I heard on the radio yesterday that the BBC has been inundated with complaints about its new drama series, Ashes to Ashes. The show, for the uninitiated, is a follow up to the hugely successful series Life on Mars, about a policeman hit by a car an who then appears to have traveled back in time to the 1970s.

On this occasion however, it is about a policewoman, and she has traveled back to 1981. With me so far?

Many of the characters remain the same, but a few years older (if not wiser), and a central character is that of DCI Gene Hunt. It is about him that the BBC have received all the complaints.

Well, not so much him, as much as his car. You see, the model of Audi sports car that he is seen driving in 1981, was not actually available until 1984, and this appears to have infuriated the masses.

The wrong model of car. Which could not possibly have been in existence in 1981, except perhaps on a drawing board in West Germany.

Please note that they are perfectly happy with the premise of a woman being shot in the face and traveling back in time 27 years and finding herself attending a boat party dressed as a prostitute. That is absolutely fine. No problems there whatsoever. It is just the car they take issue with.

What type of person complains about something like this? We should be grateful that the current series of Points of View has finished, or Terry Wogan would spend his brief television appearance discussing the relative merits of early eighties German automotive engineering.

Complaining about this is akin to complaining to the BBC that the angle of the sunrise on the Teletubbies is completely inaccurate for a planet inhabiting the earth’s solar orbit. The silly fucking car-loving twats.

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