Pilot (30th March 1997)

Plot
Adam Williams wakes up in his girlfriend 's bed, unimpressed with how their relationship is going. Desperate for a baby, Jenny Gifford is conducting extensive research to find the ideal night for conception. Karen Marsden is fed up of her usual routine, caring for her infant son Josh whilst her husband David works long hours.

After work, Adam meets Jenny's husband Pete and the two head to the pub - leaving a frustrated Jenny at home waiting for Pete's arrival. Over a fancy meal, Simon Atkinson tells his girlfriend Rachel Bradley about his promotion to work in Hong Kong. Rachel is furious when he suggests they end their relationship instead of her moving with him. A drunken Pete returns home with Adam, much to the annoyance of Jenny who has made special effort to impress Pete. Karen asks David if they can get a nanny, but he's totally against the idea of someone else bringing up their son. Rachel telephones Karen from a phonebox to tell her that her relationship with Simon is over.

The next day, a hungover Adam bumps his car into Rachel's car, and the two swap numbers in case either of them need to contact their insurance companies. Without a pen, Rachel writes her number in the dirt on the rear windscreen of Adam's car, but just as he returns home it starts to rain and it disappears.

The following week, an eager Adam returns to the car park in hope of meeting Rachel again, but the two don't cross. At a dinner party, Karen urges Rachel to contact Adam to arrange a date. Adam is thrilled to hear from Rachel, but their date is disastrous. Despite this, the two continue to meet over the following weeks, but their relationship fails to progress.

One evening, Adam invites Rachel into his house after a date and the pair become "official". Jenny's pregnancy tests are proving unsuccessful. During a heartfelt conversation, Adam and Rachel admit they love each other, and Adam vows to one day serenade Rachel with a rose between his bum cheeks. Keen to introduce Adam to her friends, Rachel brings him to a gathering at Karen and David's house. Adam feels out of his depth amongst the Marsden's circle.

Pete attends a fertility clinic, worried that his sperm count could be why he and Jenny are struggling to conceive. Adam is annoyed that Rachel has organised his clothes in her flat, and walks out on her. Rachel is surprised to open the door to her flat and find Simon confessing his love for her. Rachel struggles to decide who she wants to be with.

Jenny encourages Adam to go after Rachel before he loses her forever. Karen is locked out of her house and walks into town with Josh to find David. Adam rushes to Simon's house, and causes trouble with his neighbours. Karen refuses to leave David's office until he agrees to employ a nanny. Remembering Simon was a karate pro, Jenny and Pete follow Adam to Broadhurst Road, discovering him serenading Rachel in the nude, with a rose between his bum cheeks. A police sergeant arrives and orders Adam and Simon to stop the commotion. Rachel decides to stay with Adam. Jenny declares "white smoke at the Vatican" - she's pregnant with Pete's baby.

Regular cast

 * Adam Williams - James Nesbitt
 * Rachel Bradley - Helen Baxendale
 * Pete Gifford - John Thomson
 * Jenny Gifford - Fay Ripley
 * David Marsden - Robert Bathurst
 * Karen Marsden - Hermione Norris
 * Josh Marsden - Uncredited

Guest cast

 * Simon Atkinson - Stephen Mapes
 * Pru - Kathryn Hunt
 * Andrew - John Griffin
 * Howard - Mark Andrews
 * Waiter - Mark Crowshaw
 * Actor - Mike Bullen
 * Evangelist - Lewis Hancock
 * Old Lady - Pauline Jefferson
 * Neighbour - Jeremy Turner-Welch
 * Police Sergeant - David Harewood

Crew

 * Production Supervisor - David Meddick
 * Continuity - Dorothy Friend
 * 1st Assistant Director - Ian Galley
 * 2nd Assistant Director - Andy Darbyshire
 * Focus Puller - Darren Miller
 * Clapper Loader - James Hicks
 * Camera Grip - Mark Bell
 * Sound Recordist - Chris Atkinson
 * Boom Operator - Tony Cooper
 * Dubbing Editors - John Crumpton and John Rutherford
 * Dubbing Mixer - John Whitworth
 * Gaffer - Chris Jones
 * Chargehand - Tommy Lyons
 * Action Props - Lynne Benelick
 * Art Director - Chris Coldwell
 * Production Buyer - Roger Fiske
 * Graphic Designer - Susan Child
 * Costume Designer - Diana Moseley
 * Wardrobe Supervisor - Arabella White
 * Make-Supervisor - Liz McClusky
 * Production Co-ordinator - Lynnette Carroll
 * Production Secretary - Sue Calverley
 * Casting Director - Kate Rhodes James
 * Casting Assistant - June West
 * Music by - The Other Two
 * Film Editor - David Gamble
 * Director of Photography - Dougie Hallows
 * Production Designer - Claire Kenny
 * Executive Producer - Andy Harries
 * Publicist - Ian Johnson (Uncredited)

