List of Life on Mars characters

This is a list of characters in the BBC television drama series "Life on Mars".

Main Characters

am Tyler

Gene Hunt

Annie Cartwright

Ray Carling

Chris Skelton

1973 Characters

Billy Kemble

Billy Kemble (Kevin Knapman) was arrested for "flashing" people and for a brief time dealt with drugs. He was killed when Ray Carling forced him to eat un-cut cocaine confusing it to induce the urge to tell the truth in the hope that he would reveal who his supplier was.

Derek and Ted Bannister

Ted Bannister (John Henshaw) is a factory shop steward constantly fighting for the factory to stay open even when it's on the brink of closing.

Bannister became the suspect of an apparent murder in the factory which turns out to be an accident. Although Ted is exonerated from claiming he murdered the man it is eventually revealed that he pleaded falsly guilty so the factory would not close, later his son Derek (Andrew Knott) is arrested for armed robbery when he is involved in a payroll snatch.

Dicky Fingers

Richard "Dicky Fingers" Hands (Steve Evets) is an ex-con arrested by Chris Skelton and Ray. Whilst Chris, Ray and Sam were transporting him, armed gunmen captured Dicky and forced him to help them rob a post office.

Donald Sykes

Donald Sykes (Jack Deam) is a local crook who is in on a plot to rob a train with Leslie Johns. He gives up the plot when Ray and Gene Hunt interrogated him.

Frank Miller

Frank Miller (Peter Wight) is the owner of a building site. He pretends the terrorist organisation the Irish Republican Army are planting bombs so that he can break into a bank whilst the police are occupied.

Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan (Ralph Brown) is the acting DCI when Gene Hunt is accused of killing a man. Sam thinks that Frank can send him home but in the end Frank tells him that he is undercover to expose the corruption of Gene Hunt and his team in "Operation Countryman" and has amnesia. The actor also appears as a surgeon in 2006, and operates on Sam bringing Sam out of a coma, in an example of dual-casting reminiscent of the 1939 MGM production of "The Wizard of Oz". Frank Morgan was the name of the actor who played the wizard in that production.

Glenn Fletcher

Detective Constable Glenn Fletcher (Ray Emmet Brown) appears in one episode in the second season. As the first black detective in the division he suffers racist behaviour mainly from Ray, to which he responds by clowning and playing up to stereotypes. In 2006, Sam Tyler has known him as his commanding officer and mentor, and encourages Fletcher, as a young low ranking officer in 1973, to assert himself and fight the racial stereotypes.

Harry Woolf

Detective Chief Superintendent Harcourt "Harry" Woolf (Kevin McNally) taught Gene Hunt all he knew, including the acceptance of corruption and brutal methods within the police force. During the series, Woolf is revealed to be masterminding a robbery, and is shot during his arrest by Gene.

Jimmy Lipps

Jimmy Lipps (Matt Cross) is a local snitch for CID. After telling Gene and Sam about a snooker club owned by the gangsters the Morton brothers, he is shot by Vic Tyler.

Joni Newton

Joni Newton (Kelly Wenham) worked for local gangster Stephen Warren. She was a "honey trap" for Sam when he tried to go against Warren and take her into his care after a false act that she was going to be killed by him. She ended up going against Warren but was killed and her body was found on the canal.

Leslie Johns

Leslie Johns (Sean Gilder) is a miner and an infamous cop killer. He organises the robbery of a train with a group of miners unaware that Gene is undercover as one of the miners. The robbery seems to be going smoothly (John's is unaware the train's staff are members of CID) but then Sam's radio goes off giving them up as police officers. When Annie, Chris, Ray and Gene run after Sam, Johns shoots Gene, Chris and Ray causing them to fall to the floor. when Sam returns from 2006 he shoots Johns dead as he is about to execute Gene.

Litton

DCI Litton (Lee Ross) is the DCI of the Regional Crime Squad. He and Gene have a hatred of each other. The two departments fight after Sam and Gene recover firearms stolen by factory workers, a job that falls under Litton's department. Later in a hostage situation Litton and Gene both have to work together to stop the hostages being killed. However, Litten's methods threaten Sam's and his own life, when Gene kicks him in the stomach and drops him out of the fire zone, proceeding to take a bullet which was blocked by one of his many hip flasks.

Nelson

Nelson (Tony Marshall) is the barman at the Railways Arms where most of CID go to drink. Nelson gives much advice to Sam during his time in 1973. He usually affects a thick Jamaican accent, although his real accent is Mancunian.

Patrick O'Brien

Patrick O'Brien (Brendan Mackey) is an Irishman with a criminal record, who was arrested by Gene for armed robbery. When dynamite goes missing at O'Brien's workplace he becomes the prime suspect in a spate of suspected IRA bombings. Gene is prejudiced against him, as an ex-convict. This and his desire to avenge Ray cause Patrick to go on the run. Sam finds O'Brien and tells him he will find out who is really behind the bombs.

