Life On Mars

While we watched Life On Mars we categorized activities that took place which we would consider to be inappropriate or illegal in the present day. We categorized these things into three groups political, technological and cultural.

• Political is something in the episode which you would consider to be politically incorrect.
• Technological is a piece of technology which has been replaced by something more high tech in the present day.
• Cultural would be actions that would be considered acceptable in 1973 but these actions wouldn't be acceptable in present day.

Cultural

• When Tyler arrives in the 1973 police office he has a bewildered expression which makes the other officers comment on him being drunk which shows drinking during the work hours was acceptable while in the present it is highly unacceptable.
• Some of the men in the office use quotes such as, 'Your as white as a gingerbirds arse' and 'she'll kiss it better' which shows men are very sexist and women have very little respect and one of the men said the women work upstairs like they're nothing.
• Sam Tyler gets beaten up in the office by his boss, and punched in the stomach by the same man which would be unacceptable now.
• When Sam Tyler goes over the evidence with other officers one man is eating a sandwich over the evidence, and not treating it like precious evidence. In present day evidence would be handled carefully and wearing gloves as to not interfere with the fingerprints already on the evidence.

Political

• The scene in 1973 where Sam Tyler is in the office is filled with smoke and all the officers are smoking which is illegal in present day now because some people find it unhealthy and disgusting and the new 'smoking ban' brought in means people cannot smoke in public places or the work place.
• We notice in the office in 1973 that there are no women in the office because soceity was very male dominated. Women would be at home doing wifely duties, while men worked but in the 1970s some women started going out to work. In present day it is not unusual to see men and women working together in the same space. Later on in the clip you see that the women work somewhere else, whereas in the present day women work with men.
• When the two detectives from 1973 go with Sam Tyler to the morgue the two detectives laugh at the young women as she is a prostitute and deserves to be murdered because of her profession. You see the difference between the 1973 men to Sam Tyler present values of how women and victims should be treated whatever their lifestyle.
• When Tyler travels back to 1973 the men in the office make sexual inuendos towards women, which also shows that women were looked at as lower class in soceity because of the way men treated them.

Technological

• There is a lot of use of files around the police office because they are in 1973 but in the present there is not a lot of metal filing cabinets used because you can store all your work onto the computer under different files.
• There is the use of a typewriter in the office, but in present day this would be replaced by a computer.
• There is a shot of Izal toilet paper which was used in all workplaces and public toilets. Izal toilet paper was uncomfortable and felt like plastic but technology has changed this so we have better toilet paper.
• In the office they have old phones but in the present day they have been replaced by cordless phones.
• The black and white television that is shown in the female workers house has been replaced in present day with a colour television, which would have more channels than BBC.
• A switch board operator is shown in the office in 1973 and the switch board operator would usually be a woman and it was a low paid job thats why it was for females. These have been replaced with internal telephones and technology.