Channel 7 confirms hit UK TV show will return — with it’s northern beaches writer at helm

HIT British TV show Cold Feet is returning to Australian TV thirteen years after the series ended. Sydney-based creator, Mike Bullen, is back in charge.

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BRITISH TV favourite Cold Feet is returning to Australian screens after the first episode was a hit in the UK — with its northern beaches-based creator at the helm.

Reviews of the first episode in the UK this week dubbed it “triumphant”, and Channel 7 confirmed it’s bringing it to Australia.

It’ll screen from next month.

John Thomson, James Nesbitt, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and David Marsden in the new series of Cold Feet. Picture: Supplied

Cast from the much-loved TV series Cold Feet.

Creator Mike Bullen moved to Newport after the series ended thirteen years ago- and told the Manly Daily he penned some of the new series in his writing room there.

But after writing a novel and working on other projects he answered the call to return to his biggest hit, which ran from 1997-2003.

Mr Bullen said the return had been planned for years, but it was never the right time to revisit the lives of the six main characters — minus Rachel, played by Helen Baxendale, who was tragically killed in a car crash in the final episode.

Mike Bullen, the northern beaches-based writer of Cold Feet, and new novel, Trust

He said it took him three attempts writing the script to get it right for returning actors John Thomson, James Nesbitt, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst.

“We’d held conversations about it a couple of times over the years. But the characters were then of an age where they were basically bringing up children and I didn’t think that was a particularly interesting time of life to explore,” he said.

“But now our characters are a bit older and are actually looking beyond their children.

“They are on the cusp of a change.”

The cast of Cold Feet in 2002.

Mr Bullen is currently in the UK promoting the show, and said Baxendale had been asked if she wanted to return — but declined.

“She was very sweet about the script but she said, no, it wasn’t for her,” he said.

Bullen lives with his wife and two teenage daughters on the northern beaches.

He said: “I’ve been home briefly to see the family and have seen them for around six weeks in the past nine months because my life has been Cold Feet again.”

As reported in the Manly Daily, he was running to watch a British rugby game and fell over a bollard in the street during the filming and broke his wrist.

“The producer said ‘are you all right? Which arm is it?’ In fact I think she asked that first.” he said.

Bullen’s also just written his first novel, Trust.