Ray Carling
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| DS Ray Carling | |
|---|---|
 DS Ray Carling as he appears in Ashes to Ashes. |
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| First appearance | The Crash |
| Portrayed by | Dean Andrews |
| Episode count | Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars: 12/12 both series. |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Police Officer for Manchester and Salford Police and later the Metropolitan Police Service. |
| Title | Detective Sergeant (DS) |
Detective Sergeant Ray Carling is a fictional character in the BBC One Sci-Fi police procedural drama Life on Mars, and its spin-off, Ashes to Ashes. He is played by Dean Andrews.
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[edit] Fictional Character History
[edit] Early life
Little is disclosed about Ray's early life except that he is unmarried and grew up in the Manchester area.
[edit] Working at CID and Demotion
Ray became Detective Sergeant at CID under Gene Hunt. He applied for a promotion to Detective Inspector but his chances at being promoted were crumbled when Sam arrived at CID and became the new DI. This caused Ray to dislike Sam for stopping him being promoted. In "A Conflict of Interests", Ray blamed Sam when a girl was murdered by Stephen Warren because Sam had made life difficult for him whilst Ray and the rest of the department took his bribes. In "Wrongful Death", when Sam and Gene left for dinner Ray was put in charge, Gene told Ray that he wanted results, prompting Ray to force the suspect to eat un-cut cocaine to force answers out of him as Ray believed this was a drug that induced the urge to tell the truth, Ray however realised the plan had backfired when the suspect died. Gene was furious that the suspect had died and put Sam in charge of an investigation to find out the truth. When Sam came up with the truth Ray was demoted to Detective Constable even though he claimed he was just following Gene's example.
[edit] Repromotion to Detective Sergeant
Ray was promoted back to Detective Sergeant by Gene shortly afterwards. In "The Bombing", when an suspected IRA bomb was outside a school planted under a car. Sam claimed it could not be the IRA as they had no previous documented use of using dynamite in explosives. Ray, wanting to be a hero and prove he was better that Sam Tyler, went to see after Sams taunts about him being scared, but the bomb exploded, seriously injuring him. Ray came out of hospital badly injured and determined to find who had done this to him. Sam recognised that he had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and tried to warn Gene. Gene ignored Sam, and because of his PTSD Ray shot an innocent Irish man at the Irish centre. At the end of the episode Ray was taken hostage but was ultimately saved when Annie Cartwright and Sam talked the hostage into giving up. Despite Sams best efforts to persuade Gene that the Irish community in Manchester was not responsible for the explosion, all Irish immigrants were arrested on suspecion of the offence and question through racist jibes.
In "Undercover", when CID found out that Sam was working undercover with Frank Morgan and C-Division Hyde to expose corrupt Gene Hunt, Ray said that he should have known that Sam was never truly one of them. Ray is shot in the raid on the train in this episode and starts to blame Sam, but seems to forgive him after Sam comes back to rescue the team after waking up in 2006 and realising that it was not for him and he didn't feel "alive" Sam jumped off of the modern-day police station to go back and help the team.
[edit] The Metropolitan Police
Ray, along with Chris and Gene, moved to London to work for the Metropolitan Police. In "Nothing Changes", when a man who raped a prostitute is freed after his victim is too scared to testify and the difficulty of proving that someone who has sex for a living is raped Ray, feeling sorry for the woman, plants ten pounds of cocaine in the rapists' car boot to get him arrested.
[edit] Characteristics
[edit] Personality
Ray Carling is an old-style police officer from the 1970s, demonstrating the homophobic and sexist attitudes of the time, which are reflected in his jokes and put-downs. He looks up to DCI Gene Hunt and they often have the same views on policing. Ray's lack of respect for DI Sam Tyler partly stemmed from his distrust of Sam's policing methods, but he also believes that he himself was earmarked for the DI position that was given to Sam.
Ray frequently wades into a situation before thinking and this often leads to violence of some sort. For all his faults, however, Ray is loyal to his colleagues and is a team player.
In the spin-off Ashes to Ashes, Ray seems to have mellowed out slightly. However, he still seems to resent Alex Drake and often makes snide remarks about her. Gene Hunt reprimands Ray for this saying, 'She may be a woman, but she is your superior officer - don't you forget it!' In the final episode of the series, Ray and Alex seem to be on much better terms especially as Alex chooses to take Ray with her on a number of investigations including to the Gay Pride march.
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