This Life
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| This Life | |
|---|---|
 The main title caption that was seen throughout the series. |
|
| Genre | Drama |
| Creator(s) | Amy Jenkins |
| Starring | Amita Dhiri Jack Davenport Jason Hughes Andrew Lincoln Daniela Nardini Ramon Tikaram Luisa Bradshaw-White Steve John Shepherd Natasha Little Cyril Nri |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 33 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC Two |
| Original run | March 18, 1996 – August 7, 1997 January 2, 2007 |
| Links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
This Life was a BBC television drama, produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two, running for two series in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007.
Centring on the life of five twentysomething law graduates attempting to make lives and careers while sharing a house in south London, the series was created by Amy Jenkins.
Contents |
[edit] Original production
Created by Amy Jenkins, 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 Garnett 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.
[edit] Synopsis
This Life was heavily based around life in a London law firm and a barristers' set of chambers for a group of twentysomething recently qualified lawyers, 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 a room 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), unofficially to move into the house. This resulted in something of a schism in the house (including the infamous incident of eating Warren's muesli yoghurt). Anna took a distinct dislike to Delilah. When Miles, who hadn't used condoms with Delilah, discovered she was still sleeping with her heroin-injecting ex, he had a brief HIV scare.
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. Miles appeared to dislike Warren, and often made homophobic comments.
During the second season, storylines were expanded to include other connected characters. These included Ferdy (Ramon Tikaram), Rachel (Natasha Little) and Francesca, whilst previously secondary-characters Jo (Steve John Shepherd) and Warren's cousin Kira (Luisa Bradshaw-White) were featured more heavily as they embarked upon a relationship. Ferdy was a largely improvised, complex (and sometimes unwilling) bisexual character and was seen as a replacement for Warren when Jason Hughes decided to leave the show (he did return for the final scene). Finding a relationship with Anna impossible, Miles began a relationship with the beautiful Francesca, a woman nearly a decade older than him. Miles proposed to Francesca, but still harboured feelings for Anna.
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!". At Miles and Francesca's wedding reception, 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.
[edit] Post production
The second 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". Series one and two are available on DVD from BBC Worldwide, as a box set and as two individual series volumes.
In 2001, NBC Television broadcast a loosely adapted U.S. remake titled First Years. It attracted scathing reviews and low ratings, and vanished quickly.
The young production team behind This Life went on to further success:
- 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 write and direct the cult Channel 4 series Ultraviolet (1998) which also starred Jack Davenport. He also directed episodes of the first series of the revived Doctor Who, starring Christopher Eccleston, in 2005.
- Matthew Graham co-created the BBC One series Life on Mars (2006) and has written episodes of Hustle, Spooks and an episode of Doctor Who in 2006
[edit] This Life + 10
In 2006, the BBC reconvened the original cast for a special one-off 80-minute TV movie, looking at what had happened to the lead characters in the intervening ten years. The resulting new episode, entitled '+ 10' onscreen with the original title sequence used intact making the title of the programme simply 'This Life' as before and the title of the episode '+ 10' was screened on 2 January 2007, and was a co-production between BBC Wales and the original producers World Productions. This Life + 10 was written by Jenkins, directed by Ahearne and produced by Garnett. It gained 3.5 million viewers, with a 14% audience share.[1]
[edit] Synopsis
The 2007 reunion episode begins 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-maker who want to report on the inspirations for Egg's first book (a fictionalised account of life in Benjamin Street), in expectation of his soon-to-be-released second novel. She suggests that the group should stage a reunion which she will film.
Miles and Francesca divorced after only a few months. He has given up the law in favour of owning a succesful chain of hotels called Hobotel, which he is expanding into the Far East having been living in Hong Kong for several years. He now lives in Whithurst Park, a huge house in Sussex, with his Vietnamese second wife Me Linh.
Warren is a successful life coach, but has an unhappy life himself. Grieving for Ferdy, he has become an habitual user of herbal and new-age remedies, drugs and concoctions.
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 visits 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.
The group re-unite at Miles' country home, observed by the documentary film-maker. Me Linh inexplicably storms out soon after her husband's guests arrive. Tensions run high in the house as the former friends resolve their differences. Warren discovers that Miles always liked him, despite constantly having hurled abuse in his direction. Anna and Milly fight as each has what the other has missed out on (Milly has motherhood, whilst Anna has a career). Egg reveals he hasn't written a single word of his second book, and destroys the documentary tapes so he can enjoy a less-pressured life with his family and friends. Anna agrees to have a child with Warren, if he gives up dependency on supplements, which she flushes down the toilet. As the bailiffs move in, Miles admits that he is actually broke, and that is why Me Linh has left him. He sleeps with Anna one more time before departing to travel.
[edit] Production notes
[edit] 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)
- (Michael) O'Donnell† (David Mallinson)
- Kira (Luisa Bradshaw-White)
- Jo (Steve John Shepherd)
- Rachel (Natasha Little)
- Graham (Cyril Nri)
- Hooperman (Geoffrey Bateman)
†O'Donnell's first name is only mentioned on a couple of occasions.
[edit] Supporting cast
- The Office star Martin Freeman appeared early in the second series, pictured stealing money from Milly and Egg's bedroom after a party, and accidentally drinking Egg's urine from a can, believing it to be beer.
- Another later well-known actor appearing early in the second series is Martin Hancock, who went on to star in Coronation Street as Spider, followed by Holby City as Reg Lund.
[edit] Locations
- The opening scenes show the house as being on Benjamin Street, which is in EC1 near Farringdon. However the building is actually Anchor Terrace, a terraced house on Southwark Bridge Road. The house has since been converted into flats. As the characters are often seen commuting from South London it is unclear why the Benjamin Street sign was filmed.
- 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, and later runs, is on Victoria Road in North Acton next to the Tube station.
- The job centre Egg visits is on Borough High street, Southwark, London
- Miles' country house in the 2007 reunion is the same location used in 'Lewis' Series 1 episode 1 To Whom the Gods Would Destroy.
[edit] Other
- A then largely unknown Ricky Gervais, partner of producer Jane Fallon, was credited as "Music Advisor" for the series, and it was he who commissioned the theme tune, written by The Way Out [2]
