Family (2003 TV series)

Family
Genre	Crime drama
Created by	Tim Vaughan Roger Smith Jamie Foreman
Starring	Martin Kemp Jamie Foreman David Calder Simone Lahbib Camille Coduri
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Tim Vaughan
Producer(s)	Rebecca Edwards
Running time	60 mins (w/advertisements)
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	29 September – 12 November 2003

Family is an ITV crime drama series, first broadcast on 29 September 2003, starring Martin Kemp and Jamie Foreman as the protagonists, Joey and Dave Cutler. Based on a crime family operating in London's east-end, Family only lasted one series before being axed by the broadcaster. A DVD of the complete series was released on March 30, 2009.

Plot

Family follows a family of London gangsters headed by Ted Cutler (David Calder). One of his sons, Joey (Martin Kemp), is happily married with two children and tries to keep 'business' separate from home life, while the other son, Dave (Jamie Foreman) is a loose cannon with a nasty temper who has just returned from America, where he fled following a family rift. Only Joey sees a way out by running a high class restaurant - but this venture is not without violence.^[1]

Production

Jamie Foreman devised and co-wrote the show alongside scriptwriters Tim Vaughan and Roger Smith. Nick Elliott, controller of ITV drama, said of the series;

"Jamie plays the loopy brother, while Martin is like Al Pacino's character in the Godfather, desperately wanting to be straight but going along with the dodgy stuff. There will also be this father figure. It's a contemporary London gangster show and it will have a lot of authenticity. There'll be a contrast between Martin living a normal suburban lifestyle, then going to meetings to discuss rubbing someone out and being involved in rackets and organised crime. He's got a wife and a daughter who takes cello lessons, who don't know about the other life he leads."

Elliott commissioned the six-part series alongside Granada South drama controller, Michele Buck.^[2]

Reception

Family was well received by critics and media buyers, who welcomed it as part of a "quality-based offensive" in ITV's autumn schedule. But after a respectable start with 6.1 million viewers watching on September 29, the programme lost nearly two million viewers, drawing only 4.3 million in the same slot four weeks later. Although there were only two more episodes to be aired, Nigel Pickard, Head of ITV's programming, ditched the show from its prime time slot and consigned it instead to a graveyard slot on Wednesdays.^[3]

Cast

^[4]

Martin Kemp as Joey Cutler
Jamie Foreman as Dave Cutler
David Calder as Ted Cutler
Simone Lahbib as Jacqueline Cutler
Rachel Crowther as Esmee Cutler
Camille Coduri as Sophie Reeve
Sally Dexter as Natalie Smith
Linda Marlowe as Jean Bell
Jo Joyner as Lucy Harris
Phil McKee as Detective Sergeant Bob Fletcher

Episode list

Episodes five and six were bumped from the primetime slot of 9pm on Mondays to 11:30pm on Wednesdays due to poor ratings. This meant that the episode previously scheduled for 27 October 2003 was replaced with a re-run of Airline.^[5]

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)^[6]
1	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	29 September 2003	6.35m
The Cutler family are working on expanding their protection racket empire to include a classy restaurant, but patriarch Ted is taken by surprise when estranged son Dave suddenly returns from America after a 10-year absence, keen to build bridges and make up for lost time. Ted's younger son Joey is immediately suspicious of his sibling's reappearance, and his concerns are heightened when it becomes clear his long-lost brother is quick to resort to violence—a weakness which has tragic consequences and puts the family in a very precarious position.
2	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	6 October 2003	5.26m
Joey has been told to raise 6,000 pounds before his daughter gets married—or he'll leave her wedding reception in a box.
3	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	13 October 2003	5.05m
4	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	20 October 2003	Under 4.59m
5	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	5 November 2003	Under 4.47m
6	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	12 November 2003	Under 4.90m

References

External links

Family at the Internet Movie Database

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