Tonight Ashes to Ashes' Gene Hunt will disappear off television screens forever. Quite how that will happen has been the subject of intense speculation – so are you excited?
So farewell DCI Gene Hunt: former Sheriff of Manchester, snakeskin-booted Gene Genie, hard-drinking police dinosaur, the Guv. Cut from the same cloth as The Sweeney's Jack Regan with an equally strong sense of justice, Philip Glenister's Manc Lion will tonight roar one last time.
Over the past five years I've been a regular visitor to the sets of both Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes, gazing at the pints and pickled eggs in CID local The Railway Arms and the Chianti bottles in Luigi's. It's fair to say I'm a fan. And like so many others, ever so slightly obsessed with the Mars and Ashes universe.
TV writers don't always get to tell their full story – just ask the team behind Heroes or FlashForward. But happily for co-creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah, Ashes comes to a close at the end of what they always described as their "three-year plan", drawn up after John Simm decided he didn't want to play Sam Tyler in a third series of Life On Mars.
So how to finish Gene Hunt's story? Ashes to Ashes introduced DI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes) and WPC Shaz Granger (Montserrat Lombard) while re-establishing Hunt and his team down south in 1981. As Ashes has progressed, the tone of the show has grown darker – culminating in the arrival of Gene's nemesis DCI Jim Keats, who has a crucial part to play in the finale. It's also given us the best series of the three (Glenister's actor wife Beth Goddard even turned up in a guest role to ask: "Is there a Mrs Hunt? Poor, poor woman.") Those who criticise the authenticity of Gene's world miss the point. Initially, Ashes appeared to be Alex's version of the 1980s: DI Drake believed she was in a modern-day coma and this was all in her head. Now she takes the Guv's universe much more seriously and is finally about to discover what it all means.
What it does mean, of course, has been the subject of intense speculation by fans. Will Alex get home to Molly? Who is the ghost PC? What happened to Sam? Who is buried in the shallow grave? What do those stars mean? Is Jim Keats to be trusted? Who is Gene Hunt? And what does his world represent? Are any of the theories correct? Please share your views below.
Without introducing any spoilers, I can say this: tonight's final episode does answer most of those questions without spelling out every last detail – and the clues have been there for the audience to spot. Writers and cast acknowledge it will divide opinion but hope the majority of viewers will approve. It's bound to be an emotional experience for fans who have invested five years of their TV lives in Gene and his world. But the time is right for him to go. Having seen his final scenes, I'm happy. Hope you're happy too.
• The final episode of Ashes To Ashes is on BBC1 at 9pm – join us on the TV site after the show to discuss the ending and for an exclusive interview with the man who wrote Gene's final scenes, Matthew Graham
The Guardian
DISCUSS THE FINALE SVP. HOLY SHIT WHAT. :O
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