‘People were so generous in welcoming us all back’
REVISITING old friends can be a risky business. Will the bond be as strong? Are they still the sort of people you’re happy to hang out with – or have you ruined old memories and been left to rue ever going back?
That was the dilemma with Cold Feet when ITV announced it was bringing it back in 2016 after more than 13 years away.
Happily, it couldn’t have been more warmly received by viewers and critics alike.
But with a new series just under way, star Fay Ripley has revealed just how much pressure she, James Nesbitt, Hermione Norris, John Thomson and Robert Bathurst were under last year.
“We were all very, very nervous about how it would be received,” Fay, 51, told iN10. “I don’t think the stakes will ever be that high again.
“It was more than a 10-year gap and it felt like we could all fall flat on our faces. But people were incredibly generous in welcoming an old friend back. And when people talk to you in the street, it’s like you haven’t been away at all.
“It transported them back to when they used to watch it and it all became very personal. They associate it with a time when they’d just bought their house or they had their kids who are now grown up.
“There’s a real nostalgic connection with the show.”
With the highest hurdle already crossed, Fay is hoping that viewers will just settle in for the ride with this new series and enjoy seeing what happens to Fay’s Jenny and screen husband Pete, played by John, as well as James’s Pete with his potential new love and former husband and wife David and Karen (Robert and Hermione).
But after Pete’s depression last time round, fans shouldn’t necessarily expect a happyever-after resolution.
“Their marriage has come through the other side of those difficult times,” reveals Fay. “The Disney version would be that they’re now stronger than ever. But the Cold Feet version – which is why I think people can relate to it – is that life is a bit more complicated than that.
“It’s taken a toll and they’re both at a crossroads. Pete is ready to be gentle on himself, not cause anxiety, be happy with what he has in his marriage and sit on the sofa.
“Whereas Jenny’s thinking that she’s not dead yet, this is the time for another chance and she’d like to burn that sofa. They seem to want other things from their marriage.”
Cold Feet originally ran for five series between 1997 and 2003.
But Fay’s feet were itchy, rather than Cold, and she took her leave after three, appearing only at the start of the fourth series and the very end of the fifth.
The reason, she says, was simple – becoming a mum.
“I had actually asked them to kill me off, which they didn’t do.
“Now I’m obviously extremely grateful for the favour they did me. “I got married and came back eight months pregnant to film what then looked like the last ever episode
“It was a really exciting time and there was a lot of work for me that I wasn’t able to do if I’d carried on with the show. But the most important job I needed to secure was that of being a wife and a mother.
“Now I can look back and say I have absolutely no regrets.
“And being able to come back and be with the show again really is a win-win situation.”
Fay married Australian actor Daniel Lapaine in October 2001 and they have two children, 14-year-old daughter Parker and Sonny, 10.
Like every mum, the kids bring joy and worry in varying degrees and Fay’s understandable anxiety is evident as she talks about them growing up.
“Nobody tells you anything but what I’m now finding out is that each chapter is very different.
“I muddled through the early years with the nurturing and all the details about their food, their clothes, their school.
“All of that essential parenting stuff. Now, with a 14-year-old, I’ve realised I have one job – and that is to keep her alive.
“That’s until she’s 25 and she can do it herself. I should probably say 20 but I’m over-protective.”
The concerns are those that mums and dads across the country know only too well.
“This is when the scary stuff starts,” says Fay earnestly. “They leave you and no one’s holding their hand when they cross the road. Then there’s when somebody offers them booze or says ‘get in my car’ when they’ve been drinking.
“It’s that scary stuff you worry about at night.”
With two actors for parents – ITV hit The Durrells is just one of Daniel’s recent successes – there is at least the potential for Parker and Sonny to consider following in the “family business”.
And Fay confirms Parker is indeed showing interest along those lines.
“I’m there to support whatever she wants to do – but do I sound like my dad who said, ‘get yourself a trade as well as being an actor’?
“Yes I do sound like him. I’m pushing the whole, ‘you should be plumber’ thing but she’s not really going with that.”
Fay herself has more than her acting to keep her occupied. She’s a respected food writer with three bestselling books.
She says she’ll only do another when she feels it’s right but her passion for the subject is undimmed.
“Once you love something, like I do with food, it’s very difficult to fall out of love with it. Years ago, there may have been a time when I had to do it on the run and it was a chore.
“But once you step over the line... Now, I’m like, ‘great breakfast!’ and, ‘wow, I get to be excited about meals three times a day!’
“Honestly, a supermarket shop is fun for me. That’s the way my life works. I love feeding friends, family and myself far too much, frankly.
“When it comes to the books, though, I want to make sure I’m not just doing it for the hell of it.”
For the next few weeks at least Fay knows conversations whilst on dogwalking duties will revolve around the five Mancunian mates who have become part of the national psyche.
And while Jenny’s the sort of feisty – well, mouthy to be honest – character you’d think some might shy away from, Fay insists that’s not the case.
“People don’t seem at all scared – sometimes I wish they would be a bit more scared!
“The feistiness isn’t a scary feisty. I don’t think they would necessarily want to marry Jenny, but I think they’d like to go for a coffee with her.
“She’s written that way and I like to play her that way as much as I can.”
Cold Feet, ITV, Friday, 9pm.