A little chapter ten has arrived as BBC Life on Mars UK "Autism Changes" is building up to more progress, since this caper in DCI Gene Hunt's office will make you Philip Glenister fans smile over his ultra ego. Gary Hunt is demanding of parental attention when his father is busy trying to catch up over the boring paperwork that the dull pencil necks from upstairs have left The Guv.
April 1975 - DCI Gene Hunt gathered up some papers quietly, moving through his office on tiptoes so that he wouldn't wake his napping baby beside his desk. He silently opened a filing cabinet, Gene and Gary were living quite nicely from his police wages, ex missus Michaela's child support contributions - which was agreed when they divorced over nearly ten years ago in 1965. Gary was still her biological child after all. In addition to her monthly deductions, Gene was generating quite a substantial income and ranked in high pound Sterling. They could live comfortably and yet still have money for unexpected purchases (like a new Chopper style bicycle for Gary). Recently though, at nearly ten years old Gary was learning how to play independently. He became obsessed with certain toys and never put them down; but Gary was still demanding of his father's attention even though the new favourite toys kept Gary busy for hours.
The Guv set to putting a dent into the paperwork, he hated admitting this was Detective Inspector Sam Tyler's department: record keeping as he'd try his darnedest to fill in the blacks, tick the boxes and write in the I's except E's after C.
So where was little Gary Hunt now? Before Gene went to check on his son.
DCI Gene Hunt didn't know how long he'd been working for, but after a while he heard a tiny sound coming towards him as a tiny body wanting to climb on his lap inside the black leather chair "Gary?" the man asked quietly as Gary's sandy blonde hair was complete bed style; clearly he had just woken up. But then he swung Gene's briefcase on to the table and set a piece of A4 paper before himself. He grabbed one of his Crayola wax crayons, sleep still clouding his eyes a little, Gary yawned and began colouring scribbles on to the statement sheet. DCI Gene Hunt waited a few moments before speaking to gain his baby son's attention. "Gary, what are the hell y' doing?" he asked as the boy smiled at his handiwork "Write," he answered.
Suddenly it clicked to the Detective Chief Inspector, Gary must have seen dozens of times his father sitting at the oak panelled desk, constantly writing papers, answering the telephone and typewriting reports when he wasn't on the cobbled streets of Manchester in his unashamedly top of the range Ford executive saloon. He knew it as police officer's work.
"That's very good, but why now? Hmm? And you're being naughty for scribbling on Daddy's statements from eyeball witnesses."
"Dada have papers." he replied.
"What? Darling, you know you can't scribble on Daddy's statements. It's for work otherwise the Chief Super would see my head on a pole."
"Gary work like Dada!" he pointed to some manila folders stacked beside him.
Gary was only trying to imitate. DCI Gene Hunt just sat in his black leather chair grinning like a Cheshire cat as weird as the occurrence in front of him is, mimicking something he sees his father do as a Detective Chief Inspector at Greater Manchester Police CID; since the old Salford and Manchester name merged into this during 1974.
Dr. Landon Prose would be so proud of Gary's awesome achievements to hear about this one. Gene completely abandoned his paperwork to watch Gary scribble with the different colours of crayons; silence ensured for a while. The much taller male decides to reward him with a Wagon Wheel and strawberry milk which worked every time for WDC Annie Cartwright whenever it was a rough time at CID and he gets himself a cup of tea. He needed to gather CID in the big main room, so left the office quietly. Gary just looked busy, calmer and focused.
When he returned to his partition office, Gene was shocked to find his little baby boy gone. "Gary?" he called out and darting towards one of the aisle desks, in particular belonging to Detective Inspector Sam Tyler. As he ran, could hear a tiny little voice. "Uncle Sammy?" it asked. Gene eventually found the source.
Gary was on the telephone. How he'd even reached the receiver or know how to dial when Gene's nearly ten year old son wasn't even yet familiar with numbers much like a five or six year old. The youngest senior ranking officer would never know. DCI Gene Hunt seized the phone away from him "What are you doing?" he hissed.
"Hello?" he asked into the receiver.
"How can I help with an emergency?" the operator responded. Oh god, every parent's worse nightmare: Gary had just dialled 9-9-9.
