 | |
| Evan White | |
| Series: | Ashes to Ashes |
| Significant others: | Caroline Price |
| Actor: | Stephen Campbell Moore |
Evan White is both Alex and Molly Drake's godfather, in turn. In 1981, he works as a barrister under Alex's parents, Tim and Caroline Price, representing the murder suspect in Series 1: Episode 3 (Ashes to Ashes). In episode 1.4, CID discover that Evan has been having an affair with Caroline. After the death of Alex's parents in a car bomb at the end of the first season, a video cassette left by Tim reveals that Tim knew about the affair and decided to kill himself, Caroline and Alex.
On the morning of Saturday, October 10, 1981, near the start of the climax of episode 1.8, Evan and Tim secure the release of their client, Arthur Layton. The same morning, Evan loans his blue Ford Escort to Tim with which to drive Caroline to a railway station in the company of their young daughter Alex, Evan's goddaughter. Layton plants a bomb in the Escort, apparently to aid Tim in carrying out his murder-suicide.
The audience and, presumably, adult Alex Drake see both Layton and Evan standing on the grass, overlooking the explosion in the first season finale. Although Alex (as young Alex Price) remembers having motored past a walking Layton a minute earlier, Evan's presence is unexplained: Gene Hunt and adult Alex leave him at the courthouse when they race to stop the bomb; he is not in Gene's Audi Quattro with Gene and adult Alex; he had already loaned his Escort to Tim; and no other cars are seen behind the speeding Quattro. When Gene Hunt carries young Alex past him, neither Evan nor young Alex acknowledges each other, nor does Evan run down to the Escort or adult Alex.
After the explosion, Evan asks DCI Gene Hunt and DI Drake (i.e. adult Alex) for their help in gaining custody of his goddaughter, young Alex Price, as she has no close blood relatives; and that young Alex never be told the truth that her father killed her mother and himself and tried to kill her. When adult Alex comments on Gene's destruction of evidence, to wit the unwound and broken video cassette, Hunt replies, "How would you like to go through life knowing that your Daddy tried to blow you to kingdom come?"
The deception led to Layton blackmailing Evan, and to the chain of events that gets Alex shot in 2008 and sent back to 1981 at the beginning of episode 1.1. This theory is expressed by adult Alex to Gene while Evan and child Alex depart CID after Gene destroys the cassette at the end of episode 1.8. Recalling what Layton says on the telephone as he escorts her down the gangplank before shooting her in the Pilot, she tells Gene, "I'm the piece of his past, or I will be. He'll be blackmailed by Layton for not telling the truth."
Evan rears Alex Price who, years later as adult Alex Drake, names him godfather of her own daughter, Molly Drake. He buys Molly a BlackBerry for her birthday in 2008 and promises to get her a "seriously chocolaty" cake for her party later in the day. Alex calls him to take care of Molly whilst she completes the paperwork in the aftermath of their mutual hostage situation at the start of the Pilot. Alex is clearly attracted to Evan, but while he unquestionably cares for her, he often draws back at crucial moments, indicating some cause for unwillingness to be romantically or sexually involved with her. This may be as simple as their age difference and the fact that he has watched her grow up, but it is never discussed by the two. As Evan and Molly begin to walk away, Alex promises Molly that she will be done in time for the two to blow out Molly's candles together.
Given his relationship with Molly, it seems reasonable to assume that, with Alex's death, he will at least play a major role in the upbringing of her daughter.
| Characters of Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes |
|---|
       Sam Tyler / Gene Hunt / Annie Cartwright / Ray Carling / Chris Skelton / Alex Drake / Sharon Granger |