Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series that was written by Mike Bullen and produced by Christine Langan, Spencer Campbell and Emma Benson. The pilot episode was first broadcast on the ITV network on 30 March 1997. Critical acclaim and good ratings for a repeat broadcast led to ITV commissioning a series from production company Granada Television; 32 episodes over five series were broadcast from 15 November 1998 to 16 March 2003. Episodes were typically produced for a 60-minute timeslot on the commercial ITV network. Series 5 had its runtime increased to fill a 90-minute timeslot.
The series follows three couples—Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley (James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale), a couple in a fledgling relationship; Pete and Jenny Gifford (John Thomson and Fay Ripley), a married couple with a new-born son; Karen and David Marsden (Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst), a married couple with an infant son and later twin baby girls—as they cope with marriage, children and infidelity. Most episodes feature a separate storyline for each couple, with characters mixing and commenting on events throughout the episode. Other episodes, such as Series 2, Episode 6, have all six characters in the same ensemble story. Mike Bullen based several of the storylines on events from his own life.[1] He has sole writing credit on the pilot and 26 episodes, co-wrote one episode each with Mark Chappell and Matt Greenhalgh, and left the other four to be written by David Nicholls. Each series has three directors, who each helmed two or three episodes.
A reunion episode has been speculated since the series ended; in the 2003 documentary Cold Feet: The Final Call, executive producer Andy Harries stated, "By killing a character, you are truly saying 'this series is over' … until, of course, in 10 years time when money is running a bit short for all of us, we bring it back. What we do with Rachel, I don't know yet—but I have got a few theories."[2][3] In an interview published in October 2003, Harries told The Daily Telegraph that ITV would "probably" bring back Cold Feet ten years after it ended, and said, "There's a tacit understanding with the actors that we will re-visit it again at the appropriate time."[4] In 2007, a tabloid newspaper quoted an ITV "insider" as saying that a reunion episode would be broadcast to mark ten years since the pilot aired.[5] The report turned out to be a fabrication.[6] At the 2010 Edinburgh International Television Festival, Harries stated that discussions about the series' return were "ongoing", but highlighted a number of factors that would prevent a reunion in the near future.[7] The following day, Harries told Kate Silverton that he had held discussions with Mike Bullen about the series returning, but that it would not be back on television screens in 2011 or 2012.[8]
All episodes have been released on VHS and DVD, and have been made available on itv.com and ITV's iTunes Store.[9]
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The pilot episode was the first episode of Granada's Comedy Premieres programming strand, made up of four television pilots that were broadcast across 1997.[10] This episode is 52 minutes long and was produced in 1996.[1] It introduces the six main characters and features music by The Other Two, Space and Saint Etienne. The episode was directed by Father Ted's Declan Lowney.
| Title | Writer | Director | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comedy Premieres: Cold Feet | Mike Bullen | Declan Lowney | 3.5[11] | 30 March 1997 |
| Adam Williams, a serial monogamist, breaks up with his latest girlfriend and later prangs Rachel Bradley's car on a supermarket car park. He exchanges phone numbers with her, for "insurance" purposes, and the two eventually go on a series of dates. Three months later, Adam thinks he is getting too deep into a relationship, and the two split up. Rachel goes back to her old boyfriend, and Adam—aware that he "got cold feet"—wins her back by serenading her with a rose between his buttocks. Meanwhile, Adam's friends Pete and Jenny Gifford try for their first baby, and Rachel's friends Karen and David Marsden argue over whether they should get a nanny for their son, Josh. | ||||
The first series of six episodes was broadcast from 15 November to 22 December 1998.[12] It was commissioned in August 1997 after the pilot won the Golden Rose of Montreux.[13] Declan Lowney returned to directed the first two episodes. He was followed by Mark Mylod for Episodes 3 and 4, and Nigel Cole for Episodes 5 and 6. The series was broadcast on Sunday nights in the 9.30 p.m. timeslot.[14] The first three episodes were repeated on Saturday nights, ahead of the broadcast of Series 2.[15] The first episode begins nine months after the end of the pilot.
