Reunited (TV pilot)

Last updated

Reunited
Reunited intertitle.png
Intertitle
Genre Comedy drama
Created by Mike Bullen
David Maher
David Taylor
Written byMike Bullen
Directed bySimon Delaney
Starring Zoë Tapper
Joseph Millson
Emma Stansfield
Ed Byrne
Navin Chowdhry
Jemima Rooper
Michelle Terry
Sarah-Jane Potts
Ella Choudhury
Yasmine Hulf
Composer Mark Russell
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes1
Production
Executive producersMike Bullen
Pete Thornton
ProducerRosemary McGowan
CinematographyGavin Finney
Running time60 minutes
Production companyBBC Productions
Original release
Network BBC One
Release30 June 2010 (2010-06-30)

Reunited is a British television pilot written by Mike Bullen and directed by Simon Delaney. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2010.

Contents

Plot

Eight years after sharing a flat together while students at university, six friends reunite. [1]

Production

Reunited is the first screenplay written by Mike Bullen for the BBC since his comedy drama Sunburn (1999–2000). The idea came to him after an Australian friend of his met up with a group of people with whom he had shared a house. [2] Although Bullen had emigrated to Australia in 2002, he returned to the UK for the five months Reunited was in production, as he had only faxed in the scripts for his last British series, All About George. [3] Reunited was filmed on location in London in March 2010. Some scenes were filmed at Sam's Bar & Brasserie in Chiswick, London. [4]

Ed Byrne's character was originally called "Ed" but was changed to "Rob" after Byrne was concerned that viewers would attribute "Ed"'s negative characteristics to him in real life. [5]

Reception

Reunited was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2010. Overnight ratings data gave an average of 3.3 million viewers, with a 15.3% audience share during its timeslot; it was beaten by a repeat of Midsomer Murders on ITV. [6]

The programme was selected as "Pick of the Day" in The Sunday Times , where critic John Dugdale wrote, "There's been so much bittersweet fiction since [Mike Bullen's Cold Feet debuted in 1997], and as this is about pals in their thirties, novelty is impossible and clichés inevitable. This opener has the familiar genre failing, too, of being neither comic nor involvingly dramatic – it is hard to care who Hannah ends up with, and a glimpse of Byrne's chest provides the funniest moment. Still, the cast is terrific, and Bullen hasn't lost his gift for memorable individual scenes." [7] The Liverpool Echo also selected as a highlight for Wednesday evening. [8] In a positive preview, The Guardian 's John Robinson compared it to the This Life reunion episode This Life +10. [9] The Daily Telegraph 's Ceri Radford called it "a grown-up Coupling " and concluded her preview by writing, "It's a funny, touching portrayal of a group of friends who are old enough to be disappointed with life but young enough to try fixing things with tequila slammers and casual sex." [10]

The BBC did not commission a series, though Ed Byrne has discussed other projects with Mike Bullen. [11]

This has not been released on DVD yet.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Lewis-Smith</span> British producer and critic (1957–2022)

Victor Lewis-Smith was a British film, television and radio producer, a television and restaurant critic, a satirist and newspaper columnist. He was executive producer of the ITV1 Annual National Food & Drink Awards. He was an alumnus of the University of York and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster in November 2008.

Michael Terence Aspel is a retired English television presenter and newsreader. He hosted programmes such as Crackerjack, Ask Aspel, Aspel & Company, Give Us a Clue, This is Your Life, Strange but True? and Antiques Roadshow.

Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his 1997 Comedy Premiere special of the same name. The series follows three couples experiencing the ups-and-downs of romance, originally Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, Pete and Jenny Gifford and Karen and David Marsden. As the original series progressed, the Giffords divorced and Pete married Jo Ellison, whilst Karen and David also separated, forming relationships with Mark Cubitt and Robyn Duff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Morrissey</span> English actor and filmmaker

David Mark Joseph Morrissey is an English actor and filmmaker. Noted for the meticulous preparation and research he undertakes for each role, he has been described by the British Film Institute as one of the most versatile English actors of his generation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Motson</span> English football commentator (1945–2023)

John Walker Motson was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Motson was the dominant football commentary figure at the BBC, apart from a brief spell in the mid-1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Nesbitt</span> Northern Irish actor (born 1965)

William James Nesbitt is an actor from Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Lancashire</span> English actress (born 1964)

Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire is an English actress. Known for her work in television and theatre, she has received numerous accolades over a career spanning four decades, including two British Academy Television Awards and a nomination for an Olivier Award. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2017 for services to drama.

Fay Ripley is an English actress, television presenter and recipe author. She is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1990). Her first professional role was in the chorus of a pantomime version of Around the World in 80 Days. Ripley's early film and television appearances were limited, so she supplemented her earnings by working as a children's entertainer and by selling menswear door-to-door. After her scenes as a prostitute were cut from Frankenstein (1994), Ripley gained her first major film role playing Karen Hughes in Mute Witness (1995).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Parkinson</span> English television and radio personality (1935–2023)

Sir Michael Parkinson was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show Parkinson from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the UK and abroad. He also worked in radio and was described by The Guardian as "the great British talkshow host".

Michael J. Bullen is an English screenwriter best known for creating the Granada Television series Cold Feet, which won him the Writer of the Year award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards. He wrote two more series for Granada; Life Begins, which ran for three years, and All About George, which ran for only one. His works have been described as being "about the intricacies of interpersonal relationships and what happens when they break down".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Harries</span> British producer (born 1954)

Andrew Harries is chief executive and co-founder of Left Bank Pictures, a UK based production company formed in 2007. In a career spanning four decades he has produced television dramas including The Royle Family,Cold Feet, the revivals of Prime Suspect and Cracker, as well as the BAFTA-winning television play The Deal.

