7.8 /10 1 Votes
7.6/10 TV Country of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 19 Final episode date 9 October 2006 | 7.9/10 IMDb No. of series 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Caroline QuentinAlexander ArmstrongElliot Henderson BoyleAce Destiny RyanAnne ReidFrank Finlay Cast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Life Begins is a British television drama first broadcast on ITV between February 2004 and October 2006, starring Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, Anne Reid and Frank Finlay.
Contents
History
The first season of Life Begins began on 16 February 2004. The first series was a success. The show managed viewing figures ranging from 9.51 to 10.45 million winning all of its timeslots. The series has been aired on Channel Seven in Australia and TV ONE in New Zealand.
As the first Life Begins was so popular a second series was launched which began on 16 February 2005. Series two received strong ratings of 6.38 to 8.62 million.
A third season started on 4 September 2006 on ITV. Again the viewing figures were still high managing to win half of its timeslots with figures of 5.79 to 6.32 million.
It was always intended by the writers that the third series would be the last. A fourth series, thought possible at the time, never materialized.
Music
The music plays over the "next time" clip and the credits is the specially produced "Life Begins Mix" of Faithless' song "No Roots", from their album of the same name released in June 2004, four months after Life Begins began, meaning the song was debuted on the show in this version. Faithless' Sister Bliss provided other music for the series.
Basic plot
The story focuses intensely on Philip Raymond (Phil) Mee and Margaret Eileen Brenda (Maggie) Thornhill-Mee, and their two children James and Rebecca. It also features various friends and relatives of the couple. The series depicts typical family life and presents the struggles of friends and family members, such as Maggie's parents, Eric and Brenda.
Cast
UK air dates
From June 2014, the show was repeated on ITV Encore ITV's new drama channel for sky customers.
International air dates
Ratings in Australia: The first episode of the first series aired over Australia's non ratings period, and the opening episode rated 1.1 million mainland capital city viewers, which was the 12th most watched show for the week. Ratings continued around the one million viewers mark throughout series one. The first episode of series two moved to 9:30pm and rated 998,000 viewers, ranking first in its time slot. The second episode rated 853,000 viewers.