"No, this is a false alarm - no emergency. I'm sorry my learning disabled son must have grabbed the phone and called, it was an accident - the Gene Genie promises." she swore he almost winked over the phone.
"Don't get smart with me young man, I can trace this call!"
"Yes, love." muttered Gene to the operator under his breath.
"Very well, just don't let it happen again and keep an eye on him."
"Sir, you could be fined and cut off from this emergency number by British Telecom if a child is using the telephone unsupervised and calls the emergency services, right? Detective Chief Inspector, Mr. Hunt,"
"I'm sorry, love. It won't happen in future." said DCI Gene Hunt to the female operator.
After DCI Gene Hunt hung up, he whirled around to look at Gary. The boy had big blue eyes full of wonderment and surprise. "What did you do?" asked DCI Gene Hunt, his boy nodded. "No. Gary, what did you do? Tell me with your words what you on Earth were thinking; when you picked up the telephone!" he added fuming at the emergency services false alarm.
"Dada make hello phone calls." the nearly ten year old Gary Hunt answered mispronouncing telephone.
"Yeah, but Daddy is doing his job as a DCI. Little boys don't need to do that kind of thing." Gene calmly explained.
"Gary wants to be Guv like Dada." pointing to the coat rack with a camel coat hung up.
"I know sweetheart, but yer can't just dial random numbers on the phone! You need an adult with yer!"
"Gary wants to call Uncle Sammy." he added sadly.
"Baby, I sent Uncle Sammy on a case; so he's working too. We can't phone him right now." he knelt down to Gary's level rubbing his back "Can you promise me you'll never use the phone without Daddy's help again?"
"Gary promises." plucking his nearly thirty two year old father's shoulders; still using second or third person reference.
"Do you understand and mean it?" Gene asked.
"Yes." he replied and nodded his head.
"Good baby, no more telephone." he reassured patting Gary's tiny back gently.
Gene's desk is large and cluttered with papers, files, and various bric-a-brac.
"Daddy would like a little word with you pal in your shell like, Gary? While we're on the subject of rules and no-nos; why did you take my coloured darts out of my office and put it with yer toys?"
"Okay, sorry Dada." he shook his head at being caught for the misdeed.
His interest in American westerns is shown by the movie posters on the wall. These include High Noon and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. High Noon (1952) is a classic western starring Gary Cooper wherein Cooper's character must stand alone against a deadly enemy after having been refused help by the townspeople, a plot that had some meaning for Gene. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a much later (1966) Italian (or "spaghetti") western starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone. The movie is extremely violent and features characters who distrust each other but are forced to co-operate in order to reach their goal (and even survive), a theme used throughout Life on Mars in the wild west of Manchester.
"Can you not do that again? It took Daddy a long time to find them around the house."
The prospect of DCI Gene Hunt firing up the Tardis and shouting: "Daleks, surrender, you are surrounded by armed b******s" is surely too good to be missed as he sees a trailer for Tom Baker's Doctor Who showing snippets of this Saturday's episode coming up.
"Now let Daddy get back to work, alright? No more stealing, definitely no telephone."
Well it almost worked as Gene would find his bric-a-brac hidden around the house - he sat down to find a Matchbox Models of Yesteryear poking him in the cushion. He tucked Gary into his cot and found something in the shape of an manila folder. He looked everywhere in Greater Manchester Police CID for that particular one. DCI Gene Hunt couldn't understand why Gary was into hiding objects around obscure places, but both as a copper and father he knew it needed to stop before his son stuck a knife underneath the toilet seat. But the concept of property never really clicked in Gary's brain, he couldn't be held responsible or blamed for this. Dr. Landon Prose suggested a tally chart, in which if it got to ten tallies; he would a toy for the week as Gary was beginning to learn the concept of bargaining - in the same way normal five to six year old children do. Anytime Gene found things that weren't Gary's he marked the chart with one tally per offence.
It took one set of ten tallies for Gary to realise his Detective Chief Inspector father wasn't kidding.
After not being allowed to ride his Chopper style bicycle for a week, Gary never pinched objects after this and actually enjoyed using it more often.
DCI Gene Hunt never minded his son's quirks, he saw them as an extension but at least he was learning and seeing how things worked in real life; only making Gene more happier.
Gary always sat down across inside his father's office whenever DCI Gene Hunt was not fighting crime on the streets of Manchester like clockwork.