FUNKY TO FUNKY

Ashes To Ashes drew even more strongly on the David Bowie canon

Borrowing the title from a single on Bowie’s 1980 LP Scary Monsters (And

Super Creeps), in the first series the song’s lyrics “I’m happy/Hope you’re happy too” were muttered by the criminal Arthur Layton (Sean Harris). The clown from the video for “Ashes To Ashes” (played by Bowie) was also a recurring character, haunting Alex throughout the show’s premier year.

A car boot full of laughing gnomes – obliquely referencing Bowie’s 1967 novelty single – appeared in the third episode. Matthew Graham later jokingly suggested a third series to the BBC, a prequel set in the 1960s called, inevitably, The Laughing Gnome.