1981: 18 year old Police Cadet Gene Hunt is on a Greater Manchester Police Academy training trip to London's Metropolitan Police from Manchester to be shown around the new CID. It is his earliest but unexpected case when he rescues his future colleague and girlfriend Alex Price from a car bomb.


18 year old Gene Hunt was wearing his Greater Manchester Police Academy uniform, his long floppy blonde hair with a fringe that covered his left eye underneath the chequered police hat and uniform stood tall and proud with a spray of acne. He and a bunch of other cadets from the Greater Manchester Police academy took a coach from up North to the big sprawling capital city that was London for a visit to the new Fenchurch East CID block in London's Metropolitan Police where they ironically investigate Alex Price's parents car bomb that just had to happen on the same day he and his cadet mates were being given glimpses on what policing will be about from now on. He would see a tragedy about to happen to Alex's parents, all because this case was bumbled, hurried and unprofessionally handled by CID team members at the time in 1981.

"I'm quite happy to get a taxi." argued Caroline Price with her husband Tim opening the boot of the W or X reg Escort storing their brown and red suitcases inside just before getting Little Alex into the car, but the 8 year old girl accidentally lets go of her red balloon chasing after it instead; her mother orders the child sharply "Come on, Alex, get in!" as the smartly dressed little girl runs off from the blue Escort Ghia; it was an ex Ford press car before the Prices bought it outright from a local West End Ford dealer garage."Leave it! We've got a train to catch." encouraged Caroline Price ushering her back to the car.

"And I'm quite capable of driving my wife and child to the station." said Tim Price getting into the driver's seat and adjusting his rear view mirror asking his only daughter whether she wanted music in the car. "Some music, Alex?" # David Bowie's Ashes to Ashes plays #

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A television advert for the Ford Escort Mk3 Ghia plays in the background on the Fenchurch East CID television set; it featured a blue top of the range Ghia with chrome trim and cloth Chatsworth interior as part of Ford's 'Simple is Efficient' slogan at the time. The television was by now a 70s relic as it had fake wood effect trim and a channel tuning dial.

What's a fun family car doing in a place like this? Well, everyone wants a piece of this little beauty.

And she's called Escort Ghia.

Introducing the perfect hatchback for you and all your family's luggage.

You know two door but we bring you four door.

Complete with stereo cassette player, Chatsworth cloth trim, sunroof and a digital clock; families can't get into this car quick enough!

Simple is Efficient, Ford gives you more.

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Gene watches the CID team use a unreliable informant on the phone about the incident that will happen today on 10th October 1981, it sounds like Arthur Layton's voice: the one person here who knows something about their Ford Escort Ghia's radio wiring looms. He is locked up tight in a very safe prison fortunately.

"Hello? Yes, this is Inspector Deeley," a female Detective Inspector could be overheard on the ancient telephone "Who is this, please? You're absolutely sure about that? A car bomb will go off this morning?" she continued in her formal tones wearing a 1980s cream white leather jacket with a permed hairstyle "Who's getting murdered? OK. Goodbye."

"We should share informants, otherwise they might blackmail us." said 18 year old cadet Police Constable Gene Hunt; hoping his answer was timed right.

"Shut up, Gene! Guv says this is very important." yelled a heavily built curly haired plain clothed police officer who was more interested in picking fights with the young police cadets who came to visit Fenchurch East for some team building exercises, being given a guided tour around the Traffic department and seeing CID in action. It was very exciting for Gene Hunt who'd always wanted to be a policeman for as long as he could remember and vowed not to be the one who was the hard drinking, smoking DCI like his old man.

"Where?!" shouted DCI Garrett demanding immediate answers from his CID team, or they'd face his hard temper and maybe a couple of punches thrown.

"- Ash Street." said a nervous WPC with an Essex accent and shiny jet black hair in her uniform. "Near that posh girls' school?" she shyly piped up a question.