Pete Bond

Pete Bond (Anthony Flanagan) is a Manchester United supporter and a usual at the Trafford Arms. He tried to beat up a fellow supporter and blame it on Manchester City fans to start a massive brawl between the two sides fans on derby day. Unfortuantly the person he beat up accidentally died forcing Sam to track him down and arrest him.

Phyllis Dobbs

Test Card Girl

The Test Card Girl (Rafaella Hutchinson in series one and Harriet Rogers in series two) is a young girl resembling the girl (Carole Hersee) in Test Card F, who appears to Sam. She often tells him things related to his current life and is a vision to Sam. She often taunts Sam, and occasionally scares him greatly. An example of this seen when he struggles with the stress of a failed bomb disposal she appears to him showing her closed fists and chants "Red wire. Yellow wire. Red Wire. Yellow wire." When he fails to pick the correct hand she calmly says: "You're dead Sam. They're all dead because of you."

At the end of the show she runs down a street with other children and turns a switch, and the image disappears as in an old television set.

In an interview with the "Radio Times", Matthew Graham revealed that the Test Card girl is constantly teasing and torturing Sam because she represents the devil in him. "But," he said, "there is another factor to consider. In 1973, when television transmission had ceased for the night, when the story is done and the characters have vanished into nothing, the BBC would switch to the Test Card girl. So she, if you want to be melodramatic, represents the apocalypse, the end."cite news|title=Did you spot the clues?|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/content/show-features/life-on-mars/did-you-spot-the-clues/|first=Nick|last=Griffiths|publisher=The Radio Times|date=2007-04-01|accessdate=2008-02-10]

tephen Warren

Stephen Warren (Tom Mannion) is a local gangster and owner of a nightclub, The Warren, who is paying the police, including Hunt, to turn a blind eye to his activities. After he murders one of his staff who helped out Sam, Gene Hunt decides to turn his back on corruption, and he and Sam come into his club and arrest him for murder.

Vic Tyler

Victor "Vic" Tyler (Lee Ingleby) is the father of Sam Tyler. Sam becomes convinced that if he gets his father to stay with his mother then he can get back to 2006. However, he finds that his father is behind some brutal gangland killings.

uperintendant Rathbone

Superintendent Rathbone is the senior officer in overall charge of both departments in the station, he is seen to destroy a tape that Sam Tyler presents to him proving that Ray Carling had forced a prisoner to eat un-cut cocaine confusing for a drug urging to tell the truth.

2006 Characters

Maya Roy

Maya Roy (Archie Panjabi), a Ugandan Asian raised in the UK, is Sam's girlfriend in 2006. Their relationship is already having difficulties before Sam's accident, and Maya ends it during the second series when it appears that Sam will never recover.

2006 and 1973 Characters

Colin Raimes

Colin Raimes (Sam Hazeldine) is a suspected killer in 2006. Sam is convinced that Colin was behind it but despite having written about killing in his diary he has a cast iron alibi. Maya suggests that he might have known the killer. In 1973 when Sam finds the same murderer he discovers that it was Colin's neighbour, who was arrested in 1973 for a similar crime but released thirty years later.

Eve Olawi

Eve Olawi (Yasmin Bannerman) was killed by Tony Crane prior to Sam's coma. She dismisses his warnings that she will have a terrible life with Crane.

Ruth Tyler

Ruth Tyler (Joanne Froggatt) is the mother of Sam Tyler. Sam meets her whilst in 1973, incognito, improvising the name "Detective Inspector Bolan" when asked his name. He meets her again when the CID deduces that his father Vic might be involved with the Morton brothers.

In the "The Good Father", when the truth about Vic's involvement in violent crime is discovered, Ruth tells the four-year-old Sam that Vic had to go away.

Sam also speaks to Ruth when he returns to 2006, leaving Hunt and his team in 1973 in a mail train under fire from railway bandits. Without telling her the details, he says he promised someone that he would return. She tells him that she knows he won't let them down, because he always keeps his promises. This clears the way for his return to 1973.

Tony Crane

Tony Crane (Marc Warren) was arrested by Sam in 2006 for the murder of his wife Eve. He manages to get to Sam's hospital room and attempts to kill him, but is arrested before he can do so.

In 1973 Crane runs a local casino and is Sam's prime suspect for the killing of a man on a bus. Gene doesn't believe Sam until Crane takes them both hostage. He is arrested after Annie uses a stinger on his car is a chase, but there is not enough evidence to charge him. However, when Crane starts to make accusations of Sam's instability, citing the policeman's belief that he is a time traveler, Sam turns the tables by using this as proof of Crane's insanity. As a result Crane is committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he remains for the next 23 years.

References