The first series of the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet was first broadcast on the ITV network from 15 November to 20 December 1998. The six episodes were written by series creator Mike Bullen, produced by Christine Langan, and directed by Declan Lowney, Mark Mylod and Nigel Cole. It follows the award-winning pilot episode, broadcast in 1997. The storylines focus on three couples: Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, Pete and Jenny Gifford, and David and Karen Marsden. They are played by James Nesbitt, Helen Baxendale, John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Robert Bathurst and Hermione Norris respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegra Stratton</span> British journalist (born 1980)

Allegra Elizabeth Jane Stratton is a British former political aide, journalist, and writer who served as Downing Street Press Secretary under Boris Johnson from November 2020 to April 2021.

Gillian Reynolds is an English radio critic. After writing for The Guardian from 1967 to 1974, she was the radio critic for The Daily Telegraph for over 42 years, from 1975 to 2018. She then continued her career at The Sunday Times, where she wrote about radio until 2021.

Series 4, Episode 8 (<i>Cold Feet</i>) 8th episode of the 4th series of Cold Feet

Series 4, Episode 8 is the final episode of the fourth series of the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet. It was written by Mike Bullen, directed by Ciaran Donnelly, and was first broadcast on the ITV network on 10 December 2001. The plot follows on directly from the previous episode, as Adam and Rachel, and Karen and David travel to Sydney, Australia for Pete and Jo's impromptu wedding. Adam is sceptical that Pete is truly in love with Jo, and Jo's rich father Rod suspects that Pete is only marrying her to get access to his money. Under pressure from Rod, Pete gets cold feet and he and Jo call off the wedding. The couple soon reconcile and marry with Rod's blessing. Meanwhile, David discovers that Karen has been having an affair with her colleague Mark and ends their marriage, and Rachel gives birth prematurely in a Sydney hospital.

Rachel Louise Bradley is a fictional character portrayed by Helen Baxendale in the British comedy-drama television series Cold Feet. Rachel is introduced in the pilot episode (1997), where she begins a relationship with Adam Williams. Their relationship has highs and lows throughout the series; Rachel reveals a secret husband in the first series (1998) and has an abortion in the second (1999), which supposedly prevents her from conceiving a child in the future. She and Adam marry in the third series (2000) and are surprised to discover that she is pregnant in the fourth (2001). They both begin raising their child in the fifth series (2003), but Rachel's life is cut short when she is killed in a car crash.

Genesis: Together and Apart is a 2014 documentary about the English rock band Genesis and its members' solo projects. Made by the BBC, it was first broadcast on BBC Two in the UK on 4 October 2014. It was the first time drummer and singer Phil Collins, former singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist Mike Rutherford and guitarist Steve Hackett had reunited since the Six of the Best reunion concert (1982). The documentary was released on DVD and Blu-ray in November 2014 as Genesis: Sum of the Parts. The companion box set R-Kive also features tracks from the band member's solo albums.

<i>Peston on Sunday</i> Political discussion programme, broadcast on ITV

Peston on Sunday was the flagship political discussion programme on British television network ITV, which was broadcast live on Sunday mornings from 10 am and rebroadcast after the ITV Weekend News on Sunday evening. The programme was presented by Robert Peston, the Political Editor of ITV News, and featured discussions with politicians and public figures on the major news events of the week alongside analysis and social media reaction with Allegra Stratton, the then-National Editor of ITV News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tessa Sanderson on screen and stage</span>

Tessa Sanderson is a British former javelin thrower. She appeared in every Olympics from 1976 to 1996, winning the gold medal in 1984, and becoming the second track and field athlete to compete at six Olympics. She is the first Black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal. Since 1979, Sanderson has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows as a guest. When Sky News was launched in 1989, Sanderson was a sports reporter for the channel, and she co-hosted ITV's Surprise Surprise with Cilla Black.

References

  1. BBC Press Office (17 June 2010). "Network TV BBC Week 26: Wednesday 30 June 2010". Press release. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  2. Bullen, Mike (30 June 2010). "Writing Reunited was an easy job, but just don't ask Ed Byrne to play squash". BBC TV blog. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  3. Billen, Andrew (28 June 2010). "Warming up for a new Cold Feet". The Times (Times Newspapers): p. 49.
  4. Staff (30 June 2010). "House Mates Reunited At Sam's". ChiswickW4.com. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  5. Byrne, Ed. Television interview with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. This Morning. ITV. 29 June 2010.
  6. Laughlin, Andrew (1 July 2010). "Comedy drama 'Reunited' averages 3.3m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
  7. Dugdale, John (27 June 2010). "Critics' choice". The Sunday Times (Times Newspapers): p. 56 (Culture supplement).
  8. Shennan, Paddy (26 June 2010). "TV Week Ahead: June 26". Liverpool Echo (Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales): p. 10.
  9. Robinson, John (26 June 2010). "Wednesday 30: Pick of the Day". The Guardian (Guardian News & Media): p. 81 (The Guide supplement).
  10. Radford, Ceri (26 June 2010). "What to watch". The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group): p. 49 (Review supplement).
  11. Laws, Roz (20 February 2011). "Ed Byrne talks about expensive whisky and dad dancing". Sunday Mercury.