Fire up the Quattro! Gene’s on hunt for PC enemies of free speech
HE HAS battled blaggers, toerags and ponces but it may now be time for DCI Gene Hunt to tackle the PC brigade, according to the actor who plays the tough-talking TV cop.
Asked about speculation that the Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes character could be revived, Philip Glenister told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I would be interested in returning to the show. I think the question is, would the powers that be be too nervous to bring that character back on to mainstream television?’
The actor, who stars in new ITV drama Belgravia which begins next Sunday, said he felt that political correctness had become suffocating. ‘Anything anybody says now – if someone disagrees or has a difference of opinion – then people are up in arms and it’s like you have committed some sort of crime.
‘And you think, “Wow this is a very dangerous route to go down.” I think if we lose freedom of speech, we are in real trouble.’ Glenister, 57, turned DCI Hunt into a cult figure with un-PC comments such as ‘He’s got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course’, and ‘She’s as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot’.
Life On Mars co-creator Matthew Graham said last month he was considering a new series and Glenister also advocates a return to the screen for Tory politicians boycotting BBC news programmes.
He said: ‘You think, “No, we put you there [in office] and you’ve a duty to explain what you are going to do and how you are going to do it.” ’