Places

 * Adam's girlfriend's house - Bedroom and hallway
 * 30 Hays Street - Kitchen, dining room, Pete and Jenny's bedroom, back garden and bathroom
 * David and Karen's house - Downstairs rooms, Josh's nursery and front garden
 * Simon Atkinson's house, Broadhurst Road - Bedroom, living room, hallway, front garden and street outside
 * St. Peter's Square, Manchester
 * Pub
 * Restaurant
 * Tesco - Store and carpark
 * Adam's flat - Landing, bathroom, street outside and bedroom
 * Adam's office
 * Merchant's Bridge, Castlefield, Manchester
 * Street outside fertility clinic
 * Rachel's flat - Bedroom and kitchen
 * Rachel's office
 * Mancunian Way
 * Street in Manchester City Centre

Fantasy sequences

 * Adam and Rachel both reimagine one another dressed in angelic white clothing.
 * Adam tells Pete he punched David after leaving the party.

Production

 * The idea for the pilot episode was sprung following Mike Bullen's script for The Perfect Match, a film produced by Granada Television in 1995. Granada's controller of comedy Andy Harries was pleased with the finished product and was eager to develop a television series for middle-class thirty-somethings.
 * Initial ideas were influenced by the American television series Thirtysomething and the film When Harry Met Sally, plus conversations between Mike Bullen and producer Christine Langan, who discussed their own lives and friends, using personal experiences to create the characters: Adam was based on Bullen before he met his wife and Rachel was based on a combination of his ex-girlfriends and "the fantasy girlfriend".
 * The fantasy scenes were devised to be a more creative way of showing the two different perspectives of Adam and Rachel's relationship.
 * Adam and Rachel were originally Londoners living in Chelsea. Christine Langan proposed moving the setting to Manchester to keep production costs down by using Granada's existing studios based in the city. Another requirement was the number of potential storylines; Adam and Rachel's plot was self-contained. Andy Harries told Mike Bullen to expand the four supporting characters' roles, so he "tacked on" their storylines. The script went through up to seven drafts before being filmed.
 * Filming was scheduled over a 12-day period on Granada's sets and on location around Manchester in 1996, following a week of rehearsals, and was shot entirely on film stock.
 * Use of 30 Kingston Road, Didsbury is extensive across this episode. One of the bedrooms, hallway and front door double as Adam's girlfriend's house. The kitchen, dining room, back garden, bathroom and another bedroom are then used to portray Pete and Jenny's house (and the exterior would continue to feature across the rest of the nine series). Another bathroom and bedroom and the upper floor landing double as Adam's flat.
 * Location scenes in Manchester include St. Peter's Square, and the Merchant's Bridge.
 * Simon Atkinson's house on the fictional Broadhurst Road is actually Lombard Grove in the Fallowfield area of Manchester.
 * The song "Female of the Species" by Space was used throughout the programme; the instrumental version plays over the opening credits and the full lyrical version is heard during a first-act montage.
 * The rest of the incidental music and the main end credits theme was composed by The Other Two.
 * Adam's song was originally scripted to be Nilsson's "Without You" but the rights to the song were too expensive. The song was substituted with "I've Got You Under My Skin".
 * Josh Marsden appears but the baby playing him is uncredited.
 * Cold Feet creator Mike Bullen guest stars as an Actor in the theatre show Adam takes Rachel to see on one of their dates.

Transmission

 * Following post-production, the programme was shelved by ITV until 1997, when it was placed on the Easter weekend schedule as part of the network's Comedy Premieres programming strand.
 * The broadcast went head-to-head with launch night of Channel 5, Britain's last terrestrial television channel, and the second part of the BBC1 drama The Missing Postman. Also broadcast that evening was ITV's coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix. The race was restarted due to an accident and threw the schedules into disarray. Broadcast of Cold Feet eventually began 40 minutes later than originally advertised and the overnight ratings reflected this; it recorded viewing figures of just 3.5 million. Andy Harries wrote the pilot off as a failure, telling Christine Langan that they would never get a series.
 * Due to the success of the programme at the Montreux Television Festival, a full series was ordered and storylines were outlined by the end of May 1997.
 * This episode of Cold Feet won the Best Comedy Drama award internally at ITV, and at the Royal Television Society Programme Awards, it was nominated for Best Situation Comedy & Comedy Drama. Helen Baxendale was nominated for the British Comedy Award for Top Television Comedy Actress but lost to Dawn French. At the RTS North West Awards, Cold Feet won the award for Best Network Entertainment Programme.

Repeats

 * Following success at the Montreux Television Festival at the end of April 1997, in which the programme won the Silver Rose d'Or, ITV scheduled a repeat of Cold Feet for 25 May at 9pm. The repeat brought in 5.60 million viewers.
 * The episode has been repeated frequently on ITV and ITV3 since first transmission.