Life Begins (TV series)

Life Begins is a British television drama first broadcast on ITV between 16 February 2004 and 9 October 2006, starring Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, Anne Reid and Frank Finlay.

Premