Cold Feet (series 1)
Encyclopedia
The first series of the British comedy-drama
television series Cold Feet
was first broadcast on the ITV
network from 15 November to 20 December 1998. The six episodes were written by series creator Mike Bullen
, produced by Christine Langan
, and directed by Declan Lowney
, Mark Mylod
and Nigel Cole
. It follows the award-winning pilot episode
, broadcast in 1997. The storylines focus on three couples: Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, Pete and Jenny Gifford, and David and Karen Marsden. They are played by James Nesbitt
, Helen Baxendale
, John Thomson, Fay Ripley
, Robert Bathurst
and Hermione Norris
respectively.
The storylines follow the three couples as they try to stay faithful to each other. They are held back by issues such as impotence, infidelity, and unplanned pregnancy. Their lives are further complicated by their jobs, money troubles, and moving in together. Bullen embellished the scripts with events from his own personal life. The directors and producers made additional contributions, with the intent to keep the fiction in the programme as true to life as possible. The series was filmed in Greater Manchester
in the first half of 1998, using Granada Television
's studios, and exterior locations.
Critical reaction to the first episodes was negative, with many reviewers not liking the characters and finding the comedy drama format unusual. As the series progressed, critics' opinions became more positive; the production values rated highly and the fantasy scenes, which became a hallmark of Cold Feet, were well-received. An average of eight million viewers watched the series each week. The following year it won awards from the Royal Television Society
, the Broadcasting Press Guild
and the British Comedy Awards
. It was also nominated for the Rose d'Or
and a Banff Rockie Award. All six episodes have been released on VHS, DVD and internet media formats.
was intended by Andy Harries
, the executive producer and Granada Television
's controller of comedy, to lead to a series commission from the ITV
network. Poor ratings on its night of broadcast in March 1997 stalled a commission; Harries told writer and creator Mike Bullen
and producer Christine Langan
to "forget it". ITV's limited portfolio of comedy meant that although it was a ratings failure, the pilot was selected by default to represent the network at the Montreux Television Festival that year. The pilot won the Silver Rose for Humour and the Rose d'Or
. ITV still did not commission a series, and in the meantime Granada received offers from the BBC
and Channel 4
for a six-part series. In August 1997, David Liddiment
, who had chaired the panel of judges at Montreux, became ITV's director of programming and pledged to rebrand the network's comedy output. This included six new episodes of Cold Feet, which were announced that August. Production began in January 1998. Each episode was budgeted at £500,000, a small amount for a 50-minute drama.
and Helen Baxendale
play Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, a couple in a fledgling relationship; John Thomson and Fay Ripley
play Pete and Jenny Gifford, a married couple whose first child is born in the first episode; Robert Bathurst
and Hermione Norris
play David and Karen Marsden, an upper-middle-class couple who are considering having a second child. Each had mixed feelings about whether there would be a series commission after the poor reception of the pilot; Ripley did not stop thinking about it, in contrast to Bathurst, who viewed it as just another failed pilot he had done.
Following the resolution of Karen and David's storyline in the pilot, in which David concedes that the couple need to hire a nanny, Jacey Salles was cast as Ramona Ramirez. Salles was a bit-part actress in BBC sitcoms and had previously appeared in the 1998 Granada film The Misadventures of Margaret, which was co-produced by Harries. In her Cold Feet audition she was required to have a loud argument with her boyfriend over the telephone. She embellished this with "a bit of comic bastardisation of the English language" and won the part. Initially contracted for only two episodes, Salles assumed the Marsdens would employ a new nanny every few episodes, though she made two more appearances in the first series and eventually appeared in every series. Lennie James made two guest appearances as Kris Bumstead, though his second appearance in Episode 6 was in the form of flashbacks. James was keen to find out the resolution to the "who's the father?" cliffhanger, reportedly repeatedly asking the producers whether the baby was Kris's. Other actors to make appearances were Denis Lawson as Alexander Welch and Sam Kelly as Algernon Gifford. John Thomson was pleased to work with Kelly, as he was a big fan of 'Allo 'Allo!
