Cold Feet
Encyclopedia
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 television series produced by Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

 for the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen
Mike Bullen
Mike Bullen is an English-born screenwriter. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands of England, attending the Solihull School and later Magdalene College, Cambridge. He left with a degree in history of art and became a radio producer for the BBC World Service...

 as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere
Comedy Premieres
Comedy Premieres was a programming strand of four one-off television comedies, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast throughout 1997.- Premieres :- Production :...

 of the same name
Pilot (Cold Feet)
Cold Feet is a British television pilot directed by Declan Lowney. It stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale as Adam and Rachel, a couple who meet and fall in love, only for the relationship to break down when he gets cold feet. John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst appear...

. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the ups-and-downs of romance. Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley
Rachel Bradley
Rachel Louise Bradley is a fictional character portrayed by Helen Baxendale in the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet. Rachel is introduced in the pilot episode , where she begins a relationship with Adam Williams...

 (James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...

 and Helen Baxendale
Helen Baxendale
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, possibly best-known for her roles in Cold Feet, Friends and Cardiac Arrest.-Early life:...

) are a new couple who go through dating, marriage and the birth of a child. Pete and Jenny Gifford (John Thomson and Fay Ripley
Fay Ripley
Fay Ripley is an English actress and recipe author. Born in Wimbledon, London, Ripley is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama . Her first professional role was in the chorus of a pantomime version of Around the World in 80 Days...

) are a married couple with a new-born son; they experience parenthood, adultery, separation and eventually divorce when Jenny leaves for a job in New York. Pete starts a new relationship with Jo Ellison (Kimberley Joseph
Kimberley Joseph
Kimberley Joseph is a Canadian-Australian actress who is based in the United States. Joseph was born in Canada, raised on the Gold Coast in Australia, and educated in Switzerland. After returning to Australia, she began a degree at Bond University but dropped out at the age of 19 when she was cast...

). Karen and David Marsden (Hermione Norris
Hermione Norris
Hermione Norris is an English actress.Norris attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1980s before taking small roles in theatre and on television. In 1996, she was cast in her breakout role of Karen Marsden in the comedy drama television series Cold Feet...

 and Robert Bathurst
Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...

) live an upper-middle-class lifestyle, employing a nanny for their son and holding dinner parties with friends. Their marriage disintegrates after each has an affair.

The series was executive-produced by Bullen with Granada's head of comedy Andy Harries
Andy Harries
Andrew D. M. Harries is a British television and film producer. After graduating from Hull University in the 1970s, Harries began his television career on the Granada Television current affairs series World in Action, before moving on to freelance work...

, and produced by Christine Langan
Christine Langan
Christine Langan is an English film producer who has been Creative Director of BBC Films since April 2009.After graduating from Cambridge University in 1987 and working in advertising for three years, Langan joined Granada Television's drama serials department where she script edited daytime soap...

, Spencer Campbell
Spencer Campbell
Spencer Campbell is an English television producer.- Career :Campbell's early credits include working as a researcher in the early 1980s on the Granada Television television magazine Chalkface...

 and Emma Benson. 32 episodes were broadcast over five series from 15 November 1998 to 16 March 2003. The series is set in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

 and was primarily filmed there for all five years. Filming occasionally went overseas to locations such as Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. To distinguish the look of the series from regular sitcoms, all episodes were shot on film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

 and were overseen by directors with little television experience, creating a visual style more akin to advertisements; Jon Jones was nominated for a British Academy Television Craft Award
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...

 for his work on the third series.

The show was a critical and ratings success for ITV, which has struggled to recapture Cold Feets kind of audience since the series ended. Critics analysed the depiction of social issues, the use of popular music, and the relevance of the series to contemporary audiences when compared to the big-budget BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 costume dramas Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (1998 TV serial)
Vanity Fair is a BBC television drama serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same name broadcast in 1998. The screenplay was written by Andrew Davies....

(1998) and The Way We Live Now (2001). Mike Bullen's style of writing has served as inspiration to British screenwriters Danny Brocklehurst
Danny Brocklehurst
Danny Brocklehurst is a BAFTA and International Emmy -winning English screenwriter. Brocklehurst worked as a journalist for several years before becoming a full-time screenwriter.He has written acclaimed television drama...

 and Sanjeev Kohli
Sanjeev Kohli
Sanjeev Singh Kohli is a Scottish Asian comedian, writer and actor. He is most famous for his role as Navid Harrid in the sitcom Still Game and as Rajesh Majhu in the radio sitcom Fags, Mags and Bags.- Early life :...

. The series was a regular nominee at the British Comedy Awards
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...

—at which it won four out of five "Best TV Comedy Drama" nominations—the National Television Awards
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...

, and television societies worldwide. It has been broadcast in over 34 countries and has been remade for local audiences in the United States and European countries. Merchandise, including soundtracks, DVDs and spin-off books, has been released.

Background

Series creator Mike Bullen
Mike Bullen
Mike Bullen is an English-born screenwriter. Bullen grew up in the West Midlands of England, attending the Solihull School and later Magdalene College, Cambridge. He left with a degree in history of art and became a radio producer for the BBC World Service...

's working relationship with Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

 began in 1994 when his agent sold his first screenplay, a one-off comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 called The Perfect Match, to the company's head of comedy Andy Harries
Andy Harries
Andrew D. M. Harries is a British television and film producer. After graduating from Hull University in the 1970s, Harries began his television career on the Granada Television current affairs series World in Action, before moving on to freelance work...

. Harries had been looking for television scripts that would reflect the lives of people from his generation—people in their 30s who were under-represented on television. The Perfect Match, about a man who proposes to his girlfriend at the FA Cup Final
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...

 and has to deal with constant media attention afterwards, was made and then broadcast in 1995. Harries asked Bullen to pitch more ideas for television to The Perfect Matchs assistant producer Christine Langan
Christine Langan
Christine Langan is an English film producer who has been Creative Director of BBC Films since April 2009.After graduating from Cambridge University in 1987 and working in advertising for three years, Langan joined Granada Television's drama serials department where she script edited daytime soap...

. As a fan of American television such as Thirtysomething, Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...

and Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...

, Bullen pitched Cold Feet
Pilot (Cold Feet)
Cold Feet is a British television pilot directed by Declan Lowney. It stars James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale as Adam and Rachel, a couple who meet and fall in love, only for the relationship to break down when he gets cold feet. John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst appear...

, a traditional "boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back" story told from both sides of the relationship but using elements of fantasy and flashback to distort events to fit a character's point of view. The initial pitch centred on Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley
Rachel Bradley
Rachel Louise Bradley is a fictional character portrayed by Helen Baxendale in the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet. Rachel is introduced in the pilot episode , where she begins a relationship with Adam Williams...

 (James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...

 and Helen Baxendale
Helen Baxendale
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, possibly best-known for her roles in Cold Feet, Friends and Cardiac Arrest.-Early life:...

), which Harries believed would diminish the storytelling potential if the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 Network Centre commissioned a full series after the pilot, so Bullen "tacked on" plots for two other couples—Adam and Rachel's respective friends Pete and Jenny Gifford (John Thomson and Fay Ripley
Fay Ripley
Fay Ripley is an English actress and recipe author. Born in Wimbledon, London, Ripley is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama . Her first professional role was in the chorus of a pantomime version of Around the World in 80 Days...

) and David and Karen Marsden (Robert Bathurst
Robert Bathurst
Robert Guy Bathurst is an English actor. Bathurst was born in the Gold Coast in 1957, where his father was working as a management consultant. His family moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1959 and Bathurst was enrolled at an Anglican boarding school...

 and Hermione Norris
Hermione Norris
Hermione Norris is an English actress.Norris attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1980s before taking small roles in theatre and on television. In 1996, she was cast in her breakout role of Karen Marsden in the comedy drama television series Cold Feet...

).

The pilot was directed by Father Ted
Father Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...

s Declan Lowney
Declan Lowney
Declan Lowney is an Irish television and film director. After directing a short film in 1980, Lowney worked for Radio Telefís Éireann, and directed musical events such as the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, and The Velvet Underground's Live MCMXCIII...

 over 12 days in 1996 on location around Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

. The programme was one of four one-off Comedy Premieres
Comedy Premieres
Comedy Premieres was a programming strand of four one-off television comedies, produced by Granada Television for the ITV network and broadcast throughout 1997.- Premieres :- Production :...

 made by Granada for ITV. Cold Feet was eventually broadcast on 30 March 1997. It received only 3.5 million viewers and little critical attention. As ITV's comedy portfolio was so thin, Cold Feet was submitted as the network's comedy entry at the Montreux Television Festival in May 1997. There it won the Silver Rose for Humour and the Rose d'Or
Rose d'Or
The Rose d’Or is one of the most important international festivals in entertainment television. It was founded in Montreux in 1961 and has taken place in Lucerne since 2004. Producers, executives from independent and public service broadcasters and heads of production companies from over 40...

, the highest accolade of the festival. ITV scheduled a repeat broadcast a few days afterwards but did not commission a series. Not until David Liddiment
David Liddiment
David Liddiment is a non-executive director of the independent production company All3Media, the largest independent production house in the UK...

's appointment as director of programming at ITV in August 1997 was a six episode series ordered.

Series 1

The first series begins nine months after the pilot episode. After Pete and Jenny's baby is born in Episode 1, the couple have a hard time getting any sleep. Pete has to cope with the death of his father in Episode 4. Adam and Rachel decide to rent a house together. He is horrified to discover in Episode 2 that she is married to another man. While he is staying with Pete and Jenny, Rachel has sex with her visiting husband (Lennie James
Lennie James
Lennie James is an English actor and playwright.-Career:James attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1988...

)—who leaves soon after—and is pregnant by Episode 6. Just as hers and Adam's relationship is recovering, she tells him that he might not be the father and is moving to London until the birth. Karen and David have recently hired Ramona as a nanny to their young son Josh. At her publishing job, Karen edits the novel of a renowned author (Denis Lawson
Denis Lawson
Denis Stamper Lawson is a Scottish actor and director. He is known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and as Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero, but is best known for playing the part of Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Early life:Lawson was...

), whom she becomes attracted to. She plans to sleep with him on a book tour but is humiliated when she finds out he is not attracted to her. David tries to sleep with Ramona to get back at Karen, which causes friction between the couple. They seek guidance counselling to repair their marriage.

Series 2

Six months after the last series, Rachel returns from London and tells Adam that she aborted the baby, and their relationship seems over for good. They both start seeing other people—he one of Pete's colleagues (Rosie Cavaliero
Rosie Cavaliero
Rosie Cavaliero is an English actress.She was trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.- Television and film work :* The Crimson Petal and the White - Jennifer Pierce * Jane Eyre - Grace Poole...

) and she a man much younger than her (Hugh Dancy
Hugh Dancy
- Early life and career :Dancy was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of British philosopher Jonathan Dancy, a professor at the University of Reading and at the University of Texas at Austin. His mother, Sarah, is a publisher. His brother, Jack, is a co-director of the travel company, Trufflepig...

)—but reconcile after Adam is diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer in Episode 5. David is made redundant at work and decides to be a stay-at-home dad for Josh. After some interference from Karen, he takes a new job. Their relationship improves from the first series; they spend their wedding anniversary in Paris and Karen announces in Episode 6 that she is pregnant. Pete and Jenny's marriage deteriorates when she reveals she had a crush on Adam. Pete later sleeps with a co-worker—who Adam was briefly involved in—and Jenny tells him to move out of the house. They decide to give their marriage another chance when Adam's cancer puts things into perspective. In Episode 6, all three couples see in the new millennium on a trip to Lindisfarne, where Pete and Jenny's relationship worsens again as the others' improve.

Series 3

Half a year after the Lindisfarne trip, Pete and Jenny have separated. He moves from house to house, eventually finding a houseshare with a gay landlord. He has a brief fling with Ramona, which is followed by some dates with a teacher (Pooky Quesnel
Pooky Quesnel
Joanna Quesnel, known professionally as Pooky Quesnel, is an English actress, screenwriter and singer.-Background:Quesnel was raised in Eccles, Lancashire, along with her six siblings. She read English at Oxford University before spending a year at drama school...

). Jenny begins a relationship with a dotcom millionaire (Ben Miles
Ben Miles
Ben Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the British TV comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004.-Life and career:...

), who decorates her house with flowers and takes her on a trip to New York. The fling ends when Jenny realises he does not love her. She and Pete reconcile after briefly considering a divorce. David and Karen bring home their new-born twins and Karen's ex-pat mother (Mel Martin
Mel Martin
Mel Martin is an English actor. She has appeared in such British television programmes and films as The Pallisers, Love for Lydia, Bergerac, Cover Her Face, Lovejoy, Inspector Morse, Cadfael, When the Boat Comes In, Midsomer Murders and "A Touch of Frost".She starred as Fiona Samson, the double...

) moves in for a couple of episodes. Karen is reunited with an old boyfriend (Richard Dillane
Richard Dillane
Richard Dillane is an English actor. He appeared as Merv, the husband of Margaret Humphreys in Jim Loach's fact-based movie Oranges and Sunshine, as Wernher von Braun in the BBC television docudrama Space Race, as Nero in Howard Brenton's play Paul at the National Theatre of GB and as Stephen...

), who is in Manchester for a photography exhibition. Karen is rivalled by Jenny, who has returned to working to pay the bills while Pete is living elsewhere. David takes a sudden interest in politics after meeting local residents' activist Jessica (Yasmin Bannerman
Yasmin Bannerman
Yasmin Bannerman is an English actress. Bannerman was born and brought up in Gloucestershire and attended the Rose Bruford College in London until 1993...

). He starts an affair with her but she dumps him after being offended by his insensitivity. Karen finds out about the affair in Episode 8 but is adamant that she and David will stay together for the children. Adam and Rachel decide to have children but are distraught to discover that she is infertile from complications with her abortion. They decide to get married instead but Adam is briefly tempted when he reunites with a long-lost love (Victoria Smurfit
Victoria Smurfit
-Early life:She is part of the Smurfit family, one of the richest in Ireland. The family, headed by Victoria's uncle Michael Smurfit, sponsor a number of sporting events including the Smurfit European Open and the Champion Hurdle. The family is also associated with Smurfit Business School in U.C.D....

) on his stag weekend to Belfast.

Series 4

Jenny and Pete await the birth of their second child but Jenny rethinks her current lifestyle after she miscarries. She decides to take a job in New York in Episode 2 and leaves with little Adam. Pete is unhappy for a time but begins a relationship with Jo Ellison, a friend of Rachel's. The relationship goes well until Jo has to return to Australia after her visa expires. Pete follows her and declares his love and they get married in Episode 8. Karen and David are sleeping in separate beds until she decides he should move out. He moves into Pete's spare bedroom and starts seeing a therapist (Michael Troughton
Michael Troughton
Michael Troughton is an English actor and teacher. He is the son of actor Patrick Troughton and the younger brother of David Troughton....

). Karen develops alcoholism and decides to seek therapy too. She and David reconcile and he moves back in. Soon, she starts an affair with a publisher, Mark (Sean Pertwee
Sean Pertwee
Sean Pertwee is an English actor known for his television, film and voice-over work.-Career:In the early 80s, he auditioned for a place at the Surrey County Youth Theatre where he was cast as Captain Fitzpatrick in the play Tom Jones, based on the novel by Henry Fielding...

), which is revealed to David in Episode 8. Having had enough of the lies, he leaves Karen. Adam and Rachel decide to adopt a child and begin going through the procedures. They are pleased when they later discover that Rachel is pregnant but are distraught when their social worker tells them that the adoption cannot proceed. In Australia for Pete and Jo's wedding, Rachel goes into premature labour and gives birth to a boy.

Series 5

Three months after the birth of their baby, Adam is given a redundancy notice at work. After he gets a new job he and Rachel are told they will be evicted from their house after their landlord died. As they search for a new place to live, Adam's estranged father, Bill (Ian McElhinney
Ian McElhinney
Ian McElhinney is an actor and director.-Personal life:He is married to playwright/actress Marie Jones. Together they started their own company, Rathmore Productions Ltd.-Filmography:-External links:...

), arrives. Bill and Adam patch up their relationship and he offers Adam and Rachel the money to buy their own house. On the way to the auction, Rachel is killed in a car crash, leaving Adam devastated. Her ashes are scattered in the final episode. Karen and David are going through an amicable divorce but when she starts seeing Mark again and David starts seeing his new lawyer Robyn (Lucy Robinson
Lucy Robinson (actress)
Lucy Robinson is a British actress working mostly in television. She has had roles as Robyn Duff in the fifth series of Cold Feet, Mayoress Christabel Wickham in season two of The Thin Blue Line and Pam Draper in Suburban Shootout....

), it escalates, as they begin using each others' adultery and her alcoholism as a basis for custody of the children. Karen stops seeing Mark and the divorce cools down. Both re-evaluate their lives after Rachel's death; David develops his relationship with Robyn and Karen plans a trip with Ramona. Pete and Jo's marriage deteriorates when she sleeps with a co-worker (Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage (actor)
Richard Crispin Armitage is an English actor famous for his roles as John Thornton in North and South, Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood, and Lucas North in Spooks...

