The BBC has defended its decision to screen an episode of Ashes to Ashes with a storyline involving sex workers and a potential serial killer, hours after Steve Wright was convicted of murder.

Last night's episode of the drama, a 1980s sequel to hit series Life On Mars, was shown at 9pm on BBC One.

It was followed by the news at 10pm, which opened with a report on Wright’s conviction yesterday afternoon for murdering five Ipswich prostitutes.

The BBC said it received one complaint from a viewer who thought the episode should have been postponed.

A spokesman said last night: "Due to the fantastical nature of Ashes To Ashes, the fact that it is set in a different era and different location, we believe that there is little similarity between the Suffolk murders and the plotline."

In the Ashes to Ashes episode, a young sex worker was raped before her attacker went on to abduct and threaten to kill another prostitute. He held a knife to her throat before she was rescued.

Wright strangled or asphyxiated his five young victims during a six-week killing spree in late 2006. He is due to be sentenced today.

Ashes to Ashes, which stars Philip Glenister as politically incorrect Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt, has failed to capture the public’s imagination in the same way that Life on Mars did.

Critics have complained that the show has suffered because of the move from a 1970s setting to a 1980s one, with Times’ reviewer Caitlin Moran saying, “Gene has gone from being a complex antihero to a cartoon hero.”

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