Alex Drake
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| Alex Drake | |
|---|---|
 Keeley Hawes as Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes |
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| First appearance | Deja Vu |
| Portrayed by | Adult: Keeley Hawes Child: Lucy Cole |
| Episode count | 8/8 |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Police Officer for Metropolitan Police |
| Title | Detective Inspector (DI) in 2008 and in 1981 |
Detective Inspector Alex Drake is a fictional character in the BBC One Sci-Fi police procedural drama, Ashes to Ashes. She is played by Keeley Hawes.
[edit] Fictional life
Alex has risen through the ranks of the Metropolitan Police, and specialises in the use of psychological profiling to capture suspects. After a hostage situation in which her daughter is almost kidnapped and shot, the kidnapper Arthur Layton captures Drake and later shoots her. She awakens in 1981 (Similar to Sam Tylers predicament after being run over in 2006 and waking up in 1973), the year that her parents Tim and Caroline Price were murdered.[1]
The series Drake appears in is a sequel to Life on Mars, which told the similar story of Manchester detective Sam Tyler (played by John Simm) appearing in 1973 after a car accident in 2006. The series' central mystery was the question of whether his 1973 life was real, or if he was in a coma after the accident and hallucinating vividly. A similar parental theme, as Drake's, was presented when it was revealed 1973 was the year Tyler's father Vic left the family home, possibly never to be seen again, after apparently murdering two low key criminals.
Prior to her shooting, Alex Drake is said to have spent months poring over detailed reports left behind by Sam, and she patterns her view of 1981 on Sam's reports even going as far as to record her experiences on a dictaphone, with most of her comments directed to her daughter in 2008.
[edit] Personality and Relationships
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2008) |
Alex Drake is a police psychologist in 2008, and puts her skills to good use in 1981 by using modern psychological profiling techniques to help catch London criminals. Gene Hunt and the rest of his team often initially dismiss her ideas, but they always end up following her advice in the end. She has a calm head in a crisis and is able to both analyse criminals and, to some degree, sympathise with them.
Confident, determined and well able to hold her own in the male-dominated world of 1980s policing, Alex gets on well with her team, despite occasional jibes and snide remarks (on both sides). There is some sexual tension between her and Gene Hunt, but neither of them has explicitly acknowledged it. Chris Skelton and Shaz, as younger members of the team, look up to her and attempt to learn from her modern techniques.
She has a strong bond with her daughter Molly, who is her motivation for getting back to 2008 and often occurs in her hallucinatory visions. Alex has met her mother Caroline Price in 1981, and they get on well despite Caroline initially being reserved and manipulative. Flash-backs reveal that when Alex was a child she sometimes felt sidelined by her mother's determination to succeed in her work as a solicitor.
Alex is convinced that the world of the 1980s is a fantasy being played out in her head in her last seconds of life after she was shot. She occasionally addresses her colleagues as 'imaginary constructs' (although that has happened less often as the series has progressed), and remarks on what a twisted imagination she must have to be able to dream up the bizarre scenarios that happen in her 1980s life.
[edit] References
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