'Cold Feet' character will face cancer scare on show's return

Emotions will be running high when veteran ITV comedy-drama Cold Feet returns for its new series.

It’s been revealed that Fay Ripley’s Jenny Gifford is to be at the centre of a breast cancer scare in the very first episode, which will reverberate through the whole series.

Speaking about the storyline, she told the Radio Times: “They asked me how I’d feel about it and I said I wanted it dealt with properly because of the weight of that responsibility.

“And because so many people I know are affected by breast cancer and cancer in general. And that’s life at the moment.

“We have seen this story with shows but I wanted it to be real. Sometimes it’s going to be funny, sometimes it’s going to be scary. I just want it to be honest.

“[Other dramas] might show it where the character looks for support and gets the support. But this character doesn’t tell anybody.

“She’s flawed. It’s maybe not the kindest thing for her husband. In a way it’s her way of saying, ‘I don’t know what to do, because I’ve never had cancer before’.”

Show creator Mike Bullen added that the story resonated personally because it’s ‘so much a part of our lives and my life in that I have had so many close friends and family that have had breast cancer’.

The Manchester-set show, which also stars Hermione Norris, John Thomson, James Nesbitt, and Robert Bathurst, took a 13-year hiatus before returning in 2016.

The eighth series starts on ITV in January.

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