) on a work weekend away. Jenny returns from New York in Episode 4 and moves back in with Pete after he asks Jo for a divorce.

Cast and characters

Cold Feet began its first series with the six main cast members—James Nesbitt, Helen Baxendale, John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst—who had appeared in the pilot. Thomson's character Pete Gifford was written specifically for him after his performance in The Perfect Match made a positive impression on Christine Langan. Norris originally auditioned for the part of Rachel but was cast as Karen because the role suited her social class. Nesbitt got an audition through a mutual friend of pilot director Declan Lowney, and read the part in his natural accent because he was keen to play a Northern Irish character in a contemporary drama who was unconnected to The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...

. Baxendale was best known for her role in Cardiac Arrest
Cardiac Arrest (TV series)
Cardiac Arrest is a British medical drama series made by World Productions for BBC One and first broadcast between 1994 and 1996. The series was controversial due to its depiction of doctors, nurses, and the National Health Service.-Creation:...

and was hesitant to star as Rachel because she did not believe she could perform comedy. Bathurst was known to Langan for his starring role in Joking Apart
Joking Apart
Joking Apart is a BBC television sitcom written by Steven Moffat about the rise and fall of a relationship. It juxtaposes a couple, Mark and Becky , who fall in love and marry, before getting separated and finally divorced...

. Ripley thought she would be auditioning for the part of Rachel, and had to put on an accent for her role as natural Mancunian Jenny. When the fourth series was commissioned, Ripley announced that she was leaving the show to broaden her career options. Kimberley Joseph
Kimberley Joseph
Kimberley Joseph is a Canadian-Australian actress who is based in the United States. Joseph was born in Canada, raised on the Gold Coast in Australia, and educated in Switzerland. After returning to Australia, she began a degree at Bond University but dropped out at the age of 19 when she was cast...

 was cast as Jo Ellison, a replacement character who remained on screen until Cold Feets conclusion. Bullen makes numerous Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

-esque cameo appearances; he plays a neighbour and a husband in the first series and a workman in the third.

Despite all receiving equal billing in the credits, the original principal cast members were paid different salaries in the first few years; Baxendale and Nesbitt were the most well-known, so received more than Ripley, Thomson, Norris and Bathurst, who were comparatively less well-known to audiences. Prompted by the continued success of the show, Andy Harries reviewed the salaries in 2000 and decided to pay all six actors the same amount. The amount was not publicly disclosed but was believed to be £20,000 per episode, plus repeat broadcast royalties. Another pay deal for the fourth series in 2001 increased the salaries of the cast to £50,000. For the final series in 2003, they each received £75,000 an episode.

Main characters

The six core characters were devised to be "regular people, not distinguished by their careers or by crime" and were based on people from Mike Bullen's life.

Adam Williams is a serial womaniser who lives a carefree lifestyle until he settles down with Rachel—though he is still tempted by the next-door neighbour and women in fast cars.Series 1, Episode 4. 6 December 1998.Series 4, Episode 6. 3 December 2001. Bullen based Adam's womanising personality on how he saw himself during his twenties. He is diagnosed and treated for testicular cancer during the second series,Series 2, Episode 5. 24 October 1999. a storyline developed by Bullen to directly contrast Adam's Lothario characterisation. Adam marries Rachel in Series 3 and their son, Matthew, is born in Series 4.Series 3, Episode 8. 26 December 2000.Series 4, Episode 8. 10 December 2001. In Series 5, Adam's estranged father Bill Williams arrives in Manchester. Adam moves to patch up the relationship after Bill comes out as a bisexual.Series 5, Episode 3. 9 March 2003. After Rachel's death, Adam and Matthew leave their old house to see Bill.Series 5, Episode 4. 16 March 2003. Adam's backstory was inconsistent; the first series established that Adam and Pete had known each other since their childhood when they attended the same school in Manchester. To justify Adam's accent, his Irish origins were developed in Series 3 and it was explained on screen that he spent his school holidays there. His background is reinforced when his father is introduced in Series 5. Bullen admitted that Adam's biography was never fully planned but conceded that Cold Feet was "full of gaffes".

Rachel Bradley is an advertising executive. After being with Adam for nine months, she admits to him that she is married but promises to ask her estranged husband for a divorce.Series 1, Episode 2. 22 November 1998. Unknown to Adam, while her husband is in Manchester, she has sex with him and later finds out she is pregnant.Series 1, Episode 6. 20 December 1998. Unable to cope with not knowing who the father is, she terminates the pregnancy.Series 2, Episode 1. 26 September 1999. The abortion causes her to become infertile. She marries Adam at the end of Series 3 and has a surprise conception in Series 4, which leads to the birth of her child. She is killed in a car crash in Series 5. Helen Baxendale became pregnant during Series 4, which meant the plot of Rachel being infertile had to be abandoned and the rest of the series re-written. Baxendale found the character limiting and hard to play when she was just "the woman that Adam saw through rose-tinted glasses". She found that, as the series progressed, Bullen learned how to write for the character, giving her a clearer idea of how to play her. She found the death of Rachel "unfair" and believed the character was being punished for terminating her pregnancy.

Pete Gifford is Jenny's husband and has been Adam's best friend since childhood. Bullen based Pete on his own childhood friend, with whom he went through university. Pete is often deliberately insensitive towards Adam, which Thomson attributes to Pete thinking Adam is jealous of his achievements. In Series 2, Pete has an affair with co-worker Amy.Series 2, Episode 3. 10 October 1999. It upsets his marriage to Jenny and by Series 3 they are separated.Series 3, Episode 1. 12 November 2000. At the beginning of Series 4, they are back together and expecting a second child. After Jenny miscarries, she leaves Pete and takes little Adam with her.Series 4, Episode 2. 18 November 2001. Pete has a rebound
Rebound (dating)
A rebound is an undefined period following the break up of a romantic relationship. The term's use dates to at least the 1830s, when Mary Russell Mitford wrote of "nothing so easy as catching a heart on the rebound"...

 relationship with Jo, and marries her at the end of Series 4. They break up at the end of Series 5.

Jenny Gifford is Pete's wife. She spends much of the first series raising their baby. In Series 2, she develops a brief crush on Adam.Series 2, Episode 2. 3 October 1999. She throws Pete out of the house when she finds out about his affair with Amy but they try to repair the marriage after Adam's cancer treatment.Series 2, Episode 5. 24 October 1999. When she and Pete separate in Series 3, she asserts her independence in a series of short-lived secretarial jobs, and by dating millionaire Robert Brown.Series 3, Episode 2. 12 November 2000. She and Pete briefly consider a divorce but get back together after Robert dumps her. In Series 4, the couple are expecting a second child. Jenny miscarries and re-evaluates her life in Manchester. She is offered a job in New York by the head of the company she works for and decides to divorce Pete and leave for America with their son. She returns for Rachel's funeral in Series 5 and moves back in with Pete. Ripley said of her character, "Jenny's very ballsy and speaks her mind, but she's more sensitive than people give her credit for. She's seen as very hard but I don't think she is—it's just that she won't show her vulnerability to everyone."

David Marsden is a management consultant and the husband of Karen. The Marsdens were the least-developed characters when the pilot was produced; Robert Bathurst noted that David was "set up as a post-Thatcherite boo-boy to represent all that is evil about materialism". He was concerned that the only character note in the script related to David's high salary and that, to make more than a brief cameo appearance in the series, the character needed to be significantly developed. David is made redundant in Series 2 and Karen arranges for him to take a new, better-paid job. In Episode 3, the couple celebrate their wedding anniversary in Paris. The episode originally had a downbeat ending scripted but was changed on the advice of Andy Harries and the editor of the episode. David and Karen both then have affairs; David with local residents' campaigner Jessica in Series 3, and Karen with publisher Mark in Series 4. The affairs lead to the end of their marriage, which was discussed to great lengths by the production staff. David starts a relationship with his solicitor, Robyn Duff, in Series 5 and divorces Karen.