| # | Episode | Writer | Director | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Episode 1 | Mike Bullen | Declan Lowney | 7.47[16] | 15 November 1998 |
| Jenny and Pete await the birth of their son, Adam and Rachel decide to move in together, and David blames the nanny, Ramona, for Josh's delinquency at school. Jenny goes into labour while Pete is at work, so Adam stays with her during the birth. | |||||
| 2 | Episode 2 | Mike Bullen | Declan Lowney | 7.33[17] | 22 November 1998 |
| Adam is distraught when he discovers that Rachel is married. She invites her husband, Kris, to stay with her and Adam as she sorts out the divorce. When he finally outstays his welcome, Adam and Rachel each pay him £500 to go away. Meanwhile, Pete and Jenny endure sleepless nights with Baby Adam, and Karen takes over the family finances when one of David's investments fails. | |||||
| 3 | Episode 3 | Mike Bullen | Mark Mylod | 7.46[18] | 29 November 1998 |
| David starts suffering from impotence when his boss, Natalie, puts him under pressure at work. Instead of traditional sex therapy, he visits a prostitute to cure it. Adam and Rachel share their sexual fantasies and end up having sex in a shop window display. Pete and Jenny have sex for the first time since the birth of Baby Adam. | |||||
| 4 | Episode 4 | Mike Bullen | Mark Mylod | 7.44[19] | 6 December 1998 |
| At her publishing job, Karen is tempted by renowned author Alec Welch. David suspects that she is having an affair with him after she goes on a book tour in Liverpool with him, so he decides to sleep with Ramona. Neither go through with their affairs, but their relationship is damaged when each finds out. Inspired after meeting Welch, Adam decides to write his own novel. Pete's parents visit him and Jenny, and Pete's strained relationship with is father ends in mourning. | |||||
| 5 | Episode 5 | Mike Bullen | Nigel Cole | 7.91[20] | 13 December 1998 |
| After the events of the last episode, Karen and David see a marriage guidance counsellor, who suggests they go on "first dates" with each other to renew their relationship. Rachel, Jenny and Karen later go to a "divorce party" hosted by one of Karen's friends, and Pete and Adam are arrested in a drugs raid at a club. | |||||
| 6 | Episode 6 | Mike Bullen | Nigel Cole | 6.77[21] | 20 December 1998 |
| Rachel discovers that she is pregnant, and Kris might be the father. Adam angrily leaves her, but later seeks her forgiveness, saying he will raise the baby as his own no matter whose it is. She does not believe him and leaves on a train to London. Natalie demands that David get a written apology from Jenny, after Jenny sprays a fire extinguisher over her. Adam and Jenny share a kiss in a moment of need. | |||||
A second series of six episodes was commissioned by ITV before the first had concluded broadcast. This series' episodes played up the non-linear structure of the first series episodes, using more flashbacks and fantasy scenes.[22] The series was directed by Tom Hooper (Episodes 1 and 2), Tom Vaughan (Episodes 3 and 4) and Pete Travis (Episodes 5 and 6). It was first broadcast from 26 September to 31 October 1999.[23] Executive producer Andy Harries had the series moved to the 9 p.m. timeslot, annoying advertisers.[4] The first episode begins six months after the end of the first series.
| # | Episode | Writer | Director | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Episode 1 | Mike Bullen | Tom Hooper | 8.08[24] | 26 September 1999 |
| Pete and Jenny set Adam up with Amy, one of Pete's co-workers. Rachel arrives unexpectedly at Karen and David's house, and Pete later sees her with someone else's baby at the supermarket. Convinced that it is his baby, Adam invites Rachel around his house, where she tells him she had an abortion. David is made redundant and decides to become a full-time house husband after Josh is nearly hit by a car. Jenny tells Pete that she thinks she no longer loves him. | |||||
| 8 | Episode 2 | Mike Bullen | Tom Hooper | 7.95[25] | 3 October 1999 |
| Pete reads Jenny's diary to see if there is another man in Jenny's. He reads that she kissed Adam, and punches his friend at work. The two later sort out their differences. Adam is still trying to dump the clingy Amy, but invites one of her attractive colleagues, "Rachel 2", to be his lodger. Rachel tries to make amends with Adam but his horrified when she finds him, Rachel 2 and Amy, half-naked in his hallway. Natalie offers David a new job. | |||||
| 9 | Episode 3 | Mike Bullen | Tom Vaughan | 7.96[26] | 10 October 1999 |
