Cold Feet: Hit drama series following group of thirtysomethings to return to ITV after 12 years

Cold Feet is being ear-marked for the vacant Sunday night 9pm slot when it airs next year

The cast of Cold Feet: Back Row - John Thomson, James Nesbitt, Helen Baxendale. Front Row - Hermione Norris, Robert Bathurst and Fay Ripley (Rex Features)

Cold Feet, the hit drama series which followed the romantic entanglements of a group of middle-class thirtysomethings, is to return after twelve years.

ITV confirmed that original cast members including James Nesbitt, Hermione Norris and Fay Ripley, have agreed to revisit their characters, now combating the disappointments of middle age, in a revival of the award-winning series which regularly attracted audiences of eight million viewers.

With Downton Abbey having closed its doors, leaving ITV with a gap for an advertiser-pleasing, mass-appeal drama, the new Cold Feet is being ear-marked for the vacant Sunday night 9pm slot, when it airs next year.

Launched in 1998 and designed to attract a generation of viewers then under-represented on television, Cold Feet incorporated elements of comedy and fantasy to tell the story of three aspiring Manchester couples as they negotiated parenthood, infidelity and family traumas.

Winning 20 awards across its six year-run, and an international following, the series was praised for its realistic portrayal of issues including infertility and testicular cancer in a mainstream drama.

Mike Bullen, series creator, has penned eight new episodes, picking up the story following the death in a car crash of advertising executive Rachel, played by Helen Baxendale.

An ITV synopsis for the revival said: “When we saw them last, our heroes were on the cusp of change, growing up and settling down. They’d hoped that by the time they were approaching 50, life would be simpler. Well, now they’re there, to discover that it isn’t.

“The issues they face are different but just as challenging. They still have many years to live, but can’t escape the niggling fear that their futures are behind them.”

Mike Bullen said: “This feels like the right time to revisit these characters, as they tip-toe through the minefield of middle age. They’re 50, but still feel 30, apart from on the morning after the night before, when they really feel their age. They’ve still got lots of life to look forward to, though they’re not necessarily the years one looks forward to!”

The series will be directed by Terry McDonough, who has brought episodes of the Netflix dramas Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad to the screen after beginning his career on ITV dramas in the 90s.

Cold Feet will help fill the financial gap left by Downton Abbey. It is being made by the ITV Studios owned independent producer Big Talk, and will be sold by ITV to international broadcasters.

ITV is about to unveil a big-budget, epic take on the Beowulf legend, which aims to tap into the market for fantasy adventure stories created by Game of Thrones and is also expected to have global appeal.

The broadcaster also announced a controversial “domestic horror” drama serial written by Paula Milne, author of The Politician’s Husband. Called HIM, it is the story of a 17 year-old boy, who is caught up in bitter divorce and learns that he has inherited destructive supernatural powers. Those powers escalate out of control when the boy discovers a “mutual attraction” to his step-sister.

ITV, which has poached talent show The Voice from the BBC as insurance should The X Factor’s ratings decline prove irreversible, announced a raft of a new dramas at a West End gala evening, attended by its star names, celebrating the broadcaster’s 60th birthday.

The Crown returns to India

Thirty years after Jewel In The Crown, ITV is returning to India for a new drama series. A contemporary story, The Good Karma Hospital, is set in the “tropical paradise of Goa” and follows a team of British and Indian medics as they cope with “work, life and love at an over-worked and under-resourced cottage hospital.”

The institution is run by a “gloriously eccentric Englishwoman who turns no one away” and the series promises to mix the “heartbreaking with the humorous.”

The feel-good drama, which promises to show off Goa’s stunning locations, will be welcomed by the resort, which once attracted almost 200,000 British holidaymakers each year but has suffered a tourism slump.