PC Gene Hunt steps in, oh no he wasn't just a kid; he was the good against an ugly and bad CID team when he offers up information supposedly classified "The target vehicle will be a blue, W or X reg Ford Escort."

"Belonging to? We don't know that yet young Eugene, we'll have to trace it!" said the Guv in front of a huge Commodore PET computer playing Space Invaders or that old favourite Pong. Here he was observing young 18 year old PC Gene Hunt with icy green eyes as the tip of his cigarette burned bright orange held in DCI Garrett's hand sat at his 1980s office.

"Are you sure Guv isn't tugging on your boy tits, Gene Genie?" teased the Fenchurch police officers to a very young lanky, skinny yet tall PC Gene Hunt making comments about needing to have some meat on him.

"I'd pay good money to see the Prices go up in pieces." sniggered the young Detective Constable with a floppy mullet like Gene's but with blonde highlights instead.

"Shall we call Special Branch in? Could be IRA!" laughed an ex British Army turned Met Police Detective Sargeant who spent his childhood during World War II, so it wasn't far fetched for IRA jokes to be bandied around the Fenchurch East CID room amongst those who spent their formative years around buildings bombed by the Germans under Hitler's orders and being evacuated to the countryside to foster parents who could take in children for such short notice, at the time.


DCI Garrett was busy briefing the 1980s Fenchurch East team, picking up the keys to a red Audi coupe "What are you waiting for?!" he demanded just minutes before everyone in CID rushed out to the Guv's car. "Get on to the council and the advertisers." wearing a black trench coat and boots very similar to Gene's style when he becomes an adult. "We know the explosion will happen somewhere, near a billboard for an advert for a soap," walking out past the brown fire doors and into the corridor "You're joking?!" grumbled the plainly dressed police officers behind the Guv, except one.

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"I want you to get a list of every case the Prices are working on and any threats they may have received." DCI Garrett ordered inside the hazy smoky cocoon of his red hot Audi coupe. "Is that all you've got, Guv?" his female Detective Inspector demanded of her most senior colleague, disgusted by the cigarette smells inside as they drive to the fields near Alex's Price fee paying school. 18 year old Police Constable Cadet Gene Hunt will be waiting near the scene of the Escort's accident, he remembers that the bomb will be connected to the cassette player, he may be just a kid in uniform but young Hunt felt this was the most important mission that would define his career in years to come.


Someone important other than Gene Hunt's GMP Academy cadets is making a visit to Metropolitan Police's Fenchurch East station, who will the mysterious figure be?

"You're going to love this, Guv." quipped the brown moustached and curly haired leather jacket clad Detective Constable who was picking a fight with 18 year old Police Constable Cadet Gene Hunt a few hours earlier." He watched DCI Garrett swing open his office door in anticipation of the news.

"Which means I won't." The Guv grunted as he awaited the news from his Fenchurch CID team in the main hub with a whiteboard containing details of the Prices car bomb."What is it? Someone wants to make a station visit." he announced to the plain clothed police officers just before they guess who this important visitor may be.

"It's not that newt-hugging bastard from the GLC again? Not Livingstone." mumbled a floppy haired Detective Constable chewing his bubblegum at the desk.

"Worse than Red Ken? Not possible. Lord Scarman." said DCI Garrett from the tip of his mouth in his office coming out with pointless cowboy metaphors.

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"If you won't save yourself, I'll have to do it for you." said the 18 year old Police Constable Cadet from Greater Manchester Police, Gene Hunt "Lord Scarman's coming to see if you're a racist, corrupt institution, not to check whether you polish your paper-clips." he warned severely even though he was the youngest in this room, trying to prove himself among the big boys at the London Metropolitan Police Fenchurch East's station, on the very case that will shape his later promotions.

"He won't find anything to stick in his poxy report here!" complained the 1980s Fenchurch East police officers messing around at their desks tossing old papers around. "Cheer up, the Governor wants Scarman to think it's like Butlins in here." a female Woman's Police Constable with her Essex burr answered back turning the insults into energy.

