Ashes to Ashes star banned from driving

Ashes to Ashes star Philip Glenister has been banned from driving his character’s Audi Quattro, in case he crashes it.

BBC bosses think the actor, who plays DCI Gene Hunt in the Life on Mars spin-off, is too 'precious' to the show to risk it, according to The Sun.

So now when the cop says his catchphrase “Fire up the Quattro” it is stunt drivers who now get behind the wheel of the 1980s motor.

Philip, 45, said: “I did quite a lot of driving in the first series and come the second series a bit less. Before they didn’t care if we injured ourselves."

"Now I am a bit precious. We have become a commodity so they let us do very little driving."

Philip, who stars alongside Keeley Hawes in the series, says he is not the only actor kept away from the classic.

He revealed that Marshall Lancaster, who plays DC Chris Skelton, and Dean Andrews, who is DS Ray Carling, have also been banned.