What on earth will we do on Monday nights now that Cold Feet has ended? At least we have Sarah Jessica Parker in Divorce to look forward to. But High50 implores television drama commissioning editors to find the next Mike Bullen or just get on their knees and beg him to write more.
‘Who wants to be 50? I’m 49,’ shouted James Nesbitt’s character in the final episode of the series on Monday night. He’d made so much fuss about his birthday that everyone assumed he must be celebrating – or deploring – the start of a new decade.
All the main friends in Cold Feet are facing their fifties rather than experiencing them but we have already applauded the show’s creators for a series that has addressed all the issues our generation is facing on a daily basis.
The series has had its weak moments – we didn’t like the descent into slapstick as Art Malik grappled with Robert Bathurst to compete for Hermione Norris’s hand in marriage. And we felt a little upset that James Nesbitt could so nonchalently and swiftly put his lovely new young wife behind him and redirect his passion at his neighbour across the hall. And we’re certainly not convinced that life’s as easy as Hermione Norris is finding it: her kitchen is just too gorgeous and too big for a start, then there’s her beautiful young lover who’s also her business partner on top of the billionaire who’s buying her diamonds and trying to marry her. We certainly don’t recognise her effortless transition from redundant employee to successful publishing entrepreneur, able to clinch a deal with the first big author who comes along and in a position to employ her best friend.
Niggles aside, we have loved the daily dramas the characters have dealt with that so profoundly resonate with our generation:
- Can you really find love again after the death of a spouse?
- How do you know if your son or daughter is gay and do you mind?
- How do you cope with your child taking drugs?
- When do you tell your child that you’re not his or her real Dad?
- Do you put your child before your new relationship?
- How does depression affect your life?
- What’s the impact of impotence on a relationship?
- How do you deal with the loss of self-esteem when the job goes?
- Are we all drinking too much?
And on a lighter note, we loved:
- The mindfulness classes
- The 13-year-old girl’s appalling performance in her school talent contest applauded with gusto by her embarrassed but adoring parents
- The way father and son have negotiated each other’s needs
- The exquisite chilly bitchiness of Robert Bathurst’s soon-to-be ex-wife
We like costume drama and stories about lonely, tortured detectives but we’re crying out for more drama of this substance and relevance.
Readers: please tell us what you like and why. Now someone is bothering about what people our age might want to watch on television, we’re not going to let this drop.
