Brian Dennehy has played a variety of roles over the years, everything from Cocoon to voicing a part in the kids' movie Ratatouille. But I tend to think of his tough-guy roles, like he played in Assault on Precinct 13 and Righteous Kill, released in theaters in September.

Now he's got another tough-guy role in the works. He's been tapped to co-star opposite Donnie Wahlberg on TNT's drama pilot Bunker Hill.

The pilot, directed by Jon Avnet, explores crime, corruption and deceit in the Bunker Hill section of Boston. Wahlberg plays Mike Moriarty, a cop who returns to Boston to protect the streets he grew up on, and Dennehy plays Martin Kelsey, a flower shop owner who was a former mob boss.

Sounds similar to The Departed, doesn't it, with the Boston setting and another Wahlberg on board? With Dennehy, Wahlberg, and Avnet involved, I'll look forward to hearing more about this project. Avnet was the producer and director of the aforementioned Righteous Kill, and I've appreciated his work dating back to 1983's Risky Business, where he served as producer.

Spike TV has a new cop show called Real Vice Cops Uncut. The show, which is taped in Memphis and Orlando, will rides along with real police officers involved in the world of narcotics, prostitution and gambling. It will be about undercover vice divisions and give audiences a taste of just how dangerous and unpredictable it is.

It sounds interesting, but I have to point out one thing. Isn't the mission compromised when the guy with the camera crew walks in? Just a thought.

(S02E07) In this week's Life on Mars, the hunter became the hunted.

Or, rather Gene Hunt became the hunted.

In a classic did-he-or-didn't-he cop-on-the-run scenario, the big figure in this top-notch cop show became a fugitive after being found at the scene of a murder with the finger of blame pointing only at him -- and no memory as to how he got there.

(S02E05) In much the same way as series one of Life on Mars dragged out the is-he-or-isn't-he-in-the-past component of the over-arching storyline, series two continues to keep the mystery of Sam Tyler's presence in 1973 a bit of a mystery, teasing us with glimpses of the future -- and the past.

When this week's episode started, it was as surreal as you could get, with Sam on sick leave in his bedsit, hallucinating images of his fellow-police officers on his television, and generally seeing things on his way in to the police station where a kidnapping crisis had developed.

It turned out Sam had been overdosed in the future (or was it the present?), and the doctors were desperately trying to restore his brain activity to normal.

(S02E02) Honour, loyalty, integrity, honesty; all things you would associate with officers of the law.

Not in the 1970s. Not in Life on Mars.

This week's episode delivered another cracker, with all the complexity of a feature-length movie, and slightly less of the mystery surrounding Sam Tyler's 'mission' in the past.

A recap really doesn't do the plot justice, but if you're easily put off by spoilers, you might want to watch this week's episode before making the jump...

The second (and final) series of Life on Mars starts on Monday, with John Simm returning as time-travelling detective Sam Tyler, who finds himself stuck in the 1970s, solving crime with modern police methods and trying to find a way back to 2006.

The BBC ONE trailers have been running for the past week, making use of a 1970s-style voice over, blue-hued segments from the forthcoming series, and the 'BBC Colour' logo -- from when BBC shows were differentiated in quality by being either plain old 'BBC' (ie. black and white) or 'BBC Colour' (ie. in glorious eye-popping reds and blues).