, a sitcom in which Kelly appeared.
. Actors and directors also had input into the scripts; Bullen's original script for the marriage therapy scenes ended with David shouting and apparently using a fire extinguisher as an offensive weapon. Bathurst was not convinced that was something that his character would do, as David is "too much of a coward to do anything overtly" and would not leave himself so "exposed":
When storylining the six episodes, Bullen and Langan planned to split up Adam and Rachel at the series' climax, as "If [they] had just left them all living happily in their homes in Didsbury
, there would be a less compelling reason to revisit them [in the second series]". Harries opposed the idea, believing that the audience would want a happy ending for the characters. However, he allowed the writer and producer to proceed with their idea. Langan and Episode 6 director Nigel Cole
wanted Adam to leave after finding out about Rachel's pregnancy. She would have followed him and proven her love to him by singing to him over the PA system of the train—similar to the pilot's conclusion. Bullen thought that this idea was "atrocious", so spent the Easter weekend drafting an end to the series. The genesis of Rachel becoming pregnant, possibly by Kris, came during the filming of the second episode. Langan suggested to Bullen that they return to Rachel's marriage later in the series, using an adage she had learned from working on a soap opera
that if the "seeds" of a storyline are sown early on it can pay off later. The Brief Encounter homage was conceived close to filming. Bullen had not seen the film so had to rent it on video before writing the scene.
director Declan Lowney
to helm the first two episodes after his successful direction of the pilot. Lowney declined in order to shoot a film in Ireland with Terence Stamp
; production on it was scheduled to begin in October 1997 and would have overrun into Cold Feets production calendar. Funding for Lowney's film fell through and he took the two episodes of Cold Feet after Langan offered them to him a second time. The other two directors were Mark Mylod
and Nigel Cole.
Sets were constructed at Granada's Blue Shed studios in Salford for interior filming, which ran over 14 weeks from March to May. Exterior filming and location shooting was done in and around the city from February. The climax to the first episode—where Rachel drives her Mini
across a golf course to pick up Pete—was filmed at Withington Golf Club in West Didsbury. A long lens was used to film the Mini approaching Thomson and Bathurst, making it appear closer to them than it was and avoiding having to drive it on the green. Filming on Episode 1 came close to overrunning, so Lowney filmed most of Jenny's birth scene in one uninterrupted take, encouraging the actors to ad-lib. Ripley wore a prosthetic abdomen to simulate the appearance of pregnancy throughout the episode and had a pubic wig applied for the birth scene. The uncredited baby who played Baby Adam in that scene was a two-week-old child who had been born two weeks premature, giving it the appearance of a new-born baby. The conclusion of the first episode was originally scripted to feature Pete and Adam playing crazy golf indoors. Lowney did not like the scene, so made thirty minutes available at the very end of production and directed Nesbitt and Thomson to just "talk". The scene was used by Bullen and Langan as the basis for an attraction between Adam and Jenny, implied in the sixth episode and developed in the second series.
The scenes of Adam and Rachel having sex in a shop window in the third episode, inspired by one of Bullen's ex-girlfriends, was filmed in an empty shop unit near Piccadilly station
. The unit was dressed to look like a charity shop, with various items and the bed added. Mylod and the stunt co-ordinator storyboarded the sequence where the car comes through the shop window before setting it up on location. Nesbitt and Baxendale were switched with stunt doubles and the car was propelled up a ramp through the window. Explosive charges were placed on the glass to achieve a shatter effect. As only one take could be done, Mylod trailed five cameras on the window. Filming ran from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day. The location was near several clubs and many passers-by inquired what was being filmed. To avoid giving away the plot they were told that Baxendale was filming a bed advertisement, capitalising on her exposure from appearing in Friends
. Baxendale selected the lingerie Rachel wears in that episode herself, buying £2,000 worth from the Janet Reger
outlet in Knightsbridge, London.
