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	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Michelle Buck Tim Vaughan
Producer	Rebecca Edwards
Production locations	London, England, UK
Running time	60 mins (w/advertisements)
Production company	LWT
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	29 September (2003-09-29) – 12 November 2003 (2003-11-12)

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 30 March 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.

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.

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 29 September, 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.

Cast

• 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.

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"People United By Conviction"	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	29 September 2003 (2003-09-29)	6.35m
2	"A Collective Body of Persons"	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	6 October 2003 (2003-10-06)	5.26m
3	"A Fundamental Social Group"	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	13 October 2003 (2003-10-13)	5.05m
4	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	20 October 2003 (2003-10-20)	Under 4.59m
5	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	5 November 2003 (2003-11-05)	Under 4.47m
6	TBA	David Drury	Roger Smith & Tim Vaughan	12 November 2003 (2003-11-12)	Under 4.90m

External links

• Family at IMDb