Karen Marsden is a publishing editor and the wife of David. Of Karen, Norris said "[S]he's the strength behind the marriage. David thinks he wears the trousers and she is prepared to think that to an extent. So she manages to massage his ego and then does her own thing anyway." Karen becomes an alcoholic in Series 4 and seeks therapy to control her urges.Series 4, Episode 3. 25 November 2001. After trying to put David's affair with Jessica behind them, Karen starts an affair with publisher Mark. She breaks up with him via email while in Australia but he flies down and reveals their relationship to David. She briefly gets back together with Mark during her divorce from David in Series 5 but ends the relationship again when he wants nothing to do with her children.Series 5, Episode 2. 2 March 2003. After Rachel's death, Karen sees a grief counsellor. Norris and Bullen changed Karen's personality significantly between the pilot and the series; Norris altered the character's accent to be less "posh" and Bullen wrote her to be more sympathetic. Bullen found it difficult to write situations for Karen that took place outside the character's house. Eventually, he wrote a storyline for her in Series 2 where she rebels against her upper-middle-class lifestyle by smoking cannabis at a dinner party. Norris was disappointed that the plot of Karen and David's divorce could not be developed further in Series 5, as the majority of screen time was given to Adam and Rachel.

Jo Ellison is introduced as a co-worker at Rachel's advertising agency in Series 4. After Jenny leaves England and Jo is evicted from her flat, she moves into Pete's spare room.Series 4, Episode 5. 2 December 2001. The two fall in love and marry in Australia in Episode 8. In Series 5, Pete suspects that Jo may have married him as a visa scam to stay in Britain. Their relationship is damaged and Jo sleeps with a colleague on a work weekend away. Pete asks her for a divorce when he finds out. Jo was devised when Bullen and Harries wanted Pete to fall in love with an Australian woman so they could film the Series 4 finale in Sydney. Kimberley Joseph was based in Los Angeles and had been out of work for 18 months before getting an audition with Spencer Campbell. Two weeks later she had moved to Manchester and was doing read-through
Read-through
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted....

s with the rest of the cast. Joseph thought Bullen had envisioned the character as a coarse "big fat truck-driving lesbian type" before he met her. Thomson thought Pete's lust for Jo was a rebound from Jenny and that, while Jo genuinely liked Pete, she did not actually love him, which Pete suspects when he reads Jo's emails in Series 5, Episode 2.

Supporting characters

Significant supporting roles in the series are played by Jacey Salles
Jacey Sallés
Jacey Sallés is a British actress probably best known for her recurring role as Ramona Ramirez on the ITV programme Cold Feet. In addition to this she has also appeared in Murder Most Horrid, Birds of a Feather and My Family. In 2003 she also became a presenter on Loose Women...

 (Ramona Ramirez, Series 1–5), Rosie Cavaliero
Rosie Cavaliero
Rosie Cavaliero is an English actress.She was trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.- Television and film work :* The Crimson Petal and the White - Jennifer Pierce * Jane Eyre - Grace Poole...

 (Amy, Series 2), Ben Miles
Ben Miles
Ben Miles is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the British TV comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004.-Life and career:...

 (Robert Brown, Series 3), Yasmin Bannerman
Yasmin Bannerman
Yasmin Bannerman is an English actress. Bannerman was born and brought up in Gloucestershire and attended the Rose Bruford College in London until 1993...

 (Jessica Barnes, Series 3), Sean Pertwee
Sean Pertwee
Sean Pertwee is an English actor known for his television, film and voice-over work.-Career:In the early 80s, he auditioned for a place at the Surrey County Youth Theatre where he was cast as Captain Fitzpatrick in the play Tom Jones, based on the novel by Henry Fielding...

 (Mark Cubitt, Series 4–5), Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage (actor)
Richard Crispin Armitage is an English actor famous for his roles as John Thornton in North and South, Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood, and Lucas North in Spooks...

 (Lee, Series 5) and Lucy Robinson
Lucy Robinson (actress)
Lucy Robinson is a British actress working mostly in television. She has had roles as Robyn Duff in the fifth series of Cold Feet, Mayoress Christabel Wickham in season two of The Thin Blue Line and Pam Draper in Suburban Shootout....

 (Robyn Duff, Series 5).

Salles is introduced as Ramona Ramirez in Series 1, Episode 1. Jacey Salles expected to play the Marsdens' Spanish nanny for just two episodes, believing that the characters would regularly replace their son's carer. She subsequently appeared in 27 episodes. Salles, half-Spanish herself, auditioned for the role after appearing in the Granada film The Misadventures of Margaret—executive-produced by Andy Harries. The character was developed to be the complete opposite of the typically English Karen and David. David finds her continental personality annoying but Karen enjoys it. Ramona's role in Series 2 developed beyond just child-caring—in Episode 2, she bribes David for £30 to cook dinner for his former boss. By Series 3, she has a major storyline where she dates Pete. In Series 4, she gets caught up in Karen and David's deteriorating marriage and briefly quits to work for their neighbours, and to work part-time at a strip club. In Series 5, she dates Lee, a fitness instructor who is the catalyst of Pete and Jo's break-up when he sleeps with Jo.

Doreen Keogh
Doreen Keogh
Doreen Keogh is an Irish actress. Keogh left school at the age of 15 to train with the Abbey Theatre School, before moving to London....

 is introduced in Series 1, Episode 4 as Pete's mother Audrey Gifford. She makes a cameo appearance in Series 3, Episode 1, and reappears in Series 4, Episode 4 and Series 5, Episode 1. The character's recurrence was based on the good chemistry between Keogh and Thomson. Yasmin Bannerman played local residents' campaigner Jessica in Series 3. Bannerman and Bathurst did not know that Jessica and David would have a full-blown affair after their kiss in Episode 3, as David was seen as too much of a "jittery type". The character appears in five episodes. Bathurst was more impressed with the storylines that came out of the affair, rather than the affair itself: "It was the deception, the guilt and the recrimination rather than the actual affair, which was neither interesting nor remarkable".

Writing

Mike Bullen has sole writing credit on 26 episodes of the series; four episodes of Series 3 were written by David Nicholls
David Nicholls (writer)
-Background:Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 , and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions...

, and Bullen co-wrote one episode of Series 4 and 5 with Mark Chappell
Mark Chappell
Mark Chappell is a British sitcom writer and screenwriter. His credits include My Life in Film , Tony Blair, Rock Star Perfect Day, The Millennium and the fourth series of Cold Feet .He attended Marling School, Stroud, Gloucestershire.-External links:...

 and Matt Greenhalgh
Matt Greenhalgh
Matt Greenhalgh is an English screenwriter. He created and wrote the BBC television series Burn It, and the television film Legless. He adapted Deborah Curtis's Touching From a Distance—a biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis—into the 2007 film Control, for which he was nominated for the...

 respectively. Bullen usually wrote ten pages of script per day, whatever the quality of his writing. His own third draft was usually submitted to the producers as the "first" draft. As he was still an inexperienced writer by the time production of the first series began in January 1998, Bullen was aided by Christine Langan, who pitched in as a script editor. Storylines were planned in advance—the producers knew that they wanted to split up Adam and Rachel at the end of Series 1—but the later scripts were written once filming on earlier episodes had already begun. The number of people on the development team varied; the third series' comprised Bullen, Langan, Harries, producer Spencer Campbell
Spencer Campbell
Spencer Campbell is an English television producer.- Career :Campbell's early credits include working as a researcher in the early 1980s on the Granada Television television magazine Chalkface...

, script editor Camilla Campbell, ITV's controller of comedy, and a team of five writers.

Many storylines were based on life experiences of the production team; Bullen and his wife Lisa had their first child in late 1997, which made Bullen identify with the Pete character, whose son is born in the first episode. Bullen incorporated his experiences of the first few months of parenthood into the Pete and Jenny storyline. Adam's testicular cancer
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system.In the United States, between 7,500 and 8,000 diagnoses of testicular cancer are made each year. In the UK, approximately 2,000 men are diagnosed each year. Over his lifetime, a man's risk of...

 storyline in Series 2, Episode 5 was influenced by a similar condition that afflicted Harries, and was supplemented by the newspaper columns written by terminal cancer sufferer John Diamond
John Diamond (journalist)
John Diamond was a British broadcaster and journalist.- Education and training :Diamond was the son of a biochemist and a fashion designer. He grew up in Upper Clapton and Woodford Green, he then attended the City of London School and trained as an English teacher at Trent Park College of...