Another stunt scene was filmed for Episode 6; the charity ball scene was filmed over two days at a Masonic Lodge
and concluded with a fight between Jenny and Natalie (played by Lorelei King
). The shots of Jenny spraying Natalie with a fire extinguisher were limited to two takes because it took so long to re-apply King's make up. The table that Ripley and King's stunt doubles fall through had its legs weakened, and the glasses on the table were replaced with sugar glass
. The Brief Encounter fantasy was filmed at a steam railway near Rochdale
. Nigel Cole used the scene as an opportunity to make his mark as a television director. Most of the scene was filmed by Cole and the main crew. Establishing shots were filmed by Langan and the second unit
, due to time constraints. The lighting and focus of the fantasy station was intended to be a direct contrast to the harsh modernity of Piccadilly, which appeared in the "real life" scenes.
(ITC), the commercial television regulator, about the scene being inappropriate. Their complaints were not upheld; the ITC ruled that the trailer did not breach the programming code, as "the humour of the piece was apparent from the outset". A 96 Sheet billboard advertising campaign also preceded broadcast, featuring the strapline "A comedy about life & all that". The broadcast was sponsored by Cockburn's Port.
The series was broadcast on ITV from 15 November to 20 December 1998. Harries wanted the series to air in the 9 p.m. timeslot but ITV Network Centre wanted it on at 10 p.m. (the same time the pilot had been scheduled), because the 9 p.m. timeslot was traditionally what was referred to as "the ironing slot"—programmes that can be watched without viewers having to concentrate. David Liddiment compromised with Harries and scheduled Cold Feet for a 9.30 p.m. start. The BBC responded by scheduling Andrew Davies
' adaptation
of Vanity Fair at the same time. The first five episodes aired from 9.30 p.m. but Episode 6 began at 10 p.m. The main target audience was the "upmarket" ABC1's.
Episode 1 averaged 7.47 million viewers over its hour, peaking at 9.2 million with a low point of 6.9 million. The episode ranked as the thirty-fourth most-watched programme of the week and the sixth most-watched drama (excluding soap-operas). The second episode dropped seven places and 1.9% on the previous week with 7.33 million viewers. It recovered to 7.46 million the following week but still managed only fortieth place in the Top 70 most-watched programmes. The fourth week held steady at 7.44 million viewers and fortieth position again. It had its best figures with Episode 5, which was seen by 7.91 million, making thirty-second in the Top 70. The final episode of the series suffered from its schedule change, dropping to fifty-ninth and 6.77 million viewers. Over the six weeks, Cold Feet averaged a 34% audience share, which was six points below ITV's Sunday peaktime average.
s Nicholas Barber called Episode 1 "the most depressing programme [he'd] ever seen". Commenting on the ending, he observed that "in comedyland, the police's main duty is to taxi expectant fathers to hospital". Barber concluded his review with positive comments about the rest of the series, singling out Ripley as being "reminiscent of Elaine in Seinfeld
". A.A. Gill also criticised that episode's conclusion, comparing it to a Norman Wisdom
comedy. On The Late Review, Germaine Greer
described Nesbitt's acting as "especially awful" and suggested that the series had been developed by a marketing department.
Critical reaction improved with the third episode; writing in New Statesman
, Andrew Billen praised Episode 3 as being "intricately constructed as a farce", and commented positively on Ripley's and Nesbitt's acting. Billen compared the production and fantasy scenes with Thirtysomething and Ally McBeal
. In the Evening Standard
, following the conclusion of Vanity Fair and prior to the broadcast of Episode 6, Billen wrote, "The style is light, the narrative frequently inconsequential. The men go to the pub and lust after the barmaid. The women meet in the wine bar and make fun of the men for lusting after the barmaid. The great settings are DIY stores, antenatal classes and sitting rooms. Why should anyone be interested? If domestic trivia has now been outlawed by the BBC as a subject for sitcoms and if even soap operas rely on murders and armed sieges to keep up their figures, why should the travails of a set of ex-dinkies have become a minor cult?" He analysed the series in relation to its early-middle-aged viewers being "a forgotten people", comparing the storylines to real-life issues experienced by friends. He concluded:
Of Episode 6, The Mirrors Charlie Catchpole wrote "Although I wouldn't want to bump into any of these people in a wine bar, I found I really cared about their unravelling relationships, their sad sexual misadventures, their petty jealousies" and concluded by calling the series "Exquisitely written, stylishly produced, superbly performed." In The Times
, Paul Hoggart
summarised all six episodes as "[walking] a tightrope between satire and sentimentality, frequently falling off on the sugary side", but wrote positively of the writing, directing, acting, and editing. He approved of the deliberately unhappy ending, looking forward to seeing how Rachel's departure would be resolved in the second series. Andy Harries attributed the mixed critical reaction to the unusual timeslot the series was given.
, the Best Entertainment award at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
, and the award for Best TV Comedy Drama at the 1999 British Comedy Awards. Edward Mansell received an RTS nomination for Best Tape and Film Editing in Entertainment and Situation Comedy. The third episode was nominated for the Golden Rose of Montreux, though did not win. Ian Johnson
, the publicist for the series, believed that the European judges did not understand the farcical humour in the episode, noting that the British delegates to the festival were "helpless with laughter". The same episode was nominated for the 1999 Banff Rockie Award for Best Comedy—the only non-American series to receive a nomination in that category. It lost to the Ally McBeal episode "Theme of Life".
website from July 2007 to August 2009. Additionally, it was one of the first batch of series from ITV's archives to be made available for purchase on ITV's iTunes Store
shop, introduced in April 2008.
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 Cold Feet
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
was first broadcast on 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 from 15 November to 20 December 1998. The six episodes were written by 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...
, 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...
, and directed by 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...
, 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...
and 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...
. It follows the award-winning pilot episode
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...
, broadcast in 1997. The storylines focus on three couples: Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, Pete and Jenny Gifford, and David and Karen Marsden. They are played by 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...
, 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:...
, John Thomson, 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...
, 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...
respectively.
The storylines follow the three couples as they try to stay faithful to each other. They are held back by issues such as impotence, infidelity, and unplanned pregnancy. Their lives are further complicated by their jobs, money troubles, and moving in together. Bullen embellished the scripts with events from his own personal life. The directors and producers made additional contributions, with the intent to keep the fiction in the programme as true to life as possible. The series was filmed 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...
in the first half of 1998, using 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....
's studios, and exterior locations.
Critical reaction to the first episodes was negative, with many reviewers not liking the characters and finding the comedy drama format unusual. As the series progressed, critics' opinions became more positive; the production values rated highly and the fantasy scenes, which became a hallmark of Cold Feet, were well-received. An average of eight million viewers watched the series each week. The following year it won awards from the Royal Television Society
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...
, the Broadcasting Press Guild
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....
and 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:...
. It was also nominated for 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...
and a Banff Rockie Award. All six episodes have been released on VHS, DVD and internet media formats.
Episodes
| # | Episode | Writer | Director | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Production
Cold Feets pilot episodePilot (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...
was intended by 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...
, the executive producer and 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....
's controller of comedy, to lead to a series commission from 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. Poor ratings on its night of broadcast in March 1997 stalled a commission; Harries told writer and 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...
and 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...
to "forget it". ITV's limited portfolio of comedy meant that although it was a ratings failure, the pilot was selected by default to represent the network at the Montreux Television Festival that year. The pilot 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...
. ITV still did not commission a series, and in the meantime Granada received offers from the 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...
and Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
for a six-part series. In August 1997, 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...
