Life on Mars

Life on Mars is a British, police drama TV series, which is broadcasted on BBC1 at 9.00pm. The programme tells the story of a policeman Tyler, who after being hit by a car in 2006, he finds himself in the year 1973.
At the beginning of the scene, straightaway the audience is faced with a close-up camera angle shot of some patterned shirts hanging on the washing line, and the camera angle zooms in through the shirts, to give the audience an overview of the setting. Straight away, the fact that people hang out there shirts in the open shows they live in a close-knit community, yet also that it is quite poor, as the houses are small in a rough area. The non-diegetic music is up-beat to start of with, but soon dies down when you the policemen Hunt and Tyler drive there orange car over some bins. This tells the audience, that the police in the 1970’s were actually quite rude and arrogant, as now-days policeman are respectable of other people’s properties. The policeman hunt is also seemingly dis-interested in the Irish man’s conversation as well; by the way he keeps his arms folded as he speaks. The camera keeps shooting back and from Hunt and Tyler to the Irish man, and reason why the camera is doing this is probably to enable the audience the view of being able to see the reaction of Hunt and Tyler, and the camera is giving the audience platform to accuse Hunt. The Irish man has also been notably beaten up, yet doesn’t seem to gain any sympathy from either of Hunt and Tyler. However, out of the two, Tyler is paying the most attention, and there is a contrast between both Hunt and Tyler’s expression; as the close up camera angle shots show how un-interested Hunt is in the Irishman’s conversations.
The symbol of racism is also portrayed within the scene, as Hunt refers to a woman as “pakki” when an African/American couple are moving into there new house. This is outrageous, and wouldn’t be allowed now-a-days, yet it shows how much time has moved on from the 1970’s, and how people’s attitudes were different. Again, this shows the care free and arrogant attitude of the police. When the scene changes, a symbol of racism and discrimination are again portrayed, as Hunt refers to his friends that he’s “never known an Irishman who has refused a drink.” The scene changes with the non-diegetic music starting up again, and opens with a panning up medium camera shot of Tyler walking in. This is to enable the audience to see how a cosy mise-en-scene of a 1970’s pub looked like, which is that it has a nice, warm atmosphere. There the symbols of the men and woman openly drinking and smoking, and in the corner there is the 1970’s iconic juke box. The diegetic music of the juke box adds to the warm atmosphere of the pub, and there are zooming in medium shots of Hunt and his friends so the audience can hear there conversation clearly. There’s also the diegetic noise of the red telephone ringing, and a long shot going back and from Tyler’s gaze and phone. This to enable the audience to see Tyler’s reaction clearly.
The smoke drifting around the pub gives the scene character and shows of the true style of what an original pub was like. It shows the audience a contrast from what a pub used to be like and how it is now-a-days, as now the smoking ban has been introduced, a pubs atmosphere has changed.