This Life (1996 TV series): Difference between revisions

This Life
This is the main title caption that was seen throughout the series.
Created by	Amy Jenkins
Starring	Jack Davenport Daniela Nardini Andrew Lincoln Amita Dhiri Jason Hughes Ramon Tikaram Luisa Bradshaw-White Steve John Shepherd Natasha Little Cyril Nri
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	32
Production
Running time	50 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC Two
Release	1996 – 1997

This Life was a BBC television drama, produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two, running for two series in 1996 and 1997.

Production

The series was created by Amy Jenkins and centres on the life of five twentysomething law graduates attempting to make lives and careers while sharing a house in South London, England. Other writers who contributed scripts to the series included Joe Ahearne (who also directed some episodes — the only person to do both on the series), Amelia Bullmore and Matthew Graham. Tony Marchant was the executive producer and Jane Fallon worked as a producer on both series.

When the first series was screened it was a modest critical success, developing a small "cult following", rather than being a massive ratings hit. Nevertheless, the original production agreement secured a second series. In the lead-up to the broadcast of the second series, the entire first series was repeated, helping to generate a critical buzz around the programme, to the point that millions of viewers were waiting to discover the ultimate resolutions to the various plot-lines, generating front-page newspaper coverage.

The series ended with a close-up of an advert for the house, and the original intention was to re-cast with new characters. The controversial stage writer Mark Ravenhill was involved in drafting story-lines and early scripts for a third series, but the plans were aborted, and the decision was taken to end the programme "on a high".

2007 Revival

In 2006, the BBC reconvened the original cast for a special one-off 90-minute follow-up, looking at what had happened to the lead characters in the intervening ten years. The resulting new episode of This Life, titled "Ten Years On", is due to be screened on 2 January 2007, and will be a co-production between BBC Wales and the original producers World Productions. "Ten Years On" is written by Jenkins, directed by Ahearne and produced by Garnett.

Synopsis

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This Life was heavily based around life in a London law firm and a barristers' chambers for a group of twentysomething recent law graduates, but essentially it was a character-driven drama. Egg and Milly's relationship from their university-days survived their graduation but career choices created tension between the two. Milly was an ambitious high-flyer, contemplating an affair with her older boss, whereas Egg dropped out of his law-career early on in the first series. Meanwhile, Anna and Miles had a distinctly love/hate relationship which caused conflict at work (where they shared an office and often had to compete for cases) and at home. The latter was worsened by Miles' decision in the first series to invite his girlfriend, the drug addicted, manipulative Delilah (Charlotte Bicknell), to unofficially move into the house. This resulted in something of a schism in the house (including the infamous incident of eating Warren's muesli yogurt). Anna took a distinct dislike to Delilah.

Warren, as an "out" gay man, spent a lot of time dealing with issues around his sexuality (particularly in relation to "coming out" to colleagues and family). In a unique (at the time) plot device, he was seen relating his inner feelings to a therapist (Gillian McCutcheon) who was heard but never seen by the viewer.

During the second season, storylines were expanded to include other connected characters. These included Ferdy (Ramon Tikaram) and Rachel (Natasha Little), whilst previously secondary-characters Jo (Steve John Shepherd) and Kira (Luisa Bradshaw-White) were featured more heavily as they embarked upon a relationship. Ferdy was a largely improvised, complex (and sometimes unwilling) bi-sexual character and was seen as a replacement for Warren when Jason Hughes decided to leave the show (he did return for one quick line in the final scene). Rachel was involved in a long-running passive-aggressive feud with Milly, although on the surface the pair were able to work together without mention of their mutual dislike. Milly's dislike of Rachel was very strong, viewing her as a threat to her relationship with O'Donnell, and disliking her apparently perfect demeanour. Milly confided in Anna that she found Rachel almost suffocatingly "nice". The tension between the two went unresolved throughout the second series, culminating in the final scene, in the episode "Apocalypse Wow!", in which Rachel is floored by a swinging punch from Milly after Milly learns that Rachel has told Egg about her affair with her boss O'Donnell. Template:Future Template:Spoiler The 2006 reunion episode will begin with Ferdy's funeral, at which Miles, Egg, Milly, Anna and Warren are in attendance. Following the funeral, the group are filmed by a documentary crew who want to report on the inspirations for Egg's first book (a fictionalised account of life in Benjamin Street).