, who had chaired the panel of judges at Montreux, became ITV's director of programming and pledged to rebrand the network's comedy output. This included six new episodes of Cold Feet, which were announced that August. Production began in January 1998. Each episode was budgeted at £500,000, a small amount for a 50-minute drama.
Cast
All six main cast members from the pilot returned for the series; James NesbittJames 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:...
play Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, a couple in a fledgling relationship; 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...
play Pete and Jenny Gifford, a married couple whose first child is born in the first episode; 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...
play David and Karen Marsden, an upper-middle-class couple who are considering having a second child. Each had mixed feelings about whether there would be a series commission after the poor reception of the pilot; Ripley did not stop thinking about it, in contrast to Bathurst, who viewed it as just another failed pilot he had done.
Following the resolution of Karen and David's storyline in the pilot, in which David concedes that the couple need to hire a nanny, Jacey Salles was cast as Ramona Ramirez. Salles was a bit-part actress in BBC sitcoms and had previously appeared in the 1998 Granada film The Misadventures of Margaret, which was co-produced by Harries. In her Cold Feet audition she was required to have a loud argument with her boyfriend over the telephone. She embellished this with "a bit of comic bastardisation of the English language" and won the part. Initially contracted for only two episodes, Salles assumed the Marsdens would employ a new nanny every few episodes, though she made two more appearances in the first series and eventually appeared in every series. Lennie James made two guest appearances as Kris Bumstead, though his second appearance in Episode 6 was in the form of flashbacks. James was keen to find out the resolution to the "who's the father?" cliffhanger, reportedly repeatedly asking the producers whether the baby was Kris's. Other actors to make appearances were Denis Lawson as Alexander Welch and Sam Kelly as Algernon Gifford. John Thomson was pleased to work with Kelly, as he was a big fan of 'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6...
, a sitcom in which Kelly appeared.
Writing
Storylines for a potential series had been drafted by writer Mike Bullen during production of the pilot. When production on the series began, producer Christine Langan worked with him to create detailed plots for all six episodes, also acting as a script editor to redraft Bullen's work. Many of the plots were drawn from his own life; Pete and Jenny bringing up their new baby paralleled Bullen and his wife, whose first child was born in late 1997. The scenes where Pete and Jenny attend the antenatal classes were written from Bullen's memory, when he and his wife were "given callipers, forceps and a suction cup to play with". The conclusion of the fourth episode, in which Pete's father dies on the way to his grandson's christening, was suggested by Harries, whose own experience of the death of his father taught him that people rarely have the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones in real life. Not all storylines were based on real life: For Karen and David's marriage guidance scenes in Episode 5, Bullen consulted the relationship support charity RelateRelate
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....
. Actors and directors also had input into the scripts; Bullen's original script for the marriage therapy scenes ended with David shouting and apparently using a fire extinguisher as an offensive weapon. Bathurst was not convinced that was something that his character would do, as David is "too much of a coward to do anything overtly" and would not leave himself so "exposed":
"As David grapples with the fire extinguisher to remove the hose from the barrel, we hear running footsteps approaching. The door is suddenly flung open and two male colleagues of the counsellor's burst open into the room. In a second they take a look at the scene, and we see what they see—the counsellor looking lost, Karen looking shocked, and most significantly, David standing over the counsellor, brandishing a fire extinguisher in an apparently threatening manner. Presuming their colleague to be in danger, the two men hurl themselves at David, knocking him to the ground. He squeals as he goes down, and complains loudly as he's pinned to the floor."
—Episode 5's marriage guidance scene as originally scripted. Robert Bathurst believed that the scene left his cowardly character "exposed", so Mike Bullen rewrote it.
When storylining the six episodes, Bullen and Langan planned to split up Adam and Rachel at the series' climax, as "If [they] had just left them all living happily in their homes 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...