. If a storyline was not drawn from real life experiences, it was researched by communicating with experts; Bullen consulted the relationship support charity Relate
Relate
Relate is a charity providing relationship support throughout the United Kingdom. Services include counselling for couples, families, young people and individuals, sex therapy, mediation and training courses....

 for the scenes of Karen and David's marriage guidance session in Series 1, Episode 5, and consulted Dr Sammy Lee
Sammy Lee (scientist)
Sammy Lee is an expert on fertility and in vitro fertilisationHe has been a hospital scientific consultant and was the chief scientist at the Wellington IVF programme. His book Counselling in Male Infertility was published in 1996 and he has contributed to major newspaper articles, and has...

 for information about Rachel's intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.-Indications:...

 in Series 3. When it was decided to have Rachel's abortion lead to her developing Asherman's syndrome
Asherman's syndrome
Asherman's syndrome , also called "uterine synechiae" or intrauterine adhesions , presents a condition characterized by the presence of adhesions and/or fibrosis within the uterine cavity due to scars...

 in Series 3, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service
British Pregnancy Advisory Service
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service is a British charity whose stated purpose is to "[support] reproductive choice by advocating and providing high quality, affordable services to prevent or end unwanted pregnancies with contraception or by abortion."...

 (BPAS) were contacted. BPAS strongly recommended that the plot be developed in a different direction, on the basis that infertility from what would appear to have been a routine abortion would be an "improbable link", though the producers proceeded with their original story anyway.

By the time pre-production on the third series began, Bullen had grown tired of writing the series single-handedly and believed all the stories that could be told had been told. ITV were keen to increase the number of episodes per series to 20 but Granada refused, though did agree to add two more, bringing the total to eight. A writing team of five was assembled, overseen by Bullen. Four of the scriptwriters were deemed not good enough and they parted company with Granada. David Nicholls remained and scripted four of the eight third series episodes; Bullen wrote the other four and his interest in the series was revived.

At the conclusion of the third series, Bullen announced that he did not want to write a fifth series, and that the fourth would be the last. Series 4, Episode 8 was produced as the final episode but the cast and crew realised that they would like to make one final series for proper closure. Bullen agreed to write the final episodes on the condition that there would be just four, and that he could kill off a character. Matt Greenhalgh co-wrote Series 5, Episode 3 with Bullen, specifically the scenes depicting Rachel's death. Greenhalgh worked on the script at the same time as he was writing his BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...

 series Burn It
Burn It
Burn It was a drama series, with touches of dark comedy, following the lives of three twenty-somethings in present-day Manchester.-About:The series followed Carl, Andy and Jon as three self-proclaimed Generation X-ers going through life without any real responsibilities to worry them...

, also set in Manchester. In a 2007 interview, he said that he was not a fan of Cold Feet—decrying the depiction of Manchester in the series—and that killing off Rachel was "a privilege".

Filming

All episodes of Cold Feet were shot on film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

 on locations in and around Greater Manchester. Sets were designed by Chris Truelove to reflect the characters; Karen and David's home was designed as a spacious detached house intended to be located in Bowdon
Bowdon, Greater Manchester
Bowdon is a suburban village and electoral ward in the Altrincham area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England.-History:...

, while Pete and Jenny and Adam and Rachel had smaller middle-class abodes intended to be located in Didsbury
Didsbury
Didsbury is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre, in the southern half of the Greater Manchester Urban Area...

. All exteriors of the characters' houses were shot on location. Christine Langan was keen to avoid a generic sitcom style of filming, citing the formulae of such programmes as "tired and dreary" and lacking emotional depth. To achieve this goal, she and Harries recruited directors with little background in television. These included Nigel Cole
Nigel Cole
Nigel Cole is a British film and television director.Cole began his career in the 1980s, directing current affairs shows and documentaries for Central Independent Television. Into the 1990s, Cole co-wrote the play Sod with Arthur Smith, which he also directed and presented at the Pleasance during...

, who came from an advertising background and was keen to use the two episodes of the first series he was allotted to "make his mark" and establish himself as a good television director. Other directors included Mark Mylod
Mark Mylod
Mark Mylod is a British film and television director. Mylod has directed several shows both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, many of them being for the BBC...

, Tom Hooper
Tom Hooper (director)
Thomas George "Tom" Hooper is a British film and television director of English and Australian background. Hooper began making short films at the age of 13, and had his first professional short, Painted Faces, broadcast on Channel 4 in 1992. At Oxford University Hooper directed plays and...

, Tom Vaughan
Tom Vaughan (director)
Tom Vaughan is a Scottish television and film director. His work includes Cold Feet and He Knew He Was Right for television, and What Happens in Vegas and Extraordinary Measures for cinema....

, Pete Travis
Pete Travis
Pete Travis is an English television and film director. His work includes Cold Feet , The Jury and Omagh for television, and Vantage Point and Endgame for cinema...

, Jon Jones, Ciaran Donnelly
Ciaran Donnelly (director)
Ciaran Donnelly is an Irish film and television director. His works include four episodes of the ITV comedy drama series Cold Feet , the crime drama series Donovan and the BBC One drama Spooks...

 and Tim Sullivan
Tim Sullivan (British filmmaker)
Tim Sullivan is a British film and television director and screenwriter, known for his work with Granada Television and his feature film Jack and Sarah .- Background :...

.

For the first series, interior sets were built at the Blue Shed Studios in Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...

. Three directors and three film crews were used to film the six 50-minute episodes over 14 weeks from March to May 1998. Locations included an empty shop unit near Piccadilly station
Manchester Piccadilly station
Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. It serves intercity routes to London Euston, Birmingham New Street, South Wales, the south coast of England, Edinburgh and Glasgow Central, and routes throughout northern England...

 for the charity shop sex scene in Episode 3 and a Masonic Lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...

 for the gala dinner scenes in Episode 6. In the second year, the sets were moved to the Spectrum Arena in Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...

, where filming ran from March to June. The series featured the first location shoots outside of Manchester; a short scene in Episode 2 featuring Bathurst was filmed over half a day in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

; Bathurst, Norris and a small production crew filmed scenes in Paris for Episode 3; exterior location scenes of the characters on holiday in Episode 6 were filmed on Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne
Lindisfarne is a tidal island off the north-east coast of England. It is also known as Holy Island and constitutes a civil parish in Northumberland...

, though the castle interiors were shot at Hoghton Tower
Hoghton Tower
Hoghton Tower is fortified manor house near the village of Hoghton in the Borough of Chorley to the east of Preston in Lancashire, England. It has been the ancestral home of the De Hoghton family since the time of William the Conqueror. It features a mile long driveway to the main gates...

. The second series also featured more visual effects; in Episode 5 Adam dreams about being chased by a giant testicle (which was computer-generated) and in Episode 6 a fireworks explosion was supervised by pyrotechnics experts. The testicle dream scene drew mixed reaction. The Mirrors television critic Charlie Catchpole praised it but Robert Bathurst was critical: "I hated that sequence. I thought it was really unfunny. It was a lousy prop and awful graphics and there was too much of it—it would have been much better if it was like a Monty Python foot come smacking down like that and get it over with. You couldn’t keep up that surprise and hilarity for all the minutes it was on the screen." By the third series, Cold Feets sets were permanently located on a Granada warehouse stage and were left intact between series. This meant the basic sets could be used on other Granada programmes, such as The Grimleys
The Grimleys
The Grimleys is a nostalgic comedy-drama television series set on a council estate in Dudley, West Midlands, England in the mid-1970s. It was first broadcast by Granada TV for ITV in 1999, following a pilot in 1997, and concluded in 2001 after three series....

and My Beautiful Son. After the final episode was filmed in 2002, the sets were dismantled and taken to a landfill.

In Series 3, Cold Feet shot outside of England for the first time for Episode 5. A storyline featuring Adam's stag weekend was originally scripted to take place first in Blackpool and then in Dublin. James Nesbitt suggested that it should be filmed in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 and Portrush
Portrush
Portrush is a small seaside resort town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on the County Londonderry border. The main part of the old town, including the railway station as well as most hotels, restaurants and bars, is built on a mile–long peninsula, Ramore Head, pointing north-northwest....

, near where he grew up. He, Andy Harries and producer Spencer Campbell
Spencer Campbell
Spencer Campbell is an English television producer.- Career :Campbell's early credits include working as a researcher in the early 1980s on the Granada Television television magazine Chalkface...

 scouted the locations in April 2000 before filming went ahead later that year. Local businesspeople were so eager to promote the area that they waived any fees Granada would have given them for allowing filming, meaning the location manager only spent £20, considerably less than the £3,000 a typical shoot of that length would have cost. This location shoot inspired the producers to film even further away from Manchester; in November 2001, Bullen and Harries spoke at the Screen Producers Association of Australia conference, where they decided to base the fourth series finale in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. The episode was written to be a "normal episode" of Cold Feet that just had a different background. The main cast—except for Helen Baxendale who was pregnant—the producers and Ciaran Donnelly shot for 18 days in October 2001 in locations that included Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Sydney
Hyde Park is a large park in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Hyde Park is on the eastern side of the Sydney central business district. It is the southernmost of a chain of parkland that extends north to the shore of Port Jackson . It is approximately rectangular in shape, being squared at the...

