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This Life + 10 - interviews with the cast
A decade ago, This Life premiered on 91Èȱ¬ Two and changed the face of television
drama, whilst gathering legions of faithful fans as well as industry acclaim
and awards.
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To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the original cast, executive
producer Tony Garnett and creator and principal writer Amy Jenkins reunite
for This Life + 10, an exclusive 90-minute one-off episode to be broadcast
on 91Èȱ¬ Two at 9pm on Tuesday 2 January 2007.
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91Èȱ¬ Two viewers became obsessed with the turbulent lives of a group of 20-something lawyers who lived, loved and played hard whilst sharing a house in
London.
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Thirty-two episodes were broadcast over two series during 1996 and 1997 and
the final explosive instalment left its devoted audience begging for more.
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Fast forward a decade and This Life + 10 re-introduces Miles (Jack
Davenport), Milly (Amita Dhiri), Warren (Jason Hughes), Egg (Andrew Lincoln)
and Anna (Daniela Nardini) in a 90-minute special.
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One of the group has become a commercial success after writing a book based
on their friendship and a TV production company is keen to film the group's
reunion.
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Viewers will discover how the group's lives have changed and
whether they are friends, lovers or enemies - or all three!
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Series one and two were repeated on 91Èȱ¬ Two in November and December 2006 allowing fans
to reacquaint themselves with the classic episodes before being treated to
the spanking new special.
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 Amy Jenkins, creator and chief writer, This Life and This Life + 10, says: "It's 10 years on and there have been big changes in the characters' lives.
They're no longer in the waiting room of life but out there on centre
stage. The question is - do people really change?"
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Roly Keating, Controller, 91Èȱ¬ Two, says:
"This Life brilliantly defined what it meant to be young in the 1990s and
captured the imagination of a whole generation of viewers.
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"It's fantastic
that Tony, Amy and the original, world-class cast have agreed to reunite for
what promises to be one of the drama events of the year."
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Andrew Lincoln (Egg) comments: "We all met up at Tony's house initially to discuss how we felt as a group,
and that was Summer 2005. I was initially worried about going back after it
had been such a big success.
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"At first, I wasn't sure if it was all a good
idea. My concern was the expectation, my first question was 'can we do it
justice?' as it holds such a special place in a lot of people's hearts and
memories. There is a train of thought that says leave well alone but this
really is an interesting experiment.
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He continues: "It's intriguing to do as an actor that actually 10 years on, real time,
return to play the same character and to place them in the world now. It's
quite an exercise.
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"I think one of the strengths of the series was the casting, thanks to Di
Carling who cast the show and Jane Fallon who was the original producer on
it. I think they took a long, long time to cast the five central characters
because they were all unknown characters and we were all unknowns. And I
think that that was the strongest card, we all got on really well as friends
then and that added to the authenticity of the show.
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"It's been funny in both senses of the word, funny meaning peculiar and funny ha ha, and overall, it's been good - hopefully we'll all deliver! The
read-through, where we all get together and read the script for the first time
in front of Tony Garnett (original, and now Executive Producer), was quite
terrifying. Amy's written a great script and she's got such a perceptive
knack of writing about these flawed characters. You thought they were basket
cases then, they're nutters now!
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"But then there was a moment when it all
fell into place and we all remembered who our characters were, a bit like 'oh, I remember him'. It was like putting a band back together. It's a nice
nostalgic thing to do, to think about where we all were personally 10 years
ago. I thought it would be lovely to see each other again, and it really has
been.
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"Miles has apparently put on weight which I think is funny. There's a line
where Egg says 'come on chubby!' Some of the scenes involve Miles and I
jogging which was a challenge. I had to be hauled around the second time and
carried around by the third take!
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"In reality, you don't do a lot of changing
in 10 years. As actors, we all fell into our old ways of working on and off
screen. Friends can be crueller and kinder to each other than anyone else,
old friends particularly. You are afforded the opportunity to be extremely
cruel to someone and be forgiven, which is a great thing to play as actors.
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"Throughout the course of this weekend that they stay at Miles's manor, it's
lovely because they reminisce and the old dynamic kicks in and they revert to
type. It's totally Grange Hill for grown-ups. All of the characters have got
stuff going on that they have to deal with and it's facilitated with their
friends around them.
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"I don't remember some of the storylines from 10 years
ago. People are always reminding me and it's the first time I've heard about
it! I've never even watched the first two series. Apparently Jack says it's
quite good! Ìý
"Between us all, everyone knows us for different things now although obviously This Life is the common thread. I did Teachers so the generation below me
know me as Simon, and the older generation who stay in on a Saturday night
know me from Afterlife so different aged people know you as different
characters. The movie fans know me from Love Actually, Jack from the Pirate
films, Jason from Midsomer Murders - we've got everyone covered!"
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Jack Davenport (Miles) comments: "I think we were all apprehensive because the draw is to do something 10
years later and it's not often you get to do something like this, and it's
been such a long time since we've been together as a group. To be expected
to pick it up is daunting but it's been really easy and it's felt right.
