We didn't see it the first time round, or at least we didn't see the whole series, but tonight we started watching the third and final series of Ashes To Ashes on demand. I must have started watching it and something came along to prevent me from finishing it, as I remember some of the first few episodes, (we watched two tonight). When the second series finished, I did think they had possibly jumped the shark by sending Alex Drake back to her own time only to have Gene Hunt haunting her through television screens. Bringing it back a third time must surely be a mistake. Life On Mars ended in the most spectacularly terrible way, so are the writers trying to circumnavigate that problem by never ending it this time around?

Maybe the concept does have legs; how about a whole series of one-off police dramas in which a modern day police officer gets sent back to another time to fight crime. A forensics expert could go back and catch Jack The Ripper, or a team of beat bobbies could catch the great train robbers. It would be a mix of the Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes concept, with a pinch of Doctor Who and Back To The Future thrown in. It's not an entirely new idea, as unsolved crimes from the past formed the basis for New Tricks, albeit not as a time travel show.

So far, Ashes To Ashes seems to be holding itself well. The story lines are of the usual quality, but I would hate to see this go the same way as Life On Mars.