, Kirribilli, Double Bay and the northern beaches. Budget problems meant an overseas location could not be secured for Series 5, so scenes in the final episode were shot in Portmeirion
Portmeirion
Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust....

, Wales.

Screen time was divided up equally between the couples over the course of an episode, though occasionally some scenes would run longer; in Series 4, Episode 3, the scenes of Karen clubbing went on for ten uninterrupted minutes. These scenes were also a rarity for location filming; usually filming in public places was done on a Sunday during closing hours but the clubbing scenes in this episode were filmed during opening hours at the Music Box in Manchester. A hand-held camera was used to enhance the frenetic pace.

Music

Incidental music for the series was composed by Mark Russell
Mark Russell (composer)
Mark Russell is a British composer whose works include music for the television series Cold Feet, Murder City and Kingdom. He presented Mixing It on BBC Radio 3 from 1990 to 2007, when the programme ended...

. He also composed a theme tune, which was used as an alternative to Space's "Female of the Species
Female of the Species
"Female of the Species" is a song by the English rock band Space, released as their fourth single, and second single proper from their debut album Spiders on May 27, 1996, reaching #14 in the UK charts. It was the band's only entry on any music chart in the U.S...

". Christine Langan heard "Female of the Species" on The Chart Show
The Chart Show
The Chart Show is a music video programme which ran in the UK on Channel 4 between 1986 and 1988, then on ITV between 1989 and 1998. The production company was Video Visuals, and was credited as "A Yorkshire Television Presentation" from 1993 and 1998...

while the pilot was being produced and decided to make it the theme song. She remained involved in choosing popular music used on the show for the three series she worked on it. "Female of the Species" was used as a closing theme throughout the first series. For the second series, it was replaced by Morcheeba
Morcheeba
Morcheeba are a British band, mixing influences from trip hop, rock, R&B, and pop.They have produced 7 albums since 1995, two of which reached the UK top ten.-Biography:...

's "Let Me See", except for the last episode when John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

's "Love
Love (John Lennon song)
"Love" is a song written and performed by John Lennon, originally released in 1970 on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album.-Song:The song first came out on Lennon's 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. "Love" later appeared on the 1982 compilation The John Lennon Collection, and was released...

" was used. The Mirrors Charlie Catchpole described the diagetic popular music in the school reunion scenes of Series 2, Episode 4—"Don't You Want Me
Don't You Want Me
"Don't You Want Me" is a single by British synthpop group Human League, released from their album: Dare on 27 November 1981.It is the band's best known and most commercially successful recording to date, and was the Christmas number one in the UK, in 1981, where it sold over 1,400,000 copies,...

" (The Human League
The Human League
The Human League are an English electronic New Wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977. They achieved popularity after a key change in line-up in the early 1980s and have continued recording and performing with moderate commercial success throughout the 1980s up to the present day.The only constant...

), "Relax
Relax (song)
"Relax" is the debut single by British dance group Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in the UK by ZTT Records in 1983. The song was later included on the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome ....

" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood were a British dance-pop band popular in the mid-1980s. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson , with Paul Rutherford , Peter Gill , Mark O'Toole , and Brian Nash .The group's debut single "Relax" was banned by the BBC in 1984 while at number six in the charts and...

), "Temptation
Temptation (New Order song)
"Temptation" is a stand-alone single released by British band New Order on Factory Records. The single reached #29 on the UK Singles Chart on its release in 1982.-Original release:...

" (New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...

), "True" (Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet are a British band formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles...

), "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...

) and "Tainted Love
Tainted Love
"Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1965. It attained worldwide fame after being covered by Soft Cell in 1981, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, and has since been covered by numerous groups and...

" (Soft Cell
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...

)—as "[catching] the changing mood with devastating precision". Catchpole's positive comments about the music led to a previously shelved soundtrack album being released.

Broadcast

The ITV Network Centre originally scheduled the first series to be broadcast in the 10 p.m. timeslot on Sunday nights. This went against the wishes of Andy Harries, who wanted it broadcast at 9 p.m. in the so-called "ironing slot"—generally used for programmes that an audience does not have to concentrate on. David Liddiment compromised by allowing the show to start at 9.30 p.m. Harries was able to get the second series moved to 9 p.m., which annoyed advertisers. The third series remained in the same timeslot but, like other series on the network, suffered from ITV's late decision to add a third advert break to hour-long shows. Episode 8, featuring Adam and Rachel's wedding, was broadcast on Boxing Day—the first time the show was aired on a Tuesday. The eighth episode of Series 4 and all four episodes of Series 5 were extended to fill a 90-minute timeslot.

The series was repeated when ITV launched digital channel ITV3
ITV3
ITV3 is an entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom that is owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. The channel was launched on 1 November 2004. ITV3 is the second largest UK multi-channel, second only to ITV2.-History:...

, then marketed towards over-35 viewers. In the United States, Cold Feet was first broadcast on the cable network Bravo. Bravo bought the pilot and first three series for $1 million. The pilot was broadcast as a "sneak peek" before the regular series run began. From 2005 the series was broadcast by BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...

. When broadcast on SABC 3
SABC 3
SABC3 is a commercial South African Broadcasting Corporation television channel that carries programming in English and, as of April 2009, Afrikaans....

 in South Africa, the series is retitled Life, Love and Everything Else. Worldwide, it has been broadcast in over 34 countries.

Critical reaction

Critical response to the first episode was not favourable; in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

, Nicholas Barber called it the most depressing TV programme he had ever seen. He wrote of the six main characters, "Are we supposed to care about these people? The theory, I think, is that we should relate to them, because their lives are as prosaic as our own, and because Cold Feet is a portrait of urban life as it really is in the Nineties. This is another way of saying the writer hasn't bothered with research or imagination." He criticised the conclusion of Episode 1 but praised the other five, which he had seen on preview tapes. On The Late Review, Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

 and Tony Parsons
Tony Parsons (British journalist)
Tony Parsons is a British journalist broadcaster and author. He began his career as a music journalist on the NME, writing about punk music. Later, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph, before going on to write his current column for the Daily Mirror...

 singled out Nesbitt's acting; Greer called him "especially awful" and Parsons wished that he had plunged to his death from the scissor lift Adam appears on at the beginning of the episode. General reaction improved as the first year went on. At the conclusion of the first series, Andrew Billen compared it with Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (1998 TV serial)
Vanity Fair is a BBC television drama serial adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same name broadcast in 1998. The screenplay was written by Andrew Davies....

in the Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

and was pleased that it offered a televisual outlet for the "forgotten" twentysomethings. Paul Hoggart
Paul Hoggart
Paul Hoggart is an English television critic and columnist. He is the youngest son of Richard Hoggart and brother of political journalist Simon Hoggart. His sister, Nicola, is a teacher.-Early life and Career:...

 for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

wrote positively of the writing, directing, acting, and editing and looked forward to how Rachel's pregnancy plot would be resolved in the second series.

Other critics hailed it as "the British answer to Thirtysomething"; in 1998, Meg Carter wrote in The Independent, "More than 10 years on, Granada Television has finally produced a modern show that mines the rich seam of a generation that is as confused as it is liberated by increased choice and freedom, and that caters for an audience which has not, traditionally, watched very much ITV." Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...

 compared it to the American sitcom Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

, a series that is also based around three men and three women, and featured Helen Baxendale in a guest role. In a 2003 interview with Bullen on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

's Front Row
Front Row (radio)
Front Row is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The BBC describes the programme as a "live magazine programme on the world of arts, literature, film, media and music." It is broadcast each week day between 7.15 and 7.45 and has a of highlights available for download. Shows usually include...

, Lawson asked whether Friends had influenced Cold Feet. Bullen explained that the connection was made by media as "a useful shorthand", that he was irritated by the characters in Friends and "would liked to have taken a baseball bat to them".

In 2001, Andrew Billen compared the contemporary cultural relevance of the series to The Way We Live Now
The Way We Live Now (2001 TV serial)
The Way We Live Now is a 2001 four-part television adaptation of the novel by Anthony Trollope. The serial was first broadcast on the BBC and was directed by David Yates, written by Andrew Davies and produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark...