The latest information released indicates that Miles has given up the law in favour of owning a chain of hotels called Hobotel, which he is expanding into the Far East at the time of the one-off. He now lives in Whithurst Park, a huge house in Sussex, and lives there with his second wife Me Linh, he and Francesca having divorced after only a few months.

Warren is a life coach, but not much else is yet known about what has happened to him.

Anna is still a barrister, and a high-flyer, and has resolved her excessive drinking and drug habits but is starting to feel the biological clock ticking, to her surprise and dismay. She is considering visiting a sperm bank.

Milly and Egg's relationship survived her affair with O'Donnell, and they now have a three-year-old son called Oscar, with Milly as a full-time mother and Egg as a successful writer. Milly is not entirely happy with the sacrifice of her career for motherhood, and neither is Anna at the idea. Template:Endspoiler

Trivia

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles.

• A then largely unknown Ricky Gervais, partner of producer Jane Fallon, was credited as "Music Advisor" for the series.
• Fellow Office star Martin Freeman appeared early in the second series, pictured stealing money from Milly and Egg's bedroom after a party, and drinking something else of Egg's from a can.
• Jane Fallon went on to become Executive Producer on the Channel 4 series Teachers which also starred Andrew Lincoln.
• Joe Ahearne later went on to direct episodes of the first series of the revived Doctor Who, starring Christopher Eccleston, in 2005. Fellow This Life writer Matthew Graham wrote an episode of Doctor Who in 2006.
• The opening scenes show the house as being on Benjamin Street, which is in London EC1 near Farringdon. However the building is actually Anchor Terrace, a terraced house on Southwark Bridge Road near the Financial Times office building. The house has since been converted into flats. As the characters are often seen commuting from South London it is unclear why they shot the Benjamin Street sign.
• The law firm's offices were filmed on High Holborn near the junction with Chancery Lane.
• The barrister's chambers external shots were filmed outside Verulam Buildings on Gray's Inn Road, part of Gray's Inn.
• The café that Egg works in is on Victoria Road in North Acton next to the Tube station.
• In 2001, NBC Television broadcast a loosely adapted U.S. remake titled "First Years". It attracted scathing reviews and low ratings, and vanished quickly.

DVD release

The complete This Life is available on DVD (region 2) from BBC Worldwide, as a box set and as two individual series volumes.

Cast

Lead Cast

• Miles Stewart Jack Davenport
• Jamilla "Milly" Nasim Amita Dhiri
• Egg (Edgar Cooke) Andrew Lincoln
• Anna Forbes Daniela Nardini
• Warren Jones Jason Hughes
• Ferdy (Ferdinand Garcia) Ramon Tikaram
• Mr O'Donnell David Mallinson

Location notes

• The opening scenes show the house as being on Benjamin Street, which is in London EC1 near Farringdon. However the building is actually Anchor Terrace, a terraced house on Southwark Bridge Road near the Financial Times office building. The house has since been converted into flats. As the characters are often seen commuting from South London it is unclear why they shot the Benjamin Street sign.
• The law firm's offices were filmed on High Holborn near the junction with Chancery Lane.
• The barrister's chambers external shots were filmed outside Verulam Buildings on Gray's Inn Road, part of Gray's Inn.
• The café that Egg works in is on Victoria Road in North Acton next to the Tube station.

See also

• List of This Life episodes

External links

• This Life episode guide
• This Life homepage
• This Life at IMDb
• The Custard tv detailed episode guide