Life on Mars is a BAFTA and International Emmy award-winning British television drama series, which was first shown on BBC One in January and February 2006. The second and final series ended on 10 April 2007.

The format of the series mixes science fiction — specifically, time travel — with police drama. The central character is DCI Sam Tyler of Greater Manchester Police (played by John Simm), who, after being hit by a car in 2006, finds himself in the year 1973. There, he works for Manchester and Salford Police CID as a DI under DCI Gene Hunt (played by Philip Glenister).

There is also a central ambiguity surrounding the status of Tyler: is he in a coma in 2006 and imagining his experiences? Is he really from 1973 and mentally unstable, albeit with remarkably accurate visions of the future, and why is he seeing the past selves of people from his life in 2006? Or, has he somehow travelled back in time from 2006 to 1973?

This uncertainty is conveyed through a surreal approach, such as when Tyler is addressed directly through his television set late at night by the young girl featured in the Test Card F or Open University lecturers. In episode five of series two, a medication overdose administered to Tyler in 2006 results in an apparent hallucination recalling the 1970s children's series Camberwick Green (an animated sequence produced by Hot Animation).

Tyler also occasionally hears voices and electronic noises — apparently from people and machines around his hospital bed — which lead him to believe that he is in a coma (although other details, such as the remarkable amount of detail and tangibility in the world in which Tyler finds himself, may suggest otherwise). There are also scenes where past and present appear to overlap, such as in episode six, where Sam hears the 2006 voice of his mother saying his life-support machine will be switched off at 2pm, and immediately in 1973 he is called to investigate a hostage-taking where the perpetrator will start killing his victims at 2pm. "No-one will die today," is the repeated response from Sam.

Reference: Wikipedia