Yeah I must admit that I wasn't thrilled when I first heard the news, I actively disliked 42 and The Hungry Earth two-parter, although his episodes were much better in series 7. I'm only familiar with him as an executive producer from Torchwood otherwise, and the first series of that doesn't really inspire much confidence either, although again it did improve a lot I suppose as they went into series 2

ETA Well and I did also watch Life On Mars and very much enjoyed it, but it's been so long now that I can't even remember his episodes and what I thought of them, that's probably due for a re-watch this year!