Click here to read a review of the press preview of Ashes to Ashes

It is an epic clash. Gene Hunt, television’s favourite maverick cop, goes toe-to-toe with Lord Scarman, whose public inquiry changed policing for ever, in the sequel to Life On Mars.

Sales of second-hand Audi Quattros are set to soar as Hunt ditches his battered Ford Cortina and returns to the streets in a red Audi for a drama set in the Eighties. The politically-incorrect detective is resurrected in Ashes To Ashes, which follows the award-winning time travel drama Life on Mars and begins on BBC One next month.

The self-styled “sheriff of Manchester” has been transfered to the Met, where, in 1981, he faces riots in Brixton and a nation in thrall to legwarmers.

Most challenging of all, the hard-drinking sexist, played by Philip Glenister, is paired with a high-flying, intelligent, female, DCI Alex Drake (Keeley Hawes). Like Sam Tyler in Life On Mars, Drake has been catapulted back in time after a horrific accident and the success of the sequel will depend largely on whether viewers accept the conceit can be repeated.

The Times has learnt that the series comes to a climax when Hunt meets his policing nemesis, Lord Scarman, played by Geoffrey Palmer.

Lord Scarman, asked by Margaret Thatcher to investigate the causes of the riots which hit inner-city Britain in 1981, delivered a landmark report that identified a loss of confidence and mistrust in the police and their methods of policing, as a key cause of the riots. It is an opinion which Hunt finds little merit in and the peer is given a dressing down when the pair meet.

Ashley Pharaoh, the series writer, said: “All the research we did indicated that the police knew the Scarman Report was on its way and they knew it wasn’t going to be good news, so the threat of that hangs over the whole series.

“A very specific era of policing is coming to an end. I think there’s a slight sense of melancholy to Gene at times - he misses the North and the old days. But he’s a fighter, he refuses to give up.”

Attention will focus on the period style of the series as much as the plots. Hunt is reluctantly wedged into a Bryan Ferry-style shiny suit while his co-stars adopt the primary colours of the era. The design is “more Miami Vice than The Sweeney”, producers said. The cast are awarded moustaches, mullets (men) and lots of blue eye shadow (women).

Ashes To Ashes will show how Hunt’s neanderthal style of policing is challenged by modern practices. Drake employs Cracker-style psychological profiling to capture suspects. Computers make an appearance at Scotland Yard.

Beth Willis of producers Kudos Television, said: “We thought we’d bring Gene to London where his northern views would come into sharp conflict with the ‘southern ponces’ he finds there.”

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