BBC America)
Messiah: The Harrowing
Teleplay by Terry Cafolla
(BBC America)
Secret Smile
Teleplay by Kate Brooke, based on the book by Nicci French
(BBC America)
The Wire, Season 4
Teleplays by Ed Burns, Kia Corthron, Dennis Lehane, David Mills, Eric Overmyer, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, David Simon, & William F. Zorzi
(Home Box Office)
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Drama Life on Mars
Proof that the dead horse of the cop show could be flogged back into life again.