| Rachel returns to her old advertising job and is asked on a date by Danny, a younger co-worker. Rachel 2 moves out of Adam's, so Jenny sets him up with a woman, Callie, from a lonely hearts column. On a team-building weekend, Pete and Amy book into a motel, where they sleep together. Karen and David go to Paris for their anniversary, and Adam is humiliated on his blind date when he is seated with Rachel and Danny. | |||||
| 10 | Episode 4 | Mike Bullen | Tom Vaughan | 8.64[27] | 17 October 1999 |
| A boring dinner party leads Karen to re-evaluate her lifestyle; she gives her expensive clothes to charity and gets herself a tattoo. Adam, Pete and Jenny get invited to their school reunion. Rachel breaks up with Danny, and, after agreeing to be friends with Adam, goes to his reunion as his pretend date. Pete tells Adam about his affair with Amy, and Adam—thinking they can share secrets—tells Karen, who then tells Jenny. | |||||
| 11 | Episode 5 | Mike Bullen | Pete Travis | 9.14[28] | 24 October 1999 |
| Adam is devastated when he is diagnosed with testicular cancer and a probable malignant tumour. Jenny throws Pete out of the house following his infidelity, telling him to take all of his things with him. Unable to cope with their petty fighting, Adam blurts out that he has cancer, shocking the couple. David's younger brother, Nick, arrives at the Marsdens' house and takes a liking to Rachel. After his surgery, Adam and Rachel get back together, and Pete and Jenny give their marriage another try. | |||||
| 12 | Episode 6 | Mike Bullen | Pete Travis | 9.48[29] | 31 October 1999 |
| David arranges a trip for the couples to Lindisfarne, where they can see in the new millennium together. Pete and Jenny's relationship is frosty but Adam and Rachel make up for lost time in the bedroom. After Adam and Pete temoporarily get stranded in their boat while coming back from the mainland, the Giffords' relationship gets worse. Karen tells David she is pregnant. After Ramona removes the batteries from Pete's "Millennium clock", the couples see in the year 2000 on the beach. | |||||
The third series was extended from six to eight episodes on the success of the first two series. ITV had asked Granada for up to 20 episodes, but were refused on the basis that it would turn the show into a soap opera.[30] The episodes suffered from ITV's decision to insert a third commercial break into evening programming; like many other series that had already completed post-production, Cold Feet's editors were forced to alter their episodes to allow for the extra breaks.[31] The first two episodes were broadcast as a single two-hour episode on 12 November.[32] Episode 8, featuring Adam and Rachel's wedding, was broadcast on Boxing Day—the first time the show aired on a Tuesday.[33] During pre-production, Mike Bullen declined to write the episodes, believing that all the stories that could be told had been told. His interest was eventually renewed and he wrote four episodes, leaving the other four to David Nicholls.[34] Episodes 1–3 were directed by Simon Delaney, Episodes 4–6 by Jon Jones and Episodes 7 and 8 by Tim Whitby. For Episode 5, the cast and crew spent several days filming in Portrush and Belfast in Northern Ireland.[35] The series was first broadcast from 12 November to 26 December 2000.
| # | Episode | Writer | Director | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Episode 1 | Mike Bullen | Simon Delaney | 8.33[36] | 12 November 2000 |
| Pete and Jenny have separated, so he has been living at Adam and Rachel's. He moves back in with Jenny as her lodger when Adam and Rachel tire of his uncleanliness. As Karen and David return home with their new baby twins, Ellie and Olivia, Heather, Karen's ex-pat mother, arrives from Spain. At a dinner party, she takes a liking to Felix, one of David's clients. Jenny has also been invited, and is smitten with Robert, another client. Pete prepares breakfast for Jenny on their anniversary but is saddened when she receives flowers from Robert. Rachel tells Adam that her period is late. | |||||
| 14 | Episode 2 | David Nicholls | Simon Delaney | 8.33 | 12 November 2000 |
| Pete starts searching for a place of his own as Jenny and Robert start going on dates. He eventually finds a house-share with Matthew, a middle-aged divorced man who he is later shocked to discover is gay. Rachel's pregnancy turns out to be a false alarm. A visit to the doctor informs them that Rachel's inability to conceive might be related to her abortion. After Jessica, a local residents' activist, arrives on the Marsdens' doorstep rallying support against construction on a children's playgroup, David attends a residents' meeting and becomes attracted to her. | |||||
| 15 | Episode 3 | David Nicholls | Simon Delaney | 9.87 | 19 November 2000 |
