"We were just boys with toys"

LIFE On Mars actor Marshall Lancaster admits it was "a bit disappointing" when producers announced that the second series of the award-winning BBC police drama would be the last.

They decided that time-travelling detective Sam Tyler's brush with the law in 1970s Manchester, where his 21st century policing methods were at odds with the hands-on, hit-em-round-the-head approach in the past.

"I thought it could stretch to another series, but they wanted to leave it at two and let it become a classic," says Lancaster, taking time out from rehearsing for a forthcoming production at York Theatre Royal.

It seemed we'd seen the last of the characters, including his "likeable dogsbody" of a copper DC Chris Skelton.

Then came the news of a spin-off series, Ashes To Ashes, in which DCI Gene Hunt (the excellent Philip Glenister) is back. This time he's working in the London Met in 1981, having swapped his Ford Cortina for an Audi Quattro. An accident finds him working with a Met policewoman and single mum who's time tripped back from 2008.

When filming begins in London in July, Hunt's sidekicks - Lancaster's Skelton and Dean Andrews's DS Ray Carling - will be with him.

"We thought the series was dead in the water when it finished, but the writers kept saying, 'it's not quite over yet' and dropping hints. We sort of knew something was going on but weren't 100 per cent sure until they announced it," he says.

"I can see why they've moved it on to 1981, so they can carry on with the un-PC stuff. I don't really know what Chris will be doing, but I want to be out there catching armed braggards."

The press release says that Skelton is now a techological whizz-kid, although the actor who plays him is uncertain exactly what that entails. He's only seen the first script and isn't about to divulge any secrets.

The idea for Life On Mars was rejected by several TV companies before the BBC picked it up. "When I first read it I thought it was good but really freaky," says Lancaster.

"Halfway through when we were filming, they put a trailer together of what we'd done so far and then I thought that it was going to be something special."

Chris was described as a gangly affable youth at the start. "That's all they really had on him, so it was a case of trying to put things into it, although there was no chance of gangly," says Lancaster, who is shorter rather than taller.

"Obviously, I knew a lot about the 70s and spoke to my mum about how people reacted then and how coppers would just smack you round the head. I went on to the internet and listened to the music of the time and looked at the styles. You can pick up a lot doing that.

"On set, we were just boys with our toys, with guns and cars. The disco scenes were great too, dancing about to glam rock in a velvet suit, I really enjoyed it."

He faces having a new 80s hairstyle in Ashes To Ashes - "perhaps a wedge cut or a Chris Waddell. I won't be going outside if I've got a mullet".

Before that, Macclesfield-born Lancaster is now venturing further back in time for a theatre version of 19th century Wuthering Heights in York. Emily Bronte's classic love story set on the Yorkshire Moors has been adapted for the stage by Jane Thornton.

Lancaster is playing Edgar, who, along with Joel Fry's Heathcliffe, falls in love with Cathy. "He's a very caring man and well-educated. Cathy marries him because he's a gentleman. She doesn't really love him, but he really cares for her," explains the actor.

"I play about four different characters, including having a few lines of someone saying 'doctor, doctor', so my looks are going to change every two minutes."

He's avoided watching any film versions "because I know it's very easy to imprint on your mind someone else's version rather than do your own".

He comes to Bronte from a short tour of rugby comedy Up 'n' Under by Hull Truck Theatre's John Godber (and, coincidentally, husband of Jane Thornton).

"A friend just rang and said, 'would you be interested?' and I jumped at the chance because I've not done any stage for a long while," he says. "Television can be quite constricting at times. With theatre you can just go for it."

Lancaster began acting in amateur groups when he was young, first appearing on stage at 12. Later he studied at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. During his last year there, he was cast in the BBC series The Lakes, where he first met Life On Mars star John Simm.

"It was shockingly easy to get into acting, but I've experienced lean times in between," he says.

The success of Life On Mars has brought him a degree of recognition, which mainly involves people asking if they've been to school with him or just giving him funny looks. He was even asked for his autograph by some policemen - on the bottom of a witness statement he gave.

Filming Ashes To Ashes in London now that the series is so well-known is going to be more difficult than making Life On Mars in Manchester. He had a taste of things to come shooting the second series. "The first series I kept telling people we were filming The Bill," he says.

"The next year it was mad. Every window in offices in the street we were filming had people in them and people were coming up with mobile phones taking pictures. It was pretty manic."

His ambition extends little further than being happy. "If I work, I work, and if I don't, I don't. I don't aim too high and see how things go," is his philosophy.

After the first series of Life On Mars, uncertain if it was going to be renewed, he embarked on a plastering course. He was halfway through when the call came to do the second series.

He eventually finished the course and has used his new-found plastering skills on his own house in Macclesfield. He still lives there, not wanting to be too far away from his big passion - Macclesfield Town Football Club.

Wuthering Heights: York Theatre Royal, June 2-23. Tickets 01904-623568 or visit www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk