Where Cold Feet cast are now from Hollywood movies to shocking revival demands

Daily Mirror

15-05-2025

Cold Feet became a cult show in the '90s and was so popular it made a return in 2016, but with the series now on a 'prolonged hiatus' the cast strayed onto very different paths
TV shows have often struggled to get across the reality of relationships on screen, but one show that managed to show the ups and downs was Cold Feet. The original series ran from 1997 to 2003, and was equally likely to make you cry as it was to make you laugh as it followed three realistic couples in Manchester.
Revolving around couples Adam and Rachel (James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale), Pete and Jenny (John Thomson and Fay Ripley), and David and Karen (Robert Bathurst and Hermione Norris), the ITV show was an instant hit. Alongside providing laughs, Cold Feet was also known for tackling hard-hitting storylines including fertility issues, illness, and financial woes - and went even further by killing off main character Rachel in a car crash.
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Considering its popularity, Cold Feet came back for a revival in 2016, with all the main stars returning apart from Helen. Like the cast, the characters all had very different lives compared to the original, with teen kids and career changes alongside new partners. Ending in 2020, the show is now on a 'prolonged hiatus' with no confirmation about whether it will return or not. That doesn't mean that the stars of the show haven't been busy with other projects, with some having launched incredible careers after Cold Feet set them on the path to fame..
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James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt's first major TV role was playing the charming Adam Williams in Cold Feet. The serial womaniser settled down with Rachel while still having an eye for his next-door neighbour, but became a single dad to their son Matthew when Rachel was tragically killed. At the start of the revived series we saw Adam marrying a woman he met in Singapore but the relationship fell apart and he eventually started a romance with his late partner's best friend Karen.
Nesbitt won the British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actor in 2000 and NTA for Most Popular Comedy Performance in 2003 for his role. Thanks to his success, the Northern Irish actor continued getting TV roles in shows such as Murphy's Law, Jekyll and TV movie Bloody Sunday.
Away from TV he also became a movie star, appearing in Danny Boyle drama Millions in 2004 and a small role in Woody Allen's thriller Match Point in 2005. Then, in 2012, Nesbitt really hit the big time when he was cast as the Bofur the dwarf in all the three of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit films.
He is also well known for his appearances in Sky's Premier League coverage TV adverts and plenty of crime show hits. He's recently starred in Stan Lee's Lucky Man, BBC dramas The Missing and Bloodlands, Line of Duty, and this year's Netflix hit Missing You.
Nesbitt has also opened up about working on his looks to stay Hollywood-ready after noticing that his hairline was receding. In 2019, he admitted: "I began losing hair several years ago. I felt it could affect my career." That February it was reported that the actor was having his sixth £20,000 hair transplant, and he has openly discussed how he believes it has "probably helped" his ability to get leading roles.
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Fay Ripley
Ripley's character Jenny Gifford spent most of Cold Feet being on and off with husband Pete. The ballsy character threw Pete out after discovering his affair, let him back, separated again, started dating a millionaire, got back together, then divorced when she went off to America. Jenny came back for Rachel's funeral, moved back in with Pete and they actually stuck together this time, with Pete being her rock through her cancer ordeal.
Ripley left the show to take more varied roles and spend more time with her family, telling writers to either kill Jenny off or have her lose a limb. Luckily they decided to send her character to New York so she could return for a guest appearance in the final episode of the original seasons and then come back for the revived series.
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Fay went on to play a murderer in BBC drama Green-Eyed Monster and was also in Fungus The Bogeyman, Hustle, New Tricks, Reggie Perrin and Moving On. She has also fronted her own ground-breaking drama series Suspects on Channel 5, appeared in comedy The Delivery Man and been a guest host on The One Show. Most recently, she bagged a role in the Channel 4 drama Finders Keepers.
John Thompson
Pete Gifford was Adam's childhood friend and Jenny's husband, whom he cheated on in series two with colleague Amy. When Jenny left for America with their son Adam he got into a relationship with Jo and they got married, but it was doomed. In the revived series, we saw Pete struggling with crippling depression while struggling to hold down multiple jobs.
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Before Cold Feet, John Thompson was best known for his comedy turns in sketch hit The Fast Show, particularly as a black polo-necked jazz expert. After five years as Pete, John spent some time on stage and appeared in various one-off dramas as well as New Street Law and the third series of ITV show Kingdom.
The Mancunian actor returned to high-profile telly with a role in Coronation Street as struggling children's entertainer Jesse Chadwick. After his stint in Corrie he moved onto Waterloo Road, and has also been in The Keith Lemon Sketch Show, Casualty and Trollied. He changed things up when he was unmasked as Bush Baby in the second series of singing contest The Masked Singer, before getting back to acting with roles in Father Brown and Silent Witness.
Hermione Norris
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Karen Marsden was the well-to-do and very middle-class mum who had a successful career as a publishing editor. Karen's husband David sadly became an alcoholic and had an affair - with her also cheating in return. The couple got divorced but remained friends while bringing up their son and twin girls, but there were tensions in the later series when Karen got into a relationship with David's pal Adam.
After Cold Feet, Norris went on to become the queen of TV dramas, starring in Robson Green police thriller Wire In The Blood. She then moved over to the BBC to star as super spy Ros Myers in Spooks, Kingdom, Outcasts, In the Club and Doctor Who.
She also delighted fans by reuniting with her Cold Feet co-star Robert Bathurst in Sky One's Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, and also appeared in series five of Luther. She went on to star in Doc Martin and Riches, and joined Thompson with a 2024 feature in Silent Witness.
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Robert Bathurst
Bumbling David Marsden had a high-paying management consultant job but his life was turned upside down when he got made redundant in series two. David went on to have an affair, with wife Karen then cheating on him afterwards. They soon divorced and he got into a relationship with his solicitor Robyn, but that also ended.
Before Cold Feet, actor Robert Bathurst has been a theatre star and appeared in Red Dwarf, The Lenny Henry Show and Joking Apart. He joined the cast of the popular children's sitcom My Dad's The Prime Minister, playing a bedraggled PM, then had a role in Kingdom, alongside former Feet co-stars Hermione Norris and John Thompson.
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Bathurst's television career went from strength to strength with roles in The Pillars of the Earth, Wild at Heart and Downton Abbey. More recently he appeared in Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie, Sky One's adaptation of best-selling novel Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death alongside fellow Cold Feet star Hermione Norris and Channel 4 comedy Toast of London. He reunited with Matt Berry for the spin-off Toast of Tinseltown, and has most recently appeared in Casualty.
Helen Baxendale
Baxendale played Rachel Bradley, who shocked boyfriend Adam when she admitted that she was already married. She got a divorce but slept with her ex and had an abortion which caused her to become infertile, but she married Adam and they had a miracle baby together. The infertility plot was rewritten because actress Helen Baxendale was pregnant in real life while filming series four.
Rachel tragically died in a car crash in series five, which obviously meant Helen couldn't come back for the revived series aside from a guest appearance in series eight.
The acclaimed actress, who shot to fame in series Cardiac Arrest, is best known for playing Ross Geller's demanding wife in Friends. She only appeared in 14 episodes but her character dated, married then divorced Ross, and her appearance made Baxendale well-known on the other side of the pond. Since then Helen has appeared in Cuckoo and Kidnap and Ransom, Poirot and Noughts + Crosses.