| Pete and Ramona start seeing each other after an encounter in the park, and Jenny has to deal with her friends' reluctance to get to know Robert. Adam and Rachel attend their first appointment for Rachel's intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Heather smacks Josh but makes up with Karen and later returns to Spain. David organises his own 40th birthday party and decides to make it fancy-dress. At the party, he kisses Jessica, and Jenny becomes jealous when she sees Pete and Ramona dance. The next morning, David is surprised to find a Harley-Davidson motorbike in the kitchen. | |||||
| 16 | Episode 4 | Mike Bullen | Jon Jones | 8.60 | 26 November 2000 |
| Pete and Ramona spend more time with each other, and she watches him play on Matthew's all-gay football team. Karen meets up with her old college friend, photographer Miles Brodie, as David spends more and more time with Jessica. The cost of Adam and Rachel's ICSI treatment begins to mount. Results from a scan come back, and it is revealed that Rachel is suffering from "partial Asherman's syndrome" resulting from her abortion. Later, he proposes to her. | |||||
| 17 | Episode 5 | Mike Bullen | Jon Jones | 9.14 | 3 December 2000 |
| Adam and Rachel's friends show public support when they announce their engagement, but secretly believe they are doing it for the wrong reasons. Karen becomes jealous of Jenny when she takes charge of planning Brodie's photography exhibition. David and Jessica book into a hotel for a dirty afternoon, and Pete begins chatting with "Girlpower", a woman on an Internet chatroom. She asks to meet him at the school where she works, where it turns out he was set up by two schoolgirls. However, he does get a date with their teacher, Emma. After abandoning the idea of a long engagement, Adam and Rachel decide to get married as soon as possible. | |||||
| 18 | Episode 6 | David Nicholls | Jon Jones | 9.24 | 10 December 2000 |
| Pete and David take Adam on a stag weekend to Belfast and Portrush, where he grew up. At a surprise party, he is reunited with his old girlfriend, Jane Fitzpatrick, and later drunkenly falls asleep in her bed. Pete discovers David's affair with Jessica, and makes him promise to break up with her when they get home. Meanwhile, Rachel has taken Karen and Jenny to a health spa. Jenny lets slip that she once kissed Adam and Rachel is furious. They make up and decide to meet up with their partners in Northern Ireland. Rachel tells Adam that she knows about him and Jenny and he does not tell her that he kissed Jane the night before. | |||||
| 19 | Episode 7 | David Nicholls | Tim Whitby | 9.09 | 17 December 2000 |
| Jenny takes charge of planning Adam and Rachel's wedding as Adam buys Rachel an unattractive engagement ring. David unceremoniously breaks up with Jessica in a restaurant, where they are seen by Robert. After Karen is arrested for tackling a car thief, David takes her out to dinner, where she begins to suspect something is wrong. An argument over the engagement ring leads Adam and Rachel to scale back their wedding plans; they opt for a simple register office ceremony instead of at a large country house. Jenny and Robert call it a day, and Pete—enjoying his dates with Emma—asks Jenny for a divorce. | |||||
| 20 | Episode 8 | Mike Bullen | Tim Whitby | 9.66 | 26 December 2000 |
| On the morning of the wedding, Pete wonders if divorcing Jenny is the right thing to do. As he is moving his things out of Jenny's house, Robert tells her that David is having an affair. She tells Rachel and they both wonder whether to tell Karen. Adam arrives late to the registry office after Pete forgets to arrange for a car. The reception is held at Karen and David's. David realises that everyone except Karen knows about the affair, and tells her himself. He offers to leave but she decides that they should stay together for the kids. The episode ends with the couples watching Adam and Rachel's wedding video, filmed by Pete. Though David and Karen's marriage appears to be over, Pete and Jenny are back together. | |||||
The storyline for the fourth series was conceived by Mike Bullen and Andy Harries while they were on a speaking tour of Australia; Bullen wanted to set an episode in Sydney because it was "a nice place to go".[37] Fay Ripley left the series in Episode 2, so a replacement cast member, Kimberley Joseph as Jo Ellison, was introduced in Episode 1.[38] Over the series, Pete and Jo fall in love and get married in Sydney in Episode 8. The episode was filmed on location in Sydney in October 2001. Bullen wrote it as a normal episode of Cold Feet that just happened to be set in Australia.[39] This episode was extended to fill a 90-minute timeslot. Episodes 1–3 were directed by Tim Whitby, Episodes 4–6 by Paul Kousoulides and Episodes 7 and 8 by Ciaran Donnelly.
