WE HAVE become big fans of the BBC TV series Ashes to Ashes. Well, myself and my son Matt have.
I’d seen the trailers but hadn’t really got into it – until Matt started going on about it. And we started watching the second series; and have recently finished the first series on DVD. It’s fantastic.
The main star of the show is an Audi Quattro. It’s set in the eighties and follows the two main characters Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt – and his fight against crime – and Detective Inspector Alexandra Drake – and her search for truth (how has she arrived in the eighties from the present day? will she get back to the present? did her past life ever exist? and so on). And, of course, the Quattro, which is Gene Hunt’s pride and joy. And his favourite refrain: “Fire up the Quattro!”
There are lots of sequences of the Quattro racing through always deserted streets to hunt down criminals (a metaphor for Drake’s mind and her search for memories?).
Now Matt is learning to drive with DriveTech and their Advantage coaching course for young drivers. And although he doesn’t drive like Gene Hunt – hand brake turns are a key part of the action – he has his own homage to Ashes to Ashes: a Quattro on the dashboard cowl of his car, our 1993 Nissan Micra Car of the Year. Top man!
Apparently Audi had no part in helping the Beeb find the car. I was talking about it recently with Audi’s product and technology pr guru David Ingram in the presence of an original (see left). “Purists would tell you that the car should be left-hand drive for the actual period,” explained David. “But it doesn’t really matter. The BBC sourced the car themselves. We would have helped of course, but they found themselves a good example anyway.”
While the Quattro might be in the past, Audi is also updating its brand this week. The famous interlocking rings logo and the Audi ‘identifier’ beneath it have been reworked for the first time since 1995.
Apparently “The new look has been achieved through the adoption of a clean and modern new font for the Audi script and a more imposing new 3D treatment for the four rings.” It is, Audi tells me, an execution to to complement the understated style for which the Audi range is famous.
Understatement. I’m not sure DCI Gene Hunt would grasp the concept…
Ashes to Ashes homage
