Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a>,\u00a0Philip Glenister was asked about his feelings about the news of the revival series, Lazarus<\/a>, being cancelled.<\/p>\n The actor, who played Gene Hunt alongside John Simm\u2019s Sam Tyler, said: \u201cIt\u2019s sort of a mixed blessing for me personally, if I\u2019m honest, because it\u2019s always that thing when you\u2019ve done a show like Life on Mars, which was critically appreciated and the public seemed to like it. It was one of those shows that comes along once in a blue moon, it\u2019s great and a career changer.<\/p>\n \u201cBut obviously, it was set in the \u201870s and of its time, and things are very different in our industry and in the world now, what you can and can\u2019t do, and I\u2019m not sure how it would have sat in this current day and age if I\u2019m honest.\u201d<\/p> Glenister continued: \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure that I wanted to then become, if you like, the spokesperson for that. I\u2019m a hired actor, it was a part I played, it was great, I loved playing him, but I\u2019m not Gene Hunt at the end of the day. And I think certainly, as much as it absolutely changed my career and took me to a next level, without doubt, the slightly negative side to it was that I was beginning to feel typecast or pigeonholed.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we make so many procedural dramas on television in this country, I wasn\u2019t getting a look in, they just saw me as Gene Hunt, the producers. And understandably, I\u2019d probably do the same, \u2018No, we can\u2019t have any Gene Hunt\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWhereas if you\u2019re doing Doctor Who<\/a> or James Bond<\/a>, at least somebody else is taking over, so they\u2019ve hopefully forgotten about you when the next one\u2019s come along a little bit. So someone like David Tennant can go back to Doctor Who if he wants, because there\u2019s another one who\u2019s going to take over the mantle. Whereas there isn\u2019t another Gene Hunt, not at the moment anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cSo it\u2019s one of those things, so I thought best left alone and from a personal point of view, I think maybe it\u2019s the right thing that it didn\u2019t go ahead and hopefully will be remembered for a great show. There\u2019s all that talk about bringing back Fawlty Towers and I don\u2019t know, it might work, who knows. But they\u2019re going to be hard pushed, and I think we would have been hard pushed.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso, with everything that\u2019s going on, everybody\u2019s either woke or none [are] woke, and it\u2019s getting quite nasty, I think, on all sides because you\u2019re getting extremes on all sides. And anything that\u2019s extreme, whether it\u2019s on the right or the left, is not a good thing in my opinion. We need moderation and we need intelligence. And we need to be talking about stuff and screaming and tweeting and going on and having certain people who sort of make it their life\u2019s duty to just rant.<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI would be uncomfortable I think, in this day and age, being made, just through the character, a spokesperson for that sort of element now, \u2018bring back the good old days\u2019, do you know what I mean? It\u2019s very much set in its time, and reflected the time, and it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n Development on Lazarus was announced back in 2020 and it seemed to be positive news on all fronts, with the creative team revealing that the script for the pilot had been completed.<\/p>\n But, taking to Twitter (recently rebranded as X) in June 2023 to confirm the news of its cancellation, Life on Mars co-creator Matthew Graham wrote: \u201cSome sad news folks. After many months of planning, we will now not be making Lazarus. I can\u2019t go into details but the hurdles were financial not creative.<\/p>\n![\"Philip](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/06\/life-on-mars-eed5c2d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Philip")
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