, as a follow-up to his comparison of the first series with Vanity Fair: "In previous years we have seen the anguish caused by infidelity, impotence and infertility. This season the characters face the hazards thrown up by miscarriage, alcoholism and a late-flowering career. Sustaining relationships looks as hard as ever. Yet there is nothing each protagonist wants more than old-fashioned domestic bliss." The review resonated with other critics; in The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

, Linda Watson-Brown wrote an overall positive review of the series in general—dismissing the spate of "anti-Cold Feet" reviews—but criticised "the ease with which problems are resolved and morality used to slap the viewer in the face". The final episode set in Australia polarised critics; in a column focusing on Chewin' the Fat
Chewin' the Fat
Chewin' the Fat is a Scottish comedy sketch show, starring Ford Kiernan, Greg Hemphill and Karen Dunbar. Comedians Paul Riley and Mark Cox also appeared regularly on the show.Chewin' the Fat first started as a radio series on BBC Radio Scotland...

, Scotsman critic Aidan Smith accused the big-budget episode "which somehow managed to squeeze the Harbour Bridge into every shot" of being the point the series jumped the shark
Jumping the shark
Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery....

, and Times columnist Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran is a British broadcaster, TV critic and columnist at The Times, where she writes three columns a week: one for the Saturday Magazine, a TV review column, and the satirical Friday column "Celebrity Watch"...

 complimented it, but was concerned that the series' original main characters—Adam and Rachel—were being sidelined by everyone including Mike Bullen.

When the fifth series began in 2003, critics welcomed its end. Paul Hoggart wrote in The Times that the flashback and fantasy scenes were becoming so overused on television that their use in Cold Feet was less surprising than it was in 1998. In Scotland on Sunday, Helen Stewart lamented the loss of Fay Ripley and Jenny's replacement by "the bland but international crossover-friendly Jo, [...] who is sufficiently pointless to be dismissed even by her fellow characters as 'not as good as Jenny'." Stewart also criticised Hermione Norris's acting and Karen for being a "spoon-faced moaner". A brief article on the MediaGuardian website described a "revisionist backlash" as critics' negative opinions of the series clashed with the positive reaction that greeted it in 1998.

Depiction of social issues

Cold Feets cast and crew were frequently praised for their depiction of real-life social issues on the series. When Cold Feet began, Christine Langan stated, "The real challenge was to overcome the traditional view that many of the issues we cover—jealousy, guilt, money, sexual problems, parental death—are ordinary issues, hardy perennials and, as such, not interesting enough for drama." The third episode of the first series was controversial due to its depiction of the characters freely discussing their sex lives in public; in the left-wing New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....

, Andrew Billen praised it as a homage to La Ronde
La Ronde (play)
La Ronde is a 1900 play by Arthur Schnitzler. It scrutinizes the sexual morals and class ideology of its day through a series of encounters between pairs of characters . By choosing characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses...

and, despite the sex-talk, being "intricately constructed as a farce". The right-wing tabloid Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

s critic wrote that the episode "veered a little too close last night towards the category of 'adult entertainment', with all its connotations of sleaze and smut" and "we found ourselves immersed in their sex lives on a level of embarrassing intimacy which most people would share only with their doctor". A complaint was made by a viewer to the Independent Television Commission
Independent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003....

—the commercial television regulator—about the depiction of sex, but it was not upheld.

A scene in Series 2, Episode 4 showing Karen smoking a joint at a dinner party was controversial with censors at the writing stage; all scripts were required to be sent to Granada's Compliance department to ensure they maintained the ITC's code of conduct. The department would not allow Karen's drug use to be portrayed without some cost to her, so suggested that Karen and Adam could be arrested while rolling joints at the school reunion. Bullen thought the idea was "ludicrous" so added a scene where David berates Ramona for her drug use. Despite the measures taken, four people complained to the ITC about the glamorisation of drugs. The ITC dismissed the complaints. The scenes of Jo and Audrey smoking cannabis in Series 5, Episode 1 drew seven complaints to the ITC by people who thought it would give children the wrong impression of drugs. The ITC dismissed the complaints on the basis that the episode was broadcast after the watershed. Mark Lawson was unappreciative of the scene, writing that the drugs plot was a "forced jollity" compared to the other humorous scenes in the episode.

In Series 3, Adam and Rachel seek intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg.-Indications:...

 (ICSI) when they have trouble conceiving a child naturally. The characters take out bank loans of thousands of pounds to pay for the treatment, which is unsuccessful each time. The producers devised this storyline because IVF was a major contemporary issue and wrote the treatment as a failure because it was representative of the odds of conception in real life.

Rachel's problem with conception is soon diagnosed as being due to "partial Asherman's syndrome", a storyline that runs through Series 3 and 4. The plot was analysed on an episode of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour
Woman's Hour is a radio magazine programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom.-History:Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by Alan Ivimey the programme was first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme . It was transferred to its current home in 1973...

. Ann Furedi
Ann Furedi
Ann Furedi is the chief executive of BPAS, the UK's largest independent abortion provider.Furedi has worked in pro-choice organizations for more than 20 years, mainly in policy and communications...

 of BPAS, which had supplied information to the writing team during the research stages, stated that there had not been a recorded case of Asherman's syndrome in the United Kingdom since the second world war. Further to that, she stated that the consensus among medical groups was that there was no real direct link between abortions and infertility; rather an untreated infection could increase the chances of fertility problems if it interfered with an abortion. Christine Geraghty countered that the factual accuracy of the storyline depended on how the producers wanted to portray the issue to viewers. Her opinion was backed up by an ITV statement, which said that "stories for Cold Feet are not just chosen in order to make people aware of the issues involved; they're also chosen for their dramatic potential and relevance to modern living". Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray
Jenni Murray
Dame Jennifer Susan "Jenni" Murray, DBE is a British journalist and broadcaster. She attended Barnsley Girls High School and has a degree in French and Drama from Hull University...

 developed the discussion in an article for The Guardian; she mentioned that no impression was given that Rachel had suffered an incorrectly performed operation or had had to travel to eastern Europe for it, and that it was improbable that Rachel managed to conceive a child after all.

Influence on television

In a 2007 feature for The Guardians G2 supplement, screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst
Danny Brocklehurst
Danny Brocklehurst is a BAFTA and International Emmy -winning English screenwriter. Brocklehurst worked as a journalist for several years before becoming a full-time screenwriter.He has written acclaimed television drama...

 discussed the impact the series has had on British television, including inspiration for one of his programmes, Talk to Me
Talk to Me (TV series)
Talk to Me is a British television serial, written by writer Danny Brocklehurst, produced by Company Pictures for ITV. The four-part serial began on 10 June 2007 and stars Max Beesley as Mitch Moore, a womanising radio host whose producer is also his best mate and about to get married to Claire...

. He opined that until Cold Feet there had not been a significant television series depicting "the wants and needs of ordinary young adults" since Thirtysomething concluded in 1991. Brocklehurst developed Talk to Me in the same manner as Bullen developed Cold Feet, namely by basing its characters on his own experiences and friends. Both Brocklehurst and Mark Lawson have discussed similar "copycat" series, including Hearts and Bones, Metropolis, Couples and Wonderful You. Brocklehurst noted that these series "lacked [Cold Feets] warmth and believability" adding that they were "unrealistic and cynical".

"Cold Feet proved that you didn't have to have a high concept to make compelling, heartwarming, sometimes profound drama. And, while the show dealt with issues such adoption, alcoholism and testicular cancer, it was always at its most successful when bouncing playfully between the three couples, neatly exposing the differences between men and women."

—Danny Brocklehurst, 2007


Over four years after Cold Feet ended, ITV executives were still looking for a series that could comfortably replace it. On his appointment as chairman of ITV plc
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that operates 12 of the 15 regional television broadcasters that make up the ITV Network, the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom...

 in 2007, Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...

 announced that he wanted the ITV network to be broadcasting long-running series like Cold Feet to attract the younger, upmarket viewing demographic.

In 2008, BBC One broadcast Mutual Friends
Mutual Friends
Mutual Friends is a British comedy drama television series broadcast in six episodes on BBC One in 2008. The series starred Marc Warren, Alexander Armstrong, Keeley Hawes, Sarah Alexander, Claire Rushbrook, Emily Joyce, Naomi Bentley and Joshua Sarphie as a group of old friends whose lives are...

, a six-part television series written by Anil Gupta
Anil Gupta
Anil Gupta is a comedy writer and producer. He has produced many shows on radio and television including Goodness Gracious Me, the spoof chat show The Kumars at No. 42, The Office and Bromwell High.. He wrote the Cinderella episode of the 2008 comedy drama series Fairy Tales and ElvenQuest.-...

