Life on Mars is a British television series broadcast on BBC One between 9 January 2006 and 10 April 2007. The concept was inspired by "A Stop at Willoughby", an episode of The Twilight Zone written by Rod Serling. It follows Sam Tyler (John Simm), a Manchester police officer in 2006 who wakes up after a car accident to discover that he has time-travelled to 1973, where he works the same job in the same location under the command of Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) while attempting to solve the mystery of what has happened to him.