This Life
The 1990s was a pretty happy time for TV. Despite Law and Order coming along and introducing TV to the police procedural, the sitcom was still the king of the airwaves. Music however hadn’t joined the party, with Britpop holding sway on both sides of the Atlantic during the mid-nineties.
Centred on the lives of five twentysomething barristers living in London, This Life easily could have been what would later be described as ‘aspirational TV’ focused on characters that had it all or fallen into the trap of comedy. This Life however was anything but, and provided enrapturing, frank drama for an audience starved of just that.
This Life really shone because of its rounded, often flawed and sometimes downright unlikeable characters. Complex and multi-layered, these were characters that despite having a great opportunity, continually managed to mess things up in their personal lives.
While the first series of the show was simply good, it was the shows second and final series that gave This Life the impact it had. While expanding the show may have been its undoing, it actually proved to be a masterstroke, giving the show far more diversity and letting each of the characters breathe a lot more easily.
That didn’t stop the show being sometimes unerringly honest. Relationships lived, died, and were filled with arguments fuelled by spite, not simply the need to add a dash of conflict into the show.
While This Life didn’t become the massive smash it should have been, many involved both behind and in front of the camera lens have gone on to great things. Andrew Lincoln became the star of Channel 4’s brilliant drama Teachers before getting off to become the face of the phenomenal The Walking Dead.
Jack Davenport on the other hand managed to use the show as a catapult to not only TV success in the shape of sitcom Coupling and recent dramas Flashforward and Smash, but also wangle his way onto a little film franchise called Pirates of The Caribbean, as well as another couple of silver screen outings.
Some of the creative minds behind the show have gone on to be part some of the UK’s best TV too, with producer Jane Fallon going on to team up with Andrew Lincoln on Teachers and writer Matthew Graham going on to create mind-bending police show Life on Mars.
Thankfully culled after the second series, with plans for a third series with a new set of characters canned by the show’s producers before they were anything more than a thought, This Life was a fantastically realised drama full of emotion and heartbreak for both characters and audience alike.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in TV Andrew Lincoln Hidden Gems