, there would be a less compelling reason to revisit them [in the second series]". Harries opposed the idea, believing that the audience would want a happy ending for the characters. However, he allowed the writer and producer to proceed with their idea. Langan and Episode 6 director 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...
wanted Adam to leave after finding out about Rachel's pregnancy. She would have followed him and proven her love to him by singing to him over the PA system of the train—similar to the pilot's conclusion. Bullen thought that this idea was "atrocious", so spent the Easter weekend drafting an end to the series. The genesis of Rachel becoming pregnant, possibly by Kris, came during the filming of the second episode. Langan suggested to Bullen that they return to Rachel's marriage later in the series, using an adage she had learned from working on a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
that if the "seeds" of a storyline are sown early on it can pay off later. The Brief Encounter homage was conceived close to filming. Bullen had not seen the film so had to rent it on video before writing the scene.
Filming
The directors had twelve days to film two episodes each, equating to approximately five minutes of screen-time per day. Langan asked Father TedFather 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...
director 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...
to helm the first two episodes after his successful direction of the pilot. Lowney declined in order to shoot a film in Ireland with Terence Stamp
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp is an English actor. Since starting his career in 1962 he has appeared in over 60 films. His title role as Billy Budd in his film debut earned Stamp an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer.His other major roles include...
; production on it was scheduled to begin in October 1997 and would have overrun into Cold Feets production calendar. Funding for Lowney's film fell through and he took the two episodes of Cold Feet after Langan offered them to him a second time. The other two directors were 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...
and Nigel Cole.
Sets were constructed at Granada's Blue Shed studios in Salford for interior filming, which ran over 14 weeks from March to May. Exterior filming and location shooting was done in and around the city from February. The climax to the first episode—where Rachel drives her Mini
Mini
The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
across a golf course to pick up Pete—was filmed at Withington Golf Club in West Didsbury. A long lens was used to film the Mini approaching Thomson and Bathurst, making it appear closer to them than it was and avoiding having to drive it on the green. Filming on Episode 1 came close to overrunning, so Lowney filmed most of Jenny's birth scene in one uninterrupted take, encouraging the actors to ad-lib. Ripley wore a prosthetic abdomen to simulate the appearance of pregnancy throughout the episode and had a pubic wig applied for the birth scene. The uncredited baby who played Baby Adam in that scene was a two-week-old child who had been born two weeks premature, giving it the appearance of a new-born baby. The conclusion of the first episode was originally scripted to feature Pete and Adam playing crazy golf indoors. Lowney did not like the scene, so made thirty minutes available at the very end of production and directed Nesbitt and Thomson to just "talk". The scene was used by Bullen and Langan as the basis for an attraction between Adam and Jenny, implied in the sixth episode and developed in the second series.
The scenes of Adam and Rachel having sex in a shop window in the third episode, inspired by one of Bullen's ex-girlfriends, was filmed in 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...
. The unit was dressed to look like a charity shop, with various items and the bed added. Mylod and the stunt co-ordinator storyboarded the sequence where the car comes through the shop window before setting it up on location. Nesbitt and Baxendale were switched with stunt doubles and the car was propelled up a ramp through the window. Explosive charges were placed on the glass to achieve a shatter effect. As only one take could be done, Mylod trailed five cameras on the window. Filming ran from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following day. The location was near several clubs and many passers-by inquired what was being filmed. To avoid giving away the plot they were told that Baxendale was filming a bed advertisement, capitalising on her exposure from appearing in 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...
. Baxendale selected the lingerie Rachel wears in that episode herself, buying £2,000 worth from the Janet Reger
Janet Reger
Janet Reger was an English lingerie designer who became famous in the 1960s and 1970s for her opulent lingerie designs.-External links:* Daily Telegraph * BBC News...
outlet in Knightsbridge, London.
Another stunt scene was filmed for Episode 6; the charity ball scene was filmed over two days at 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...
and concluded with a fight between Jenny and Natalie (played by Lorelei King
Lorelei King
Lorelei King is a United States-born actress who has been based in the United Kingdom since 1981. She has narrated audiobooks, acted in radio plays for BBC Radio 4 and appeared on television.- Early life :...
