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Life on Mars comes back down to earth

Amazing what a bit of rest and recuperation can do for you. DI Sam Tyler - resident chrononaut of BBC1's "nick of time" - no longer appears to be plagued by the fits and spasms that dogged his crime busting last week. In fact, he seems completely healthy and almost sane. As a result, we had an episode tonight that genuinely owed more to The Sweeney than to Holby City. No doubt someone has dished out some suitable 70s remedy to him. "A couple of aspirin and a hot water bottle, son, and you'll be fine. You won't even remember you're in a coma in the future."

Generally speaking, the plot did make some kind of sense tonight. Senior bent copper organises blaggings and tries to frame villain. A certain frisson was added by the fact that this dodgy Super was none other than DCI Gene Hunt's mentor. Meanwhile, the officer who is set to guide Sam in his future career makes an appearance as a rookie. Sam teaches him everything he knows, so that he can later teach Sam everything he knows.

If I were being pedantic, I'm not too sure they'd ever have given a woman a gun on a stake-out back in 1973. Not too sure, in fact, that they'd have taken her along full stop. Shooters and post office jobs were men's work back then.

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