, which was compared to Cold Feet. While the BBC wanted the series to match the success of Cold Feet, producer Rob Bullock stressed that "Cold Feet is about a different period of life. It's about people in their early thirties. Mutual Friends moves things on—what's happening to our characters as they approach 40 is very different. Why do so many lives fall apart at 40? Because things haven't worked out how we hoped and we've had to turn to Plan B. The drama is all about the crisis caused by things not turning out as the characters planned." Later in 2008, ITV commissioned Married Single Other
Married Single Other
Married Single Other is a British television drama created and written by Peter Souter. The series is based on the lives of group of people who are either married, single or "other", other being defined as in a relationship. It began airing on Monday 22 February 2010 at on ITV1 and UTV...

, a comedy drama executive-produced by Andy Harries and directed by Declan Lowney, about three contemporary couples living in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

.

Granada Entertainment USA, the American arm of Granada Productions
Granada Productions
Granada Productions was a British commercial television production and distribution company. The company took its name from the successful ITV franchise, Granada Television....

, tendered the series format to American networks and cable channels from late 1997. The format was sold to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, which commissioned 13 x 60-minute episodes in May 1999 for the fall season, to be produced in association with Kerry Ehrin Productions. The U.S. series
Cold Feet (U.S. TV series)
Cold Feet is an American television series produced by Kerry Ehrin Productions and Granada Entertainment USA for NBC. Based on the British TV series of the same name, the series follows three Seattle couples, each at different stages of their romantic relationships. It premiered on September 24,...

 starred David Sutcliffe
David Sutcliffe
David Sutcliffe is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Christopher Hayden, Rory Gilmore's father and Lorelai Gilmore's on-and-off boyfriend, on the CW show Gilmore Girls....

 as Adam Williams and Jean Louisa Kelly
Jean Louisa Kelly
Jean Louisa Kelly is an American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for her long-running role as Kim Warner on the television sitcom Yes, Dear.-Career:...

 as Shelley Sullivan (the Rachel role). Low ratings lead to the series being cancelled after four episodes. In 2003 the format was sold to Italian network Mediaset
Mediaset
Mediaset S.p.A., known as Gruppo Mediaset in Italian, is an Italian-based media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country...

 for a 2004 broadcast. In 2008, Polish broadcaster TVN
TVN (Poland)
TVN is a major Polish commercial television network. The broadcaster was co-founded by Polish businessmen Mariusz Walter and Jan Wejchert. The network launched on October 3, 1997. TVN belongs to the TVN S.A...

 secured the rights to a remake from Granada International. This version, entitled Usta, usta, is set in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. The thirteen-episode series began filming in May 2009 and was broadcast from 6 March 2010. An adaptation entitled Přešlapy has also been developed for television audiences in the Czech Republic. The creators intend the show to run for three series of 13 episodes and tell a story over seven years. The first series was broadcast from September 2009.

Awards and nominations

During and after its original run, Cold Feet won over 20 major awards. For its first year, Cold Feet received three British Comedy Award
British Comedy Awards
The British Comedy Awards is an annual awards ceremony in the United Kingdom celebrating notable comedians and entertainment performances of the previous year.-History:...

 nominations; the series won in the Best TV Comedy Drama category and Nesbitt and Ripley were respectively nominated for Best TV Comedy Actor and Best TV Comedy Actress. The series also won the Royal Television Society Programme Award
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 for Situation Comedy & Comedy Drama, and the Broadcasting Press Guild Award
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....

 for Best Entertainment. For the second series, it received four British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) nominations—Best Drama Series
British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series
The British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards , the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry...

, Best Original Television Music, Best Graphic Design, and Best Editing (Fiction/Entertainment). At the Television and Radio Industries Club Awards
Television and Radio Industries Club
The Television and Radio Industries Club is a British institution chartered in 1931 to "promote goodwill in the television and radio industries"...

 it won TV Comedy Programme of the Year, and a second Best TV Comedy Drama award at the British Comedy Awards. The awards for the television industry magazine Broadcast presented it with the Drama: Series or Serial award. In year three, Fay Ripley became the first and only actor to receive a BAFTA nomination for their work on the series; she was nominated for Best Actress
British Academy Television Award for Best Actress
- 1950s :*1955 Googie Withers*1956 Virginia McKenna*1957 Rosalie Crutchley*1958 Gwen Watford*1959 Catherine Lacey- 1960s :*1960 Catherine Lacey*1961 Billie Whitelaw*1962 Ruth Dunning*1963 Brenda Bruce*1964 Vivien Merchant*1965 Katherine Blake...

. At the BAFTA Craft awards, David Nicholls was nominated in the New Writer (Fiction) category, and Jon Jones was nominated in the New Director (Fiction) category. It lost out on four British Comedy Award nominations (Nesbitt and Thomson for Best TV Comedy Actor, Norris for Best TV Comedy Actress, and the third series for Best TV Comedy Drama) but won the People's Choice Award (a viewer poll). The series also scored an International Emmy Award drama nomination. Series 4 won the BAFTA for Best Drama Series and the National Television Award
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...

 for Most Popular Comedy Programme. At the British Comedy Awards 2003, Series 5 won Best TV Comedy Drama and Mike Bullen was named Writer of the Year.

Merchandise

Four non-fiction tie-in books have been released by Granada Media, an imprint of André Deustch Publishing. 2000 saw the release of Cold Feet: The Best Bits (ISBN 0-233-99924-8) and Cold Feet: A Man's/Woman's Guide to Life (ISBN 0-233-99732-6). The Best Bits, compiled by Geoff Tibballs, features script extracts and behind-the-scenes information from directors, producers and actors in the first two series. A Man's/Woman's Guide to Life, compiled by Jonathan Rice, is in a "flip-book"-style format, and is presented as if written by the characters. It features backstories for the characters, drawn from Bullen's scripts for the first two series. The Little Book of Cold Feet: Life Rules (ISBN 0-233-05088-4), a book of quotes from the series, was compiled by Rice and released in 2003. The same year, The Complete Cold Feet Companion (ISBN 0-233-00999-X) by Rupert Smith, featuring interviews with the actors and production staff, was released. The book sold 961 copies in the first week of publication, making tenth position on the hardback non-fiction chart.

Five soundtracks have been released, featuring music from the series. Global TV
Global Music Group
Global Music Group is a United States based record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. The company also has divisions in Canada, Asia and Europe.-Company history :...

 released Cold Feet: The Official Soundtrack on two CDs in 1999. The soundtrack had been shelved before release but was put back on the schedule when Mirror journalist Charlie Catchpole wrote a column that desired for it to be released. Global followed the first OST with More Cold Feet in 2002. In 2001, UMTV
UMTV
Universal Music TV is a London-based record label that was formed in 1998.Owned by Universal Music Group, UMTV specialises in producing compilation albums and occasional single releases...

 released the two-disc soundtrack Cold Feet, followed by The Very Best of Cold Feet in 2003. EMI Gold
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 released Cold Feet in 2006. Cheatwell Games issued a licensed board game in 2001.

All series have been released on DVD in the United Kingdom and Australia, by Video Collection International and Universal respectively. Series 1–3 have been released in the United States by Acorn Media. A collection of all five series was released in the United Kingdom in 2003. A version exclusive to Play.com
Play.com
Play Ltd., trading as Play.com, is a Jersey-based online retailer of DVDs, CDs, books, gadgets, video games, DRM-free MP3 downloads, and other electronic products, as well as clothes and accessories. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rakuten Group....

 had a bonus disc that contained the retrospective documentary Cold Feet: The Final Call, new interviews with John Thomson, Andy Harries and Spencer Campbell, and a locations featurette presented by Thomson. This 11-disc version had a general release when Granada Ventures re-released all five series in new packaging in 2006. All DVD and VHS releases of Series 5 have been edited from the original four episodes into six episodes of various lengths.

The pilot and first series was made available as streaming media on ITV plc's revamped itv.com
Itv.com
itv.com is the main website of ITV plc, the UK's largest commercial television broadcaster which operates 11 out of 15 regions on the ITV network under the ITV1 brand. The website offers on-line streaming, ITV archive, news, sport, entertainment, games, soaps, lifestyle, drama and an interactive TV...

 website from 2007 to 2009. All episodes have been available from ITV's iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...

 since 2008.
DVD Release date
Region 2 Region 1 Region 4
The Pilot and Complete 1st Series 25 September 2000 25 January 2005 4 February 2002
The Complete 2nd Series 16 October 2000 26 April 2005 5 December 2006
The Complete 3rd Series 5 November 2001 26 July 2005 2 February 2007
The Complete 4th Series 25 November 2002 3 April 2007
The Complete 5th Series 24 March 2003 1 June 2007

External links

  • Cold Feet at the British Film Institute
    British Film Institute
    The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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