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List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise

Wikimedia list article

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ131277725 ↗
Source-derived summary

This is a list of fictional characters that have appeared in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars, and the following series Ashes to Ashes.

Main characters

Cast table

Introduced in Life on Mars

Gene Hunt

DCI “Gene Hunt” is played by Philip Glenister in the original British Version of “Life on Mars” and the spin-off series “Ashes to Ashes”. Gene Hunt in “Life on Mars” plays your stereotypical 1970s police officer being homophobic and slightly strange.

Sam Tyler

DCI/DI Sam Tyler is played by John Simm in the original British version of Life on Mars and in the American version he is played by Jason O'Mara. The character of Sam Tyler is the main protagonist within the programme. Sam Tyler was hit by a car in 2006 and woke up in 1973, we follow Sam as he makes discoveries of the world and eventually how he got back and how he changes as a person, in the dramatic closing minutes of “Life on Mars” Sam Tyler takes his own life to return to the world of 1973.

Annie Cartwright

WPC/DC Annie Cartwright is portrayed by Liz White. During the first series of Life on Mars, the character was a Woman Police Constable serving in uniform. Early in the second series, DCI Gene Hunt allows her to join CID as Woman Detective Constable. Throughout both series, Cartwright helps the programme's protagonist, Sam Tyler adjust to life in the Seventies.

Editorial summary

“List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise” enters the record as wikimedia list article. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what List, characters and Life can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2006, 1973—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around List, characters and Life.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, List, characters and Life provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131277725. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2006 and 1973.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise primary sources, List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of characters in the Life on Mars franchise” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.