| # | Episode | Writer(s) | Director | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Episode 1 | Mike Bullen | Tim Whitby | 9.24 | 18 November 2001 |
| Karen and David remain on amicable terms following his affair, though both have separate bedrooms. Karen strikes up a friendship with Rachel's Australian workmate, Jo Ellison, and Jenny and Pete are expecting a second child. She is asked to go on a fact-finding trip in Rome by Owen Claiborne, the owner of the hotel chain she works for. In Rome, Jenny spends all her time working, leaving Pete to see the sights alone. Back in Manchester, she tells Pete that Claiborne offered her a job in New York. She turns it down, but has second thoughts when an antenatal scan reveals that she has miscarried the baby. Rachel and Adam agree to try child adoption. | |||||
| 22 | Episode 2 | Mike Bullen | Tim Whitby | 6.96 | 19 November 2001 |
| Karen has started drinking heavily and her arguments with David lead Ramona to seek alternative employment. She starts working at a strip club in the evenings and as a nanny for the Marsdens' neighbours in the day. After Adam and Rachel attend their first adoption meeting, Jane shows up in the town centre. She later tells Adam that she contrived the meeting in order to see him. Jenny tells Pete that she is going to take the New York job afterall. David sees a therapist and becomes optimistic; he offers Ramona her old job back and believes everything with Karen will be fine. She asks him to move out. Jenny leaves for New York with Little Adam and without Pete. | |||||
| 23 | Episode 3 | Mike Bullen | Tim Whitby | 8.96 | 25 November 2001 |
| When Karen holds a girls' night in, she gets drunk and insults an old friend. David is living with Pete and still seeing a therapist. Karen asks Pete out for a night of drinking and clubbing. He agrees but is worried about her excessive alcohol consumption. After she drinks several glasses of wine at Josh's school violin recital, she drives into a parked car. David is angry and tells her she is reckless. She agrees to seek professional help and is surprised to see David coming out of the therapist's office when she arrives to make an appointment. When Jane tells Rachel she is leaving Manchester, Adam accidentally blurts out that he kissed her in Northern Ireland. | |||||
| 24 | Episode 4 | Mike Bullen and Mark Chappell | Paul Kousoulides | 7.21 | 26 November 2001 |
| Rachel is still not speaking to Adam after his revelation in the previous episode. David reminds her that Adam did not sleep with Jane, but she did sleep with Kris, and Adam forgave her. She and Adam reconcile and are soon celebrating the success of their adoption application. Their social worker, Ruth, introduces them to eight-year-old Laura, who she believes they will get along with. Rachel later discovers that she is pregnant. Pete gets a dog for company now that Jenny has gone. Pete's mother, Audrey, has been forgetful lately, and is afraid for her safety. Pete moves her into sheltered housing. Karen allows David to move back in to the house. | |||||
| 25 | Episode 5 | Mike Bullen | Paul Kousoulides | 9.79 | 2 December 2001 |
| Jo loses her job and flat and moves into Pete's spare room. At a barbecue to celebrate Rachel's pregnancy, Adam guesses that Pete likes Jo. Jo starts an aerobics class and Pete becomes jealous when she starts seeing Suggs, one of his co-workers who also attends her class. Adam and Rachel tell Ruth about the pregnancy, and she withdraws their adoption application. At a drinks party, Karen meets publisher Mark Cubitt, and she agrees to read over a manuscript written by his wife, Geraldine. At dinner with them, she realises she is attracted to him. | |||||
| 26 | Episode 6 | Mike Bullen | Paul Kousoulides | 8.03 | 3 December 2001 |
| Rachel goes to New York to visit Jenny, so Adam holds a poker night with his friends. The gambling bug bites, and he spends the night at a casino with Ramona. Pete buys himself an MG to distract himself from Jo and Suggs. Jo later splits up with Suggs. David buys Karen a racehorse for her birthday without realising how expensive it is to keep. He hopes to recover some costs when it gets good odds at Chester, but it ends up going lame. At the races, Karen and Mark kiss. After "borrowing" Pete's car, Adam spends the night with a woman, who humiliates him at the races when he pretends to not know her. | |||||
| 27 | Episode 7 | Mike Bullen | Ciaran Donnelly | 8.83 | 9 December 2001 |
