A Friends icon turned down a ‘c** part’ in the revival of James Nesbitt’s popular ITV show Cold Feet. The Ballymena native broke onto the scene in the role of Adam Williams in Cold Feet, winning a British Comedy Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and a National Television Award for his performance . Initially running from 1997 to 2003, the show which told the story of three couples experiencing the ups-and-downs of romance was revived in 2016 for a further four seasons.
James’ romantic counterpart in the show Rachel was played by Helen Baxendale, who is well known for her work in legendary sitcom Friends as Ross’ English wife Emily. Appearing in fourteen episodes of the Friends , including two episodes that took the cast to London, Helen’s time on Friends is in what many fans consider the show’s golden era. Sadly the penultimate episode of Cold Feet’s original run saw Helen’s character killed in a car accident, leaving everyone watching at home devastated.
However, it has been revealed that Helen was offered the chance to appear in the revival series as a ghost, an opportunity which she didn’t hold back when turning down. ‘She said, “Thanks but no thanks – it’s a c*** part”. She definitely made the right decision.
It was just me being sentimental,’ the show’s creator Mike Bullen told The Guardian. He added: ‘We feel we’ve explored to our satisfaction the issues confronting the characters at this stage of their lives and we want to give them all a little time to move on, to put clear water between the stories and the issues they’ll be exploring when they are empty nesters staring down the barrel of grandparenthood.’ Appearing on ITV talk-show Lorraine , James said that he would be more than willing to step into the shoes of Adam one final time.
‘I’d love to do that. It was such a big part of my life, it opened so many doors for me, people still talk to me about it on a daily basis,’ he said. Since making his breakthrough on Cold Feet, James has gone on to become one of Ireland’s most successful actors, appearing in detective series Murphy’s Law, The Hobbit Trilogy and BBC drama The Missing.
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