). The shots of Jenny spraying Natalie with a fire extinguisher were limited to two takes because it took so long to re-apply King's make up. The table that Ripley and King's stunt doubles fall through had its legs weakened, and the glasses on the table were replaced with sugar glass
Sugar glass
Sugar glass is used to simulate glass in movies, photographs and plays. Although it is much less likely to cause injuries than real glass, it breaks convincingly, making it an excellent choice for stunts...
. The Brief Encounter fantasy was filmed at a steam railway near Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
. Nigel Cole used the scene as an opportunity to make his mark as a television director. Most of the scene was filmed by Cole and the main crew. Establishing shots were filmed by Langan and the second unit
Second unit
In film, the second unit is a team that shoots subsidiary footage for a motion picture. Its work is distinct from that of the first unit, which shoots all scenes involving principal actors...
, due to time constraints. The lighting and focus of the fantasy station was intended to be a direct contrast to the harsh modernity of Piccadilly, which appeared in the "real life" scenes.
Broadcast and ratings
ITV trailed Cold Feet between 3 and 12 November. The trailer featured clips from the pilot episode, including the scene where Adam sings with a rose clenched between his buttocks. Six people complained to the Independent Television CommissionIndependent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003....
(ITC), the commercial television regulator, about the scene being inappropriate. Their complaints were not upheld; the ITC ruled that the trailer did not breach the programming code, as "the humour of the piece was apparent from the outset". A 96 Sheet billboard advertising campaign also preceded broadcast, featuring the strapline "A comedy about life & all that". The broadcast was sponsored by Cockburn's Port.
The series was broadcast on ITV from 15 November to 20 December 1998. Harries wanted the series to air in the 9 p.m. timeslot but ITV Network Centre wanted it on at 10 p.m. (the same time the pilot had been scheduled), because the 9 p.m. timeslot was traditionally what was referred to as "the ironing slot"—programmes that can be watched without viewers having to concentrate. David Liddiment compromised with Harries and scheduled Cold Feet for a 9.30 p.m. start. The BBC responded by scheduling Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (writer)
Andrew Wynford Davies is a British author and screenwriter. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA in 2002.-Education and early career:...
' adaptation
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....
of Vanity Fair at the same time. The first five episodes aired from 9.30 p.m. but Episode 6 began at 10 p.m. The main target audience was the "upmarket" ABC1's.
Episode 1 averaged 7.47 million viewers over its hour, peaking at 9.2 million with a low point of 6.9 million. The episode ranked as the thirty-fourth most-watched programme of the week and the sixth most-watched drama (excluding soap-operas). The second episode dropped seven places and 1.9% on the previous week with 7.33 million viewers. It recovered to 7.46 million the following week but still managed only fortieth place in the Top 70 most-watched programmes. The fourth week held steady at 7.44 million viewers and fortieth position again. It had its best figures with Episode 5, which was seen by 7.91 million, making thirty-second in the Top 70. The final episode of the series suffered from its schedule change, dropping to fifty-ninth and 6.77 million viewers. Over the six weeks, Cold Feet averaged a 34% audience share, which was six points below ITV's Sunday peaktime average.
Critical reaction
The series was welcomed as "the British Thirtysomething" and there was additional publicity generated off the back of Helen Baxendale's appearances in Friends. The first two episodes did not impress critics; The IndependentThe 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...
s Nicholas Barber called Episode 1 "the most depressing programme [he'd] ever seen". Commenting on the ending, he observed that "in comedyland, the police's main duty is to taxi expectant fathers to hospital". Barber concluded his review with positive comments about the rest of the series, singling out Ripley as being "reminiscent of Elaine in Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
". A.A. Gill also criticised that episode's conclusion, comparing it to a Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom
Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom, OBE was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin...
comedy. 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....
described Nesbitt's acting as "especially awful" and suggested that the series had been developed by a marketing department.
