BBC hit series Life On Mars will return for a final series after the show's creator Matthew confirmed the news during an online session with fans.

Matthew revealed that many of the main characters are set to come back for the new series, which he said will be set across several decades.

Much-loved characters who are thought to be reprising their roles include John Simm as Sam Tyler and Philip Glenister as cop Gene Hunt.

It's back! BBC hit series Life On Mars will return for a final series after the show's creator Matthew confirmed the news during an online session with fans

Matthew said: 'We would never make another Mars unless we really had something to say and could push the envelope all over again. Finally we have something.

He teased: 'We intend to get as many back (across both decades) as we can. When you wonder who will be coming back for The Final Chapter – think Avengers Assemble!'

He added that the new series would be set across Manchester and London and is likely to include four or five parts, reports the Mirror.

Matthew cast fans minds back to when Jim Keats [Daniel Mays] sang Vera Lynn's We'll Meet Again as he wandered away from Gene at the end of the last episode, suggesting he may be back to cause the cop more grief.

Up for it? Matthew revealed that many of the main characters are set to come back for the new series, which he said will be set across several decades

LIFE ON MARS - HOW DID THE FINAL SERIES END?

In the final episode of Life On Mars, which aired in April 2007, it is revealed Sam Tyler’s coma has lasted so longer because he has a brain tumour, which he believes is embodied by Gene Hunt. He thinks that he if can topple Hunt his body can recover so he collaborates with Frank Morgan to bring Hunt down. During a gunfight with armed robbers, Sam returns to 2008 where he never felt valued, and realises he misses 1978 and the ‘real world’. Desperate to return to the 1970s, he flings himself off the roof of the police station, arriving back in 1973 and saving the police squad. He vows never to leave their side again. The final scene shows the team driving off with Sam and Gene having their usual row. Children, including the girl from Test Card F, run past. She looks directly into the camera before reaching out and switching off the television, symbolising the death of Sam. The finale of spin-off Ashes To Ashes reveals the world the cops inhabit is a form of Purgatory for ‘restless dead’ officers, which include Drake, Sam and the main characters Gene, Ray, Chris, and Shaz, who suffered violent deaths. Gene knew they were dead but had forgotten how he himself died due to the amount of time that had passed. All of the officers except Hunt move on (with his help) to the Railway Arms (Heaven). He then returns to his office where he meets a newly dead policeman and exchanges words with him which are identical to his first exchange with Sam. Advertisement

Phillip was quizzed about the return of the show last month by the Mail On Sunday, and he said: 'I would be interested in returning to the show. I think the question is, would the powers that be be too nervous to bring that character back on to mainstream television?'

The actor, who stars in new ITV drama Belgravia which begins next Sunday, said he felt that political correctness had become suffocating. 'Anything anybody says now – if someone disagrees or has a difference of opinion – then people are up in arms and it's like you have committed some sort of crime.

'And you think, 'Wow this is a very dangerous route to go down.' I think if we lose freedom of speech, we are in real trouble.'

The boys are back: Much-loved characters who are thought to be reprising their roles include John Simm as Sam Tyler and Philip Glenister as cop Gene Hun

Phillip, 57, turned DCI Hunt into a cult figure with un-PC comments such as 'He's got fingers in more pies than a leper on a cookery course', and 'She's as nervous as a very small nun at a penguin shoot'.

The British series is the story of modern day policeman Sam Tyler.

But after Tyler is hit by a car and wakes up in 1973 he finds himself working for the now defunct Manchester and Salford Police where he meets Hunt.

Matthew said: 'We would never make another Mars unless we really had something to say and could push the envelope all over again. Finally we have something

Throughout the show, audience members are left wondering whether he has died, is in a coma or has actually traveled back in time.

Life On Mars was a huge success and the BBC series spawned a sequel, Ashes To Ashes, set in the 1980s.

A Mandarin adaptation of the BBC hit series Life On Mars with a hero police officer who time-travels back to 1990s Beijing was commissioned early last year.