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"It
wasn't a difficult decision to decide whether to take part in this. The first
two series were a success and to come back for a one-off full stop to the
series was interesting. Tony Garnett knows what he's doing, he's been doing
it for 40 years and I don't think he'd be happy to do something that wasn't
good.
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"All of us had our reservations, there's something about looking back
and deciding whether or not you want to do that. I kept thinking 'how often
do you get asked to do this?' You'd have to be a complete idiot not to do it.
I thought - 'why not?' You do something a decade before, that a lot of people
like, and then you get the chance to do a one night only special to
celebrate it - how lucky are we? Ìý
"I can't think of any shows that have returned 10 years later with an
original cast. Amy really nailed the script as well which made it an
irresistible offer to me. How many flaws can these characters have? If you
thought they were confused before, they're even more so now - they're
sectionable!!
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"The characters, the cast and the viewers have moved on 10
years so it's not intended as a museum piece. It's just our characters put in
2007. Believe me, we're not talking excitedly about the new Oasis album!
Although I think Egg might sing at some point. It wouldn't be This Life
without Egg singing.
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"I didn't watch the old series to reacquaint myself with
the character. The repeats on 91Èȱ¬ Two were Biblical. Ìý
"So Egg is a famous novelist which is stretching the boundaries I think!
Miles is rich, Anna is a lawyer, Warren is a life coach, and Milly is a very
proud mum.
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"I sometimes wonder if Miles changed as much as people would want
him to but he's not that bad. Although, let's face it - he's an a**e. He does
have moments of discretion and kindness apart from sleeping with people when
his fiancée is upstairs! He has changed a bit but you do change between
twenty/thirties but, essentially, you can't change that much until you're 100, and then
you die and you get hair in your ears.
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"Personalities don't change that much
and that's why you can pick up a show like this where the characters have
moved on 10 years later. They've all accrued more rubbish in their lives,
both in their heads and literally, which is why the script is so good.
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"Annoyingly, Miles is really healthy now so I've had a few running scenes. At
the end of them, I'm thinking 'take me back to my Winnebago and be soothed by
maidens' which is in all of my contracts of course.
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"We've all remained
friends as 10 years ago, it was like drama school on camera. We didn't even
have dressing rooms! We had one room so we were with each other the entire
time, like lab rats. The whole thing was like EastEnders on acid! We hadn't
worked before so we didn't know any better.
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"I'm rubbish, I can't remember
hardly anything about recording the first two series, it was all so frantic.
After working all day, the last thing you wanted to do was go home and watch
it, we were sick of it - in the best possible way of course. Ìý
"The difference between filming a movie, which is limos and first class travel
all the way, and a TV show is that movies, especially Pirates with all that
water, are usually technically a lot more demanding and there's a lot of
waiting around. You might think that it's glamorous working in the sun-kissed Caribbean but there are more industrial and less picturesque parts of
it - and we were there!
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"Compared with dressing up as a mardi gras float in Pirates of the Caribbean, I much prefer the costumes on This Life + 10
even though I'm dressed like a posh young Tory farmer in cords. I'm hoping
to start a trend with these.
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"He's playing at being something he's not.
Miles is playing lord of the manor and this is what he thinks he should wear.
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"There was a lot of brocade on Pirates. Brocade wears you, you can't wear
it. Ìý
"We're filming in a house that Robbie Williams rented for a while. He left a
few items around - only joking!"
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Amita Dhiri (Milly) comments: "We all went to the London restaurant The Wollesey to discuss the possibility
of it happening again. It was good to see the whites of each other's eyes,
to check that we were genuinely up for this.
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"When we saw that the script was
so good, we all thought 'wow, this really could work'. The scripts stood
alone, and when I asked myself if I would want to watch this as it is, I
decided that I would so I thought it was worth doing.
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"I think about
whether This Life + 10 matches up to the previous series, but I truly think
it does. We filmed it very quickly over about three weeks and I'm happy with
the finished result. Ìý
"From your twenties to your thirties you know yourself a bit better. In your twenties you
think that you know who you are, this is what I do, this is what I like and
this is what I will be. In your thirties you start being more relaxed, less
rigid, more ordinary, being a real person rather than setting yourself up as
this interesting character. I think that's the same for most people. The
things that have to be addressed in your thirties are your work situation, your
choices about children, career choices etc. For Milly, as with most women,
to become a mother is a massive change.
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"The older you get, and I really find this, the less people are around you
that you've known for years and these people are incredibly valuable. By the
time you get to your mid-thirties, there's only a handful of people who've known
you since you were a teenager as you lose friends and acquaintances along the
way. This Life + 10 reflects all of this, which is why it was so
interesting to go back to it."
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Amita continues: "The show was such a huge opportunity for all of us. Some of us can remember
some things about 10 years ago that the rest of us have no recollection of
whatsoever which has made coming back together very funny at times.
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"We were working 12 hours a day so the last thing you wanted to do was go home
and watch it on TV. If you weren't there for other people's storylines, you
just didn't know what went on.
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"This Life did mean a lot to people, the audience was ready for a programme
like that. The last couple of years, I've looked back at it and have been
proud."
