DS Ray Carling (later DI) is a fictional character in BBC One's science fiction/police procedural drama, Life on Mars and its spin-off Ashes to Ashes. The character is portrayed by Dean Andrews. Detective Sergeant Ray "Raymondo" Carling was a detective of the Manchester and Salford Police and the right-hand man of DCI Gene Hunt throughout the 1970s. In 1980, he transferred to Fenchurch East in London with his superior officer DCI Gene Hunt and his peer DC Chris Skelton. In 1982, he was promoted to Detective Inspector after Hunt was forced into exile. In reality, Carling was a Detective Constable of the Greater Manchester Police in 1972 who committed suicide and awoke in Gene Hunt's World.