Episode 8: Alex has caught a hospital infection and knows the doctors in 2008 are losing hope for her. Feeling ill, weak and estranged from Gene, she is terrified that time is running out for her to get home. But when an informant is tortured and killed, Gene is convinced that a major blag is about to happen and wants CID to fire on all cylinders to stop it. Alex desperately needs Gene's help, but to get it would involve telling him the truth about who she is and where she is from, the reality of which is surely too big for him to comprehend. Gene grows increasingly suspicious of Alex's behaviour, and at the same time his head is turned by Jenette, an attractive woman whose uncomplicated nature and simple belief in him offers him everything Alex cannot. A wedge develops between Alex and Gene that threatens to rip the whole team apart, and their relationship is put to its toughest test yet in a heart-stopping showdown.

Philip is back as everyones favourite copper, brash but loveable DCI Gene Hunt, back policing the streets of Eighties London.
Over the last four years the public have taken the character of Gene Hunt to their hearts and Philip attributes this to Hunt's ideals. "In this series of Ashes To Ashes Gene is still out there being a maverick, but what I always say about him is that, while he bends the rules, he never breaks them. He merely manipulates and stretches them a bit! If anything he is a decent and honest copper and he'll usually only collar unsavoury characters. I love the western connotation with Hunt; he is exactly like a Sheriff and sees himself very much in that guise. However, the problem is that he is out of his depth in the Eighties metropolis of London and the bottom line is he is a Seventies copper at heart."
In this second series of Ashes To Ashes the action moves on a year from 1981 to 1982 and the CID team face tough times. "Alex becomes much more part of the team," explains Philip. "But there is a police corruption theme running throughout the series so it does feel darker than series one; the corruption breeds a lack of trust and coherence which is unbalancing for everybody. However, viewers can still expect moments of high campness and there are some great one-liners!"
Central to the police corruption theme is Gene's new boss, Detective Superintendent "Supermac" Mackintosh, who arrives in the first episode determined to restore the reputation of the police in the eyes of the media and public. "Supermac is a highly-respected Superintendent who has been in the police force for a long time," says Philip. "He trained at Hendon and has come up through the police ranks which gained him a lot of respect from his colleagues on the force. Supermac enters CID and basically says that the police needs to regroup and be accountable. I think Gene agrees with him up to a point but then certain events lead him to question Supermac's motives."
Gene and Alex's relationship also continues to be fiery with a hint of simmering sexual tension beneath the surface.