by In the mid-90s, every creative industry in this country, it seems, was touched by a bit of the magic of Cool Britannia. If music had Blur and Oasis, art had Damian Hirst and Tracey Emin and cinema had Trainspotting, it was BBC Two’s This Life that added the small screen to the national, flagging zeitgeist.
Few television programs of that era have been more talked about and more current than the short-lived drama Amy Jenkins — which ran from 1996 to 1997 — about a handful of trainee solicitors in London. And of course he made bona fide stars out of his cast of twentysomethings, people most of whom were unknown when the series began on March 18th ’96.
But whatever happened to the cast of the cultural-quake TV show? As you can see, it’s a story of mixed success, with a few cast members moving on from their This Life fame to even greater success across the Atlantic…
Jack Davenport – Miles Stewart
This Life may have been Jack Davenport’s first TV job, but as the son of Howard’s Way’s Jack Davenport and A Fish Called Wanda’s Maria Atiken, acting was clearly in his blood.
Read more: Nostalgia
Immediately following This Life, Davenport landed the lead role in the Channel 4 vampire drama Ultraviolet (1998) and was cast by Anthony Minghella in the director’s film adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley (1999). He also appeared as Commodore James Norrington in three Pirates of the Caribbean films and was a series regular in the Steven Moffat sitcom Coupling (2000-2004).
Like most of his This Life co-stars, Davenport returned for the one-off special, titled +10, in 2007, but most of his work over the past 20 years has been in the US, including bits on series such as FlashForward, Breathless. and Swingtown. He can currently be seen as the ex-husband of Jennifer Aniston’s character in The Morning Show with Apple TV+.
Daniela Nardini – Anna Forbes
Daniela Nardini, Anna Forbes, was one of the leading stars of This Life, winning BAFTA Best Actress in 1998. When the series ended, she starred in Elephant Juice, written by Amy Jenkins. (1999) and in 2012, he joined the cast of BBC One’s Waterloo Road for a four-episode run.
She can be seen in films such as Festival (2005), Sunshine on Leith (2013) and Terence Davies’ Sunset Song (2015). Nardini took a break from acting in 2019 after being diagnosed with breast cancer, from which she has made a full recovery.
“I love that people still enjoy the series,” she told the Daily Mail at the time, “but This Life feels like another life now. It was very exciting and intoxicating at the time. It got you yourself with you.
Jason Hughes – Warren Jones
Back in 1996 it was still rare to see an openly gay character on TV so Warren Jones’ This Life was, in its own way, as groundbreaking in terms of Queer as Folk representation just three years later.
It wasn’t Jason Hughes’ first TV role, but it was the actor’s big break and opened the door to roles in popular dramas such as Waking The Dead and Russell T Davies’ Mine All Mine. Hughes’ most famous role, however, came in 2005 when he was cast opposite John Nettles in ITV’s ever-popular Midsomer Murders, playing DS Ben Jones in the series for eight seasons.
Since then, he has appeared in shows such as Death in Paradise, The Pact, Marcella and, most recently, McDonald & Dodds.
Amita Dhiri – Djamila ‘Milly’ Nassim
Amita Dhiri won the role of Milly (aka ‘the sensible one’) in This Life just three years after graduating from drama school. After the final regular episode, she was cast as one of the leads in ITV’s post-apocalyptic drama The Last Train (1998).
Her next notable regular role came in 2007 when she debuted as DC Grace Dasari in ITV’s The Bill, staying with the show until its final episode in 2010. She was the housewife of the Kent estate Mrs Khanna in Netflix’s Bridgerton was present recently.
Andrew Lincoln – Edgar ‘Egg’ Cooke
Andrew Lincoln, 23, had only had a handful of roles on TV when he was cast as Milly Egg’s boyfriend in This Life.
After the series ended, the actor won one of the lead roles in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually (2003) and played university lecturer Robert Bridge in the ITV supernatural drama Afterlife (2005-6). In 2010 he made his debut as police officer Rick Grimes in the first episode of AMC’s zombie juggernaut The Walking Dead, a role he now plays in the spinoff series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Along the way, he took on roles in films such as Human Traffic (1999), Enduring Love (2004) and Penguin Bloom (2020) and can next be seen, opposite fellow Bathonian Indira Varma, in the ITV thriller Cold Water .
Ramon Tikaram – Ferdinand ‘Ferdy’ Garcia
Since starring as motorcycle courier Ferdy in This Life, Ramon Tikaram (brother, fact-fan, 80s singer-songwriter Tanita) has enjoyed a prolific career on television (Game of Thrones, Death in Paradise, Brassic, Fortitude), film (Dean Spanley). , Mischief Night, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love) and stage (playing the King of Siam in the UK tour of The King and I).
He has also made quite a name for himself in video games, voicing characters in RPGs such as James Bond 007: Blood Stone, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie and League of Legends. One of Tikaram’s most notable roles in recent years was as the District Commander of Yorkshire Police in BBC One’s Happy Valley.
He was one of the few This Life regulars who did not appear in the 2007 special, due to the incident surrounding his character’s funeral.
This Life is available to stream on ITVX Premium.
