The first series of Ashes to Ashes ended last night with a series of events that easily reached the standard of Life on Mars. This morning I read a review that claimed that people only watch it for DCI Gene Hunt. I don’t entirely agree, clearly the more involved plot details are a little too much for the London-addled minds of the TV reviewing classes. However, I have thought about the appeal of DCI Hunt.
The fact is, even the most left-wing, emotionally intelligent, moisturising metrosexual man wants to be Gene. They won’t admit it, but deep down they secretly admire him. It’s the same reason that witless American series with the torture fetishist in the lead role does so well. Secretly or not so secretly, men want to be him and women want him.
Take a look at the lawman (to quote Bowie). Gene is described by one of his colleagues in Life on Mars as "An overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline-alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding". Accurate, possibly. But compare him to many modern young men.
Gene drinks heavily, refers to women as "skirt" and wouldn’t recognise a salad if it attacked him. But on the other hand, he can handle his drink. He doesn’t drink beyond his capacity then try to pick fights or turn into a snivelling tantrum-hurling man-child to get attention from women. Likewise while he may have had trouble with the concept of female colleagues there is evidence in Ashes to Ashes that he is changing. His reaction to Shaz being stabbed and to Alexs’ various perils suggests that despite feminism having barely registered he is at heart a gentleman, although his protective attitudes may grate with his colleagues (such as when he advises Alex to go home and sleep rather than throwing herself at a random Yuppie). When it’s important, the usual apparently emotionless tough guy becomes a caring person.
As with that other great fictional lawman Sam Vimes, Gene is not by nature violent. In three series he has never attacked someone just because he can. He despises violent criminals and regards himself as the sheriff protecting the general public from them. He will punch, kick, and on occasion shut suspects in an industrial freezer but only if he has a firm belief that they have been guilty of things that are at least as bad. Compare this to the frquent drunken brawls with reasons such as "he looked at my girl" that his real life counterparts have to break up outside city centre clubs on a daily basis.
This then may be the secret of his success. While he can look after himself and those around him, he is never prone to bouts of meaningless violence and deep down he is a caring if a little over-protective individual. Despite his neolithic views on homosexuality and minorities he still regards them as people, evidently regarding their background as less important than the crimes committed against them. His response to a murder being described as a "Hate Crime" is particularly telling: "What, as opposed to one of those I love you murders?". He would never physically attack someone on the basis of their skin colour, sexuality or football preferences. Compare this to the recent real-world case involving a girl beaten to death simply for being a Goth.
I can think exactly how the Gene Genie would have dealt with the gang responsible for that. And I think an awful lot of us would have held his coat as he did so.
