Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
COLD FEET COMEBACK!
After the success of his comedy-drama, creator Mike Bullen had a breakdown. Now he tells why he wanted his characters to reach their own mid-life crises before he brought the show back. By Jenny Johnston
With James Nesbitt and Hermione Norris about to return in the classic show, creator Mike Bullen tells why he waited 13 years to bring it back
‘To have a long-running marriage is heroic’
There are some on-screen deaths you just aren’t prepared for, so you never quite get over them. Bambi’s mother for instance. Tiffany from East-Enders, mown down by Frank Butcher’s car on New Year’s Eve 1998. Who saw that coming? Matthew Crawley’s car crash on Downton Abbey. That one spoiled Christmas. But if you’re of a certain generation, the death of Rachel Bradley from Cold Feet, played by Helen Baxendale, trumps them all. One minute she was living every thirtysomething’s dream – a glossy-haired new mum happily hitched to Adam Williams (played by James Nesbitt). Then, out of nowhere, that lorry smashed into her car and Rachel was toast. A whopping 9.4 million people tuned in to watch the episode in 2003, with many reeling at how a supposed comedy could pack such an emotional punch.
The man to blame, writer Mike Bullen, is reflecting on what is widely regarded as the pinnacle of his career, and admitting that it could so easily have been another cast member who croaked it. ‘I’m actually surprised we managed to keep it secret that Rachel was going to die,’ he admits. ‘It was known we were going to kill someone off – the Daily Mail ran odds on who was going to get it. The original plan had been to kill Adam off, with cancer, but it proved too tricky because he’d already had testicular cancer in the show and when we consulted medical people they said, “Oh no, that wouldn’t be likely to kill him,” and we thought it would be too messy in terms of the plot to introduce a new cancer.
‘At the same time I got a letter from a woman in Halifax. She’d lost her husband and said watching Cold Feet was the only thing that made her and her 16-year- old daughter laugh. She wrote, “Please don’t kill off Adam.” It’s daft, but I remember thinking, “I don’t want to kill Adam.” I felt this responsibility.’
Quite what that poor woman in Halifax must have felt when she saw Rachel get squashed by a lorry instead is anyone’s guess, but James Nesbitt must be thanking his lucky stars at how things panned out – because he’s heading the line-up of the much-talked about return of Cold Feet 13 years on with a brand new eight-part series. The original, which ran for five series from 1997, followed three couples experiencing the ups and downs of romance. Adam and Rachel dated, married and had a baby son, but their journey wasn’t without its troubles. After a rocky start, the pair reconciled in series two when Adam was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Together they faced the agony of infertility, tried to adopt and experienced the pressures of redundancy.
Pete and Jenny Gifford (John Thomson and Fay Ripley) were a married couple who struggled with the challenges of parenthood, including the miscarriage of their second child. Their on- off relationship suffered adultery, separation and eventually divorce when Jenny left for a job in New York. Then Pete’s second marriage to Australian Jo Ellison (Kimberley Joseph) also ended in divorce.
Karen and David Marsden (Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst) lived an upper- middle- class lifestyle, employing a nanny and holding dinner parties with friends. Soon after the arrival of their twins in series three, David began an affair and not even marriage guidance counselling could save them from divorce. They then went through a bitter custody battle where David attempted to use Karen’s alcoholism against her.
And now, bar Rachel, they’re back. But why so long? ‘I could have done it earlier but it wouldn’t have worked. We went out on such a high and at the time there was a feeling that there was nowhere to take it. I remember one meeting where we said, “Should we make David gay?” We were getting desperate.’ He’s turned down several requests to bring the show back before, mostly because he wasn’t convinced that rejoining the characters at an earlier stage – ie when they all had young children – would be compelling. ‘When you have young kids, life becomes about them, and I didn’t want to write a programme about kids. Outnumbered had done that. But now all the characters are embarking on a new chapter. Their kids are older, and they’re starting to think “What now?” They’re on the cusp of change again.’
The big question was how the show could return without Rachel. There were rumours that she would return, but how? The prospect of a Bobby-Ewing-in-the-shower farce loomed large. ‘She definitely isn’t in it,’ confirms Mike. ‘And her death is absolutely the reason we’re coming back. If we hadn’t killed Rachel, if it hadn’t gone out on such a high, I’m not sure there would be the same interest in Cold Feet coming back.
‘I did actually write her in, as a ghost in Adam’s head, but when Helen Baxendale read the script she said, “I don’t want to do it. It doesn’t feel right.” It was a huge disappointment – my biggest regret is that Helen isn’t in it, and I was really sentimental about the thought that she had to be – but ultimately she was right, she did us a favour. Obviously her and Adam’s son Matthew is there, but she’s present only in the way that a dead person is present in our lives. That works, I think, because it’s how it is in real life when you lose someone you love.’
He’s curious about what Helen will make of the series. ‘I’d love to know what she thinks. It must be odd for her. I remember her being in tears when we had the read-through for the episode where she dies and I thought it was an overreaction, but I suppose that character was central to who she was at the time. And I have to say I can’t watch those scenes myself without crying.’
