Matthew Graham has revealed that he initially wanted John Simm to return for last night’s Ashes To Ashes finale.

Graham, who co-created the sci-fi drama with Ashley Pharoah, admitted that Simm’s Life On Mars alter ego DI Sam Tyler was originally meant to come out of the Railway Arms instead of Nelson to greet the Ashes faithful.

He told The Guardian: “There was originally a version where John came back. It was never scripted but it was storylined. Everyone seemed to really like it. We were all quite happy and excited about it.”

However, he admitted that such a move would have insulted the identity of the standalone ’80s spinoff as well as the show’s star Keeley Hawes, who played DI Alex Drake.

Graham explained: “Then we suddenly thought that it would steal all of Keeley’s thunder, it would undermine Ashes as a show and also Sam’s supposed to be dead, so he should be in heaven.

“It suddenly made him seem like a superhero – he could go from purgatory to heaven and back again. So we decided not to do that. We never asked him.”

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