Critical reaction improved with the third episode; writing in 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 Episode 3 as being "intricately constructed as a farce", and commented positively on Ripley's and Nesbitt's acting. Billen compared the production and fantasy scenes with Thirtysomething and Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...
. 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...
, following the conclusion of Vanity Fair and prior to the broadcast of Episode 6, Billen wrote, "The style is light, the narrative frequently inconsequential. The men go to the pub and lust after the barmaid. The women meet in the wine bar and make fun of the men for lusting after the barmaid. The great settings are DIY stores, antenatal classes and sitting rooms. Why should anyone be interested? If domestic trivia has now been outlawed by the BBC as a subject for sitcoms and if even soap operas rely on murders and armed sieges to keep up their figures, why should the travails of a set of ex-dinkies have become a minor cult?" He analysed the series in relation to its early-middle-aged viewers being "a forgotten people", comparing the storylines to real-life issues experienced by friends. He concluded:
This is not the world of Ally McBeal. It is not about finding love remedially. This is a world in which too many of us are asking what use is love if you find it too late. Yet somehow, probably because the moral judgments are lightly made, superannuated singletons such as myself can look on and see an advertisement for, rather than a warning against, that famously honourable estate—just as we do when we gaze at the more benign marriages of our friends. In Vanity Fair, Thackeray deliberately wrote a novel without a hero. We respond to Cold Feet because it, on the contrary, does not despise its characters.
Of Episode 6, The Mirrors Charlie Catchpole wrote "Although I wouldn't want to bump into any of these people in a wine bar, I found I really cared about their unravelling relationships, their sad sexual misadventures, their petty jealousies" and concluded by calling the series "Exquisitely written, stylishly produced, superbly performed." In 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...
, 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:...
summarised all six episodes as "[walking] a tightrope between satire and sentimentality, frequently falling off on the sugary side", but wrote positively of the writing, directing, acting, and editing. He approved of the deliberately unhappy ending, looking forward to seeing how Rachel's departure would be resolved in the second series. Andy Harries attributed the mixed critical reaction to the unusual timeslot the series was given.
Awards
It won in the Situation Comedy and Comedy Drama category at the Royal Television Society (RTS) AwardsRoyal 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...
, the Best Entertainment award at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
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....
, and the award for Best TV Comedy Drama at the 1999 British Comedy Awards. Edward Mansell received an RTS nomination for Best Tape and Film Editing in Entertainment and Situation Comedy. The third episode was nominated for the Golden Rose of Montreux, though did not win. Ian Johnson
Ian Johnson (publicist)
Ian Johnson is a public relations manager based in London, specialising in online, television and film publicity.In the early 1990s, Johnson worked in the Channel 4 Press Office. In 1992 he was part of the launch Press Office team for Carlton Television...
, the publicist for the series, believed that the European judges did not understand the farcical humour in the episode, noting that the British delegates to the festival were "helpless with laughter". The same episode was nominated for the 1999 Banff Rockie Award for Best Comedy—the only non-American series to receive a nomination in that category. It lost to the Ally McBeal episode "Theme of Life".
Home media
The first two episodes were released on a single VHS tape on 11 October 1999. The other four episodes were scheduled for release over two more videos, to be released on 1 November and 29 November but were cancelled; the two-tape release of the full series came on 15 November. It was released on 2-disc region 2 DVD on 25 September 2000. A re-release, with new packaging and menus, came on 26 March 2006. The DVD was released in Australia on 4 February 2002 and in the United States on 25 January 2005. The pilot and first series were made available as free streaming media on ITV's revamped itv.comItv.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 July 2007 to August 2009. Additionally, it was one of the first batch of series from ITV's archives to be made available for purchase on 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...
shop, introduced in April 2008.
Further reading
- Carter, Meg (9 November 1998). "On Air: Our friends in the North". The Independent (Independent Newspapers): p. 18.
- Langan, Christine (27 November 1998). "End credits". Broadcast (Emap Business): p. 32.