"A list of W reg Ford Escorts you wanted, young Eugene." the custody desk Sargeant Viv hands the young Gene Hunt a computerised list of any that had the W suffix on their registration plates, especially if Tim and Caroline Price's example was affected by Arthur Layton's car cassette tape radio bombs recently.


"Are you actually asking for my help, Little Bolly?" asked 18 year old cadet Police Constable Gene Hunt, she was a bit too young for him especially as there were ten years between them; but there will be a time where the age gap became insignificant to them in their later relationship when they take over Fenchurch East CID years later from now.

"Might be..." replied 8 year old Alex Price shyly wearing her posh girl's school uniform, she was blonde still for the time but as she grows older her hair will become jet black in her adult life.

"You want a hunk of the Gene Genie in case the nasty man blows up your Mummy and Daddy's car?" he asked kneeling down to the little girl who would become his future girlfriend and esteemed colleague, she nods her head "You talking about a car bomb? A car bomb on a timer that would blow that car to kingdom come after the cassette player's turned on?" PC Gene Hunt thinks to himself about it being connected to a villain he arrests in the future as he tries to help the younger version of his Alex.

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"You know something, Layton? You think this is a low point in your life, but it isn't. I've imagined your future, and it is desperate." said 18 year old PC Gene Hunt who meets the younger version of Arthur Layton in HMP's Wormwood Scrubs with the table partitioned with a plastic speaker in the glass screen. The young Gene Hunt keeps guard outside of the Prices address until he notices Fenchurch East CID kicking in his future parent in laws door down and it turns into a wrongful arrest.

"Why not just use the key? Tim, all I'm saying is, sometimes people have to move on." advised Caroline Price who was having a sort out of their old University papers, text books, dog eared novels and little trinkets they had left over from their 1960s University days; all dug out from the spare room upstairs.

"That's all. When you walked into the common room that first morning, I felt we'd be together forever." said Tim Price nostalgically as he remembers meeting his wife inside the common room on that morning studying for their Law and Politics BA degrees in the first year during 1965.

"I was 18." replied Caroline Price to her husband.

"18 or 80. It makes no difference. We're not undergraduates any more. We change or we die." said Tim Price when he notices young Gene Hunt cannot keep the stampede of CID police officers in his control, even though he is 6ft tall and a very handsome boy in his uniform.


"What the hell do you think you're doing? Get out of my house! I'm sorry, Eugene." apologising to her future son in law while she attempts to get the CID men out of her house; thankfully Tim Price informs them something about the law which the older officers blatently ignored like a bull in a china shop.

"I believe to arrest somebody, you do have to have due cause." said Tim Price knowing that the plain clothed police officers didn't bring a warrant to the address.

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"Yeah, and you, Little Bolls what? You're not bad for a posh schoolgirl." said 18 year old Police Constable Cadet Gene Hunt who was tucking the little 8 year old girl up for bed as if he was Alex's big brother that she never got to have. "It's a big day tomorrow." he giggled to himself before turning off her bedside lamp and walking downstairs to his secondhand but beloved Ford Cortina GXL waiting outside.

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"I've spent the night with a mentally ill man who thinks he's a police officer, who you now seem to be entrusting with actually doing police work." 18 year old cadet Police Constable Gene Hunt gathered the Fenchurch CID coppers up for a big word about their failings in front of Lord Scarman, the morning after last night's fiasco "I've seen two of our most brilliant barristers, my future parent in laws treated with appalling disdain!"

We call that Care in the Community, young man." said DCI Garrett laughing loudly at the insult just used.


And the Cadet Police Constable, Gene Hunt hailing from Greater Manchester Police does save his future girlfriend's parents from the Escort car bomb at just 18 years of age, he's brave as a lion for all the right reasons! Hope you enjoy this chapter to Ashes to Ashes "This is Your Life, Gene Hunt"