Philip Glenister and the birth of a TV Legend – Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt

 

Well I don’t know about time travel, but I do know that it seems an awful long time since no one had heard the name Gene Hunt, or seeing Philip Glenister roaring around in a bronze 1970s Ford Cortina in Life on Mars, followed by the iconic red Audi Quattro of Ashes to Ashes.

 

But when I interviewed Philip and his co-stars on the set of Life On Mars in 2005, we had no idea that it was going to be such a huge hit come January 2006. Fortunately for me, I was sent a preview DVD of episode one before I had to write my feature for the Daily Record, so I did at least have an inkling that here was something fresh and different and entertaining, a Sweeney for the Noughties and a clear winner from the word go.

 

The rest is a bit of TV history. I had interviewed Philip twice before on the set of factory-based saga Clocking Off, filmed in Wigan, and before that in a Phone interview for some other drama now lost in the mists. In other words I already knew his work and was aware of his talent, but it was still nice to see him suddenly heading into an altogether different league with this smash-hit series that kept both audiences and critics reaching for superlatives.

 

 

GLENISTER STAND-FIRST

We haven’t seen a cop show like Life On Mars in 30 years, but star Philip Glenister reckons its controversial content blasts a gust of fresh air at today’s political correctness. Graham Keal met him on location in Manchester.

 

** TRANSMISSION – Life On Mars, Mondays from January 9, 9pm BBC1, 2006

 

 

GLENISTER

You might feel it’s a bit late for British TV to come up with a rival to Starsky and Hutch, especially when they’ve only got a brown Ford Cortina for the stunts and car chases, not a gleaming red Ford Gran Torino.

 

A time-travelling cop makes it all possible for Philip Glenister in BBC1’s gorgeously gritty new detective drama Life On Mars, but while Starsky and Hutch were always kind to children and animals, Phil’s Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt is a much more brutal creation.

 

Parking the Cortina in a rough part of Manchester, he barks at the local youngsters: “Anything happens to this motor and I come over to your houses and stamp on your toys. Goddit?” They get it.

 

Not even John Thaw’s roughneck Regan in The Sweeney would have been quite so gruff, but at least Hunt tosses them a few coins when he comes back and finds the wheels are still on.

 

The Mark 3 Cortina, a 1973 GXL, complete with vinyl roof and as ugly as sin, has to look like a near-new car but it is of course over 30 years old:

 

“It was a rust bucket,” says Philip, fast becoming one of TV’s most familiar faces. “It was very difficult to handle without power steering. I was rather shocked by it, but when it’s not your motor you can throw it around a bit. It was great fun, and quite a flash motor for the time.”

 

The factor that takes the series back to the 70s is John Simm’s contemporary cop Sam Tyler, a quick-thinking sophisticate who suffers a near-fatal road accident and seemingly wakes from a coma to find himself in weird clothes and in the middle of an alternative life 33 years back in time. Life On Mars was playing on his iPod when he is hit by a car, hence the title.

 

Philip plays Tyler’s hard-nut boss, who shows that it’s not only the cars, the dial-up phones and the cluttered, computer-free offices that are different. DCI Hunt’s attitudes to sexism, racism and every other ‘ism,’ seem positively archaic, and his morality distinctly dubious:

 

“He might seem like a dinosaur now but at the time I think that’s the way it was, sort of brash. If you see Regan in The Sweeney, he was fairly brash, and there wasn’t so much of a set way of doing things. You did it your own way.

 

“And Gene is a maverick. He’s insensitive, headstrong, stubborn, tough. He can be cruel. He can be fair as well, but he’s a misogynistic old git really.”

Gene and his men tease and torment the station’s pretty, university-educated WPC (Liz White) in ways that would put them in court nowadays, as would their shockingly unvarnished attitudes to race.

 

The coppers’ terminology seems completely unacceptable now. Phil admits it may make the series controversial but he puts up a robust defence:

 

“These things have always been touchy issues but I think, ultimately, it’s up to the audience to make their own minds up. Treat them as grown-ups and if they don’t like it or they’re offended by it they can switch over. There are 40 channels to choose from, for God’s sake.”

 

“Reading the script didn’t make me gasp and go ‘Are we allowed to do this?’ I think it’s a good antidote to all the ludicrous, nanny state, political correctness that has all gone a bit bonkers.”

 

But when characters talk about going down the ‘Paki shop’ it does pull you up short. We haven’t heard this kind of language on TV for years, not unless they’re repeating Till Death Us Do Part.

 

“I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do, but I think you have to understand that it’s not based on people’s hatred, it’s based on ignorance.”

 

Certainly the culture shock element between reluctant crime-fighting partners Hunt and Tyler provides an interesting insight into how far we have come in the last three decades, as well as sending sparks flying in all directions as the clashes continue:

 

“But they spark off each other as well. There’s great chemistry between them as each tries to get the upper hand. Gene is like a football manager with his star player. I’ve tried to base him on a sort of cross between Brian Clough and Jose Mourinho.”

 

The results are certainly gripping, and Phil is utterly believable as the semi-corrupt cop who beats up suspects and bangs up villains, whether he has to plant the evidence to do so or not.

 

“It’s just an interesting premiss, an interesting idea. I don’t think there’s been anything like it, really, and he’s great fun to play.”

 

Which is just as well, since despite having been a semi-permanent fixture in Manchester for years through roles including three series of Clocking Off (he was factory boss James ‘Mack’ Mackintosh) and despite his well-practised Manchester accent, Phil is actually a long-distance Londoner.

 

He lives in leafy Kingston-upon-Thames with actress partner Beth Goddard, and the couple have two young daughters – Millie, four in March, and Charlotte, nine months. The separation isn’t easy:

 

“It’s much harder for Beth because she has to cope with everything in London and she’s doing amazingly.

 

“But while production company Kudos are a great company to work for, both John Simm and I have said that we’ve never had to work this hard before.”

 

Kudos are the makers of hit series Spooks and Hustle, which coincidentally stars Phil’s older brother, Robert.

 

“It’s kind of work, home to the flat in Manchester, bed, work, home and so on. Then when I’m back in London I’m a full-on dad. I’m just permanently kn**kered!”

 

This may not help Phil’s forbearance in his own, real-life encounters with the boys in blue. He seems to attract traffic cops when he’s not pretending to be a cop himself.

 

Phil also played a Detective Chief Inspector in Vincent, and another one in State of Play, but he is not getting on too well with the real boys in blue.

 

“I keep getting stopped by them. I got stopped by this little power-crazed dick-head – put that in – in Richmond Park, of all places, because I was driving five miles over the speed limit, and he was really rude and aggressive,” says Phil.

 

“He said ‘I’d love to see you in court, I’d love it. ‘ He was just trying to wind me up. Perhaps he’d had a bad day at the office.

 

“But I just resent the fact that they spend their time hiding behind trees in a Royal park to catch motorists going five miles an hour too fast in Richmond-upon-Thames, when there are people out there shooting each other and all sorts of cr*p going on.”

 

Phil managed to avoid a fine, at least, by biting his tongue: “I felt like saying ‘Listen pal, I play your lot all the time and I know how close you are to going over the line, thank you very much.’ But I didn’t even look him in the eye. I just said ‘Yeah, OK, right.’

END