Mike Bullen is Cold Feet. He may have gone on to other projects – he had success with family drama Life Begins with Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, less so with Rik Mayall in the sitcom All About George (‘it wasn’t very good,’ he says. ‘I’d burned out’), and also wrote a novel, Trust – but it’s Cold Feet that dominated his life. He based Adam on himself as a younger man (‘or the me I would have been if I was braver’). The famous episode which featured Adam wooing Rachel naked, save for a red rose held in his bum cheeks, was based on something that happened to Mike. ‘I once went to Southampton to see a girl and presented her with a rose. It wasn’t in my bum, though. That was poetic licence.’
He says the success of Cold Feet came because everyone identified with one of the characters – but that the true genius was that it was a fluid arrangement. ‘I probably started off as Adam, then, when I had kids, I became more like Pete. Later, when I started getting more success, I was more of a David.’
Obviously the new Cold Feet will live or die on the strength of whether viewers identify with the older, not- necessarily-wiser characters. ‘It’s a big risk for ITV,’ says Mike, admitting to crippling nervousness about viewing figures. ‘It’s an expensive show, and the nature of TV viewing has changed now that we’re in the era of the box set. If we don’t get the figures I’ll carry the can. The actors won’t – Jimmy Nesbitt will continue to get lead roles, whatever – but I’ll never work again.’
What of persuading the actors – mostly unknowns when the show started – to return? ‘I like to remind Jimmy that we made him a star. Is he grateful? Not a bit,’ he laughs. ‘But to be fair he was always going to be a star. He’d just done Hear My Song and we were fortunate to find him when we did.’ Hilariously, he says there’s a ‘nod’ to Jimmy’s high-profile hair transplant in the new version. ‘We couldn’t ignore it, could we?’ he laughs. Intriguingly, he
‘Rachel’s death is absolutely the reason we’re coming back’
says they nearly discovered another Hollywood star. The Australian actress Naomi Watts was offered an early role on Cold Feet, but couldn’t do it because she got a film part at the same time.
Presumably the Cold Feet lot were more expensive this time round? ‘Oh hell yes,’ he laughs. ‘And they had us over a barrel because we needed them. We certainly couldn’t have done it without Jimmy. Adam is the hub. The others revolve around him. Perhaps we could have pressed on without him, but I wanted them all. None of them would commit without seeing a script, so it was a nervous time.’
Was it odd being back on the set as the cameras rolled? ‘For about ten minutes, then it just clicked. It was like coming home.’ No divas among the cast this time round? ‘Actually, it was a lovely atmosphere. We’ve grown up.’ He admits that last time round there were tensions as the show grew and grew. ‘You always get that – not necessarily just with the actors but with crew. You live in each other’s pockets for so long there’s that sense, like with families, that people feel they aren’t the favourite. Any successful show has to deal with that. I suppose if we’re successful,’ he adds, presumably meaning if the series is recommissioned, ‘it could become a nightmare.’
One reason Cold Feet was such a hit was that it wasn’t written for either men or women. Mike says he hates ‘shows that are held up as for women’. A particular bugbear was Sex And The City. ‘It was awful. I despised Carrie, the lead character. She was a doormat. How was that inspiring? Fifty Shades Of Grey? I love the idea of women being sexually liberated but it was about male fanta- sies. The women I meet are like men, strong and flawed, but mostly strong.’ There’s a sense he feels he has something to prove with the new series. He says he wants to translate the middle-age experience onto the screen, yet his own experience of middle age hasn’t been a laugh a minute. The success of Cold Feet led to a diff icult time, mainly because he couldn’t replicate it. ‘When I emerged from it I was young and arrogant and thought my whole life was going to be like that. But my career went like that,’ he says, drawing a plunging trajectory in the air. Part of the problem was that, after the last scenes of Cold Feet had been filmed, Mike and his family emigrated to Australia. He was convinced (naively, he admits now) that he could be an award-winning writer from anywhere in the world. But he struggled to get commissions, suffered a crisis of confidence and at one point had a breakdown, which sounds as traumatic as it gets. ‘It was about my declining career,’ he says. ‘I thought it was over for me. I’d been asked to do a pilot for an Australian show but I got stuck. I was diagnosed as depressed and there was a period when I stared over the abyss. It wasn’t a prolonged thing, but it was scary. Everything just stopped. I couldn’t make decisions. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t get off the sofa. My wife was so patient – she got me through it – but I remember going round the shops and I couldn’t let go of her hand. I was clinging to her.’ He says he was never suicidal, but ‘I understand how someone would be’. That passed, but he’s had hints of a recurrence since. ‘It’s something I’m mindful of and I don’t think I’m alone in that. Depression is relevant to this stage of life. In some ways I think middle age is bleak. Life is bleaker when you’re older.’ He’s happily married with two children and a good career but he says it’s never a breeze. ‘To have a long-running marriage is heroic. It’s easier to say “I’m off” than to work it out. But I think what I miss is the carefreeness of youth. I watched a young couple on a train the other day and she flung her legs over his. My wife and I are going to take a gap year. We’ll be on a train like that, but I don’t suppose she’ll throw her legs over me like that. I miss that carefreeness.’ All these complex feelings about life, love and getting older will be incorporated into the script of Cold Feet – but will it be a misery fest? He laughs. ‘The old Cold Feet was seven shades of light to three shades of dark. I’d say this one is 6/4.’ And will we get through the revamped version without anyone going under a lorry? ‘You’ll have to watch and see,’ he says.
Cold Feet returns to ITV next month. All 33 previous episodes are available at itv.com/ hub until 5 September.