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Daniela Nardini (Anna) comments: "Meeting the rest of the group at Tony's house for the initial meeting was
interesting as we all hadn't been all together for about eight years.
Everybody had initial reservations and we were quite surprised that Tony was
suggesting it. However, Tony Garnett is a man of taste and the fact that he
was considering it meant that it was seriously worth thinking about - even
though I've been chasing away the part for the last 10 years.
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"We all went for
a drink afterwards and we all thought it would be a cool thing to do and we
all really warmed to the idea. Ìý
"A decade ago, I thought Anna was really cool! Ten years later, she has
resolved some issues but developed a few more! She's matured but if you play
something 10 years later, of course the character will mature like I've
matured. I don't think it's ever been done where characters have been
revisited 10 years later.
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"We only had three weeks to shoot This Life + 10 which isn't much time for 90
minutes of material.
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"Ten years ago we didn't have dressing rooms as we had
one big green room so we all hung out together. We'd all be together from 8am
until 8pm and I don't know how we learnt any lines! It was relentless. Now
we all have Winnebegos and you realise that as you get older, you like your
space! Especially as I was projectile vomiting as I was in the early stages
of pregnancy while filming. Ìý
"The main quest for Anna is having a child and she's shocked that she has this
biological urge which she didn't expect, and that's what makes her story
interesting for me. Because it's not something you expect from Anna.
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"Way
back when, I always wanted Miles and Anna to get together because the
audience would've loved it. But I do know that they're better when they're
apart, like Rachel and Ross in Friends. Not that I'm comparing the
popularity of them to us! They've got a deep fatal attraction thing with
each other and it's very passionate. But when you sit them down, they know they're not compatible and they weren't mature enough to realise that 10
years ago. Ìý
"This time, it hasn't been as consuming as it was then. It was a lifestyle 10
years ago, now it's a three week job. I'm also delighted that the mini skirts
have gone, thank God!"
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Jason Hughes (Warren) comments: "Something happened at the read-through, which was the first time that as a
group we read the script. I think Jack started mucking about really early
on started making irreverent comments about the script or us reading it and
as soon as he did that, something happened and it caught fire and then
collectively I think we all went 'Ah. It's us again! Here we are, it's you,
it's you, it's you!'
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"Because we all trust each other as a group, we suddenly
opened up and realised that the thing that we had is still there, whoosh, we
were off and the whole thing just caught fire. And as a result it went really
well the read-through, I never realised it was so funny. Ìý
"On the first day of filming, I felt slightly anxious and a little bit
nervous. I thought 'here we go...!' But once we got underway it felt good,
really great.
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"What I like most about Warren is his humour, the fact that he likes a good
laugh, especially when he's with this group of people.
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"I was talking to Amy (Jenkins) and Andy (Lincoln) about the group the other day, the
fact that they've all done quite well for themselves, they're all earning a
wage that affords them nice clothes, able to go on holiday, you know, they've
done alright but they're still deeply unhappy people! They all have a good
life but, essentially, they're just not happy.
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"I was really looking forward to seeing Andy and Jack (Davenport) again. I haven't seen
them in such a long time. My over-riding memory of 10 years ago is of the
laugh we all had, going on set sitting around for half an hour with those two
and us all laughing ourselves stupid and struggling with a really tight
wheezy chest because I'd been laughing so hard for so long.
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"I then had Molly
(daughter) and moved to Brighton and that became my over-riding thing so I
haven't seen them in ages. So I was really excited to see them, really
looking forward to being around them. Ìý
"I was the first only gay in the village! I led the way for Dafydd and Queer
As Folk. I think it's a big compliment for gay men to watch it and totally
believe that you're a gay man. That's the biggest compliment you can be paid
as it's my job as an actor to create a believable character. Young gay guys
at the time, and a long time after, would shout 'It's Warren, it's Warren from
This Life!'.
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"I remember one kid and he just stood with his pint just staring
at me and he said 'you know, I watched that show and I came out when I saw
your character - I came out because of you' and I've loads of mail like that
as well, young kids saying 'I so loved This Life because it allowed me to be
gay and express myself, and where I come from I'm not allowed to be gay and
I'm not allowed to tell people I'm gay and I haven't told my parents and none
of my family know' - and of course nobody ever asked if I was actually gay or
anything else, they just assumed that I was.
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"There was always a look of
shock when I started talking about my wife Tash, or the kids. I'm very proud
of the character of Warren and people do still remember him. They still come
up and say 'I've got to ask, I'm sorry, are you one of the people in That's
Life?'"
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This Life + 10 was commissioned by Jane Tranter, Controller, 91Èȱ¬ Fiction, and Roly Keating, Controller, 91Èȱ¬ Two. Ìý
A World Production/91Èȱ¬ Wales Production for 91Èȱ¬ Two, This Life + 10 is
written by Amy Jenkins, directed by Joe Ahearne and the executive producer is
Julie Gardner for 91Èȱ¬ Wales. Tony Garnett is the sole Producer.
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Notes to Editors
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This Life was first broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Two on 18 March 1996.
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The final episode of the second series was broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ Two on 7 August
1997.
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