| Karen spends the afternoon in a hotel room with Mark. Geraldine tells Karen that Mark has had other affairs but he tells Karen that he is prepared to leave Geraldine to be with her. Every time Pete and Jo try to have sex, he stops, afraid that he will not be good enough for her. Jo confides in Rachel that she loves Pete, but leaves for Australia when her visa runs out. Natalie tells David to make a list of employees to make redundant. Hard pressed to come up with a good list, he puts everyone's name down, including his own. His boss congratulates him on his choices—and fires Natalie. Adam and Rachel are woken in the night when Pete phones them from Sydney to tell them that he and Jo are engaged. | |||||
| 28 | Episode 8 | Mike Bullen | Ciaran Donnelly | 8.95 | 10 December 2001 |
| In Sydney, Pete meets Jo's father, Rod, who tries to pay Pete to not marry his daughter. David begins making plans to move the family to Sydney when he sees how much Karen likes the city. Mark follows Karen to Australia and tells David about the affair. David is distraught, and ends his and Karen's marriage. Pete and Jo marry in a ceremony on the beach. Rachel goes into premature labour outside the hotel and gives birth to baby Matthew at the hospital. David flies home alone. | |||||
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.[30] 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.[37] Matt Greenhalgh co-wrote Episode 3 with Bullen, specifically the scenes depicting Rachel's death.[40] Ciaran Donnelly returned to direct the first two episodes, Simon Delaney directed Episode 3 and Tim Sullivan directed Episode 4. Fay Ripley returned and Jenny for the final episode. As her pregnancy was nearly complete, Episode 4 was filmed before Episode 3 to accommodate her schedule.[41] A retrospective documentary entitled Cold Feet: The Final Call was broadcast on 11 March, between the broadcasts of Episode 3 and Episode 4, gaining 4.8 million viewers.[42] Episode 1 begins three months after the end of the fourth series. The DVD release of Series 5 has the four episodes reformatted into six episodes of approximately 50 minutes each.
| # | Episode | Writer(s) | Director | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | Episode 1 | Mike Bullen | Ciaran Donnelly | 8.78 | 23 February 2003 |
| Pete and Jo return from their honeymoon, and Audrey is keen to meet her new daughter-in-law. Rachel becomes paranoid whenever anyone tries to touch Baby Matthew, and refuses to go outside with him. Fed up, Adam storms out of the naming ceremony. Rachel tells him that she is afraid because she dropped Matthew after leaving him unattended. David and Karen's amicable divorce is turned into a custody battle when David gets a new solicitor, Robyn Duff, and Karen starts seeing Mark again. Ramona starts going to Karen and David's health club, where she meets swimming instructor Lee. | |||||
| 30 | Episode 2 | Mike Bullen | Ciaran Donnelly | 8.47 | 2 March 2003 |
| Pete and Jo are questioned about the legitimacy of their marriage by Home Office officials. The officials are satisfied but Pete becomes curious about Jo's motives for marrying him, and goes through her emails. Adam is made redundant and Rachel goes back to work, leaving Adam to deal with the baby. He successfully applies for a new job, even when he takes Matthew into the interview. As the divorce proceedings escalate, David and Robyn spend the night together. Karen tries to move forward with Mark but he is not interested in being a father to her children, so leaves her. David and Karen both agree that their increasing bitterness is harming the children, so return to amicable proceedings. | |||||
| 31 | Episode 3 | Mike Bullen and Matt Greenhalgh | Simon Delaney | 9.81 | 9 March 2003 |
| After Adam and Rachel's landlord dies, and their house is put up for sale, they begin searching for a new house. Adam's estranged father, Bill, shows up, and comes out as bisexual to his son. Adam begrudgingly repairs their relationship. Robyn asks to meet David's friends. Jo sleeps with Lee on a work weekend away and she confesses to Karen. Driving to meet Adam at a property auction, Rachel's car is hit by a truck, and she dies in hospital. | |||||
| 32 | Episode 4 | Mike Bullen | Tim Sullivan | 10.72 | 16 March 2003 |
| Rachel's friends and family gather for her funeral. Jenny returns, heavily pregnant and with nowhere to stay in Manchester. Jo invites her back to hers and Pete's but regrets it when she sees the old couple together. Jenny realises they need space, so moves into Adam's. Karen lets slip to Ramona about Jo and Lee. Ramona angrily punches Jo, and Pete realises his fledgling marriage is over. The friends scatter Rachel's ashes in Portmeirion and, back in Manchester, each go their separate ways; David chooses to spend his future with Robyn, Karen and Ramona plan a long holiday, Jenny moves back in with Pete, Jo returns to Australia, and Adam leaves Manchester to be with his father. | |||||
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