ABSTRACT
Popular and well-produced recent UK police dramas encode the ideologies of the period in which they are produced. This can be seen in the decade hopping Ashes to Ashes and its forerunner Life on Mars (BBC). In both series a plot device allows the audience to see the same characters as they are now, and as they were a generation ago. The clothing codes and the changes in language are the keys in anchoring the different periods in Life on Mars, which are the twenty-first century and the 1970s. Ideologies of the 1970s include tougher policing with less rules and regulations, allowing non-uniformed police to behave in a ‘maverick’ manner at times. Policing methods are seen to be different between the two eras. It was not until 1973 that women were integrated directly into the main police force.
