Review of Cold Feet: The Complete Fourth Series

Introduction

It`s time for another DVD and at long last it`s series 4 of Granada`s award winning series, Cold Feet. Another event filled eight episodes which brings us bang up-to-date with the current series.

Quick recap: Adam and Rachel got married, Pete and Jenny are reconciling, and David and Karen are now sleeping in separate bedrooms. Bring on series 4...

Episode Summary:

• Episode 1: Jenny (Fay Ripley) might be pregnant, Adam (James Nesbitt) get`s involved with coaching a kids football team and Rachel (Helen Baxendale) decides to get into amateur dramatics. Jenny has a new job too, which takes her and Pete (John Thomson) to Rome for the weekend. David (Robert Bathurst) is desperate to make things work again with his wife, Karen (Hermione Norris) and tries to be `the man she wants him to be`, but so far in vain. Karen`s made a new friend, Jo, and they go out and have a lot of fun...

• Episode 2: Adam and Rachel think about child adoption, Pete is getting a bit frustrated with Jenny`s hard work ethic and David decides that therapy might help him in his quest to get back with Karen. Arguments continue to ensue at David and Karen`s, so much so that their nanny decides to quit and work for the neighbours. Adam`s old flame from Ireland, Jane (Victoria Smurfit), lands herself a job in Manchester and bumps into Adam and Rachel. The chemistry is still there and affects Adam`s behaviour everytime she`s around...Jane is now getting chummy with Rachel and Karen is drinking more and more. Jenny`s skill is rewarded with the offer of a promotion and relocation to New York. How will Pete take it?

• Episode 3: No sign on Jenny since she`s moved to New York. Pete is consoling himself by going on the pull, and David has been chucked out by his wife Karen and is now staying with Pete. Adam and Rachel are going through the adoption papers but it`s a tough process, not just the paperwork, but resolving issues amongst themselves about the potential child and the impact on their lives. Adam meets and talks things over with Jane and her real feelings come out. Adam becomes paranoid and lets something slip about his stag do and Rachel isn`t pleased. Karen is on a downward drinking spiral and gets herself into a grave trouble.

• Episode 4: It`s six weeks since Jenny left for New York and Pete`s mother comes to stay for while, to help her son aclimbatise to divorce. The situation between Karen and David is affecting their son`s performance at school and they try to address the issue. Adam and Rachel are progressing through the adoption process and have been approved so they move to the next step.

• Episode 5: David moves back in with Karen and they`re taking things one step at a time. So Pete now has his house all to himself, until Jo (Kimberley Joseph) needs a place to stay. She`s gorgeous and doesn`t Pete know it. Karen meets a publisher at some boring party and gets involved in his book, and Pete and David are on a fitness drive. They have a personal trainer, Jo. I wonder why Pete`s keen on shaping up...? Lastly, there`s some bad news about Adam and Rachel`s adoption.

• Episode 6: It`s Karen`s birthday and David is not without a bit of romance...Rachel goes to New york and Pete buys a sporty little MGB convertible in the hopes that it makes him a little more popular with the ladies. Jo (Pete`s flatmate whom he fancies) has found a new training partner, Suggs, which bugs Pete. Karen`s publisher, Mark, offers her the assignment of editing his wifes` book which doesn`t prove easy. Pete is smitten with Jo and is interested to find out more about her, so he asks her for dating advice. Adam `borrows` Pete`s MGB and pulls...Jo dumps Suggs and Karen has an admirer...

• Episode 7: Pete starts dating Jo, Rachel is back from New York, Karen get`s a fulltime job working for publisher Mark, and David is under pressure to make recommendations for job redundancies. Pete can`t get to second base with Jo as he feels very body conscious (he`s a bit overweight is out Pete) and Jo`s work visa runs out so she packs to return to Australia. Will Pete tell Jo the truth about how he feels before she leaves?

• Episode 8: The final extended show and we head down under. Pete pursues Jo and tells her he`s in love with her and she proposes marriage. They`ve only dated for a month, are they getting married for the right reasons? The weather is lovely, Rachel meets her lesbian sister, Lucy, and Pete meets Jo`s father who isn`t pleased about the marriage. David and Karen are seduced by the Sydney skyline and David puts his feelers out about working in Australia, but Mark has flown half way around the planet to see and woo Karen away. Things invariably don`t work out as planned...

Video

Presented with a 1.78:1 anamorphic video transfer, Cold Feet positively shines with vibrancy. Colours, contrast and balance are very good. There is minimal grain but it doesn`t impact on the image and the transfer remains detailed without any digital artefacts cropping up. It looks very, very good.

Audio

Just plain old Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded Dolby Surround. Cold Feet is pretty much dialogue driven, so the dialogue can be heard clearly from the front and sounds quite clear. Subtle if little use of the surrounds though.

Features

Nice looking menus with subtle animations going on in the background give us Play All, Episode Selection and a single extra.

Disc one:
• Cold Feet Backstage (27 mins) - This is a good extra covering what else, but backstage elements behind the series. The cast and crew talk on camera and we see rehearsals and other stuff. I found it interesting, but as with all interesting things, it`s a bit on the short side.

There is the official Cold Feet website at http://www.coldfeetonline.co.uk/, but for some reason it`s not up. Perhaps it`s a seasonal thing...but it`s a poor showing anyway. Better to go to http://www.itv.com/coldfeet/. Oops, it gets redirected to the official website...

Conclusion

There are some serious storylines here and not the usual adult transgressions that make regular occurances either. There`s alcoholism and child adoption to name but two and I thought these were handled sensitively. Admittedly Cold Feet isn`t deep when it comes to dealing with these issues in a serious way so this is one of my niggles. Issues like Karen`s alcoholism isn`t tackled to resolution in any detail. Hermione playing Karen is very good, and I would have liked to see her pushed more as an actor with more meaty storylines. When she breaks up with her husband David (Robert Bathurst), you can feel the emotional charge. So much so that I really couldn`t look away. Talk about attention holding. The quality of Mike Bullen`s writing here is very good and the camera`s direction keeps pace with what`s happening.

Just watching the cast grow and change over the course of the series is interesting but could be better. I`m reminded that I am watching television fiction, albeit very good fiction, so what the future holds is anyone`s guess. The departure of Fay Ripley was a bit disappointing but there are new characters. One is Kimberley Joseph as Jo and there`s more prominance to the Spanish nanny, Ramona (Jacey Salles). Sad to see Fay leave since she was my Mancunian voice coach...

So, that`s the end of my Cold Feet session. Four years worth, 24 hours and 40 minutes, of marriage, divorce, child adoption, alcoholism, adultery, fantasy, child birth, sex, golf...it`s absolutely chock full of so many events that looking back now seems almost surreal. While the episode summaries here give you an idea of what takes place, there are literally tons of other things that happen that I couldn`t possibly include without ruining it. It`s been interesting to see how the stories and characters have progressed over time and the writing has improved too. It started out as good and just matured. A lot of comedy, drama, combustible situations, moving moments and just plain feel good scenes too. Where else would there be an emotionally charged scene one second, and then a total belly stitching laugh the next?

I missed the programme all those years ago but I`m glad I`ve seen it now. Cold Feet series 4 is the best so far, but that`s not to dismiss the previous series as these are all worthy of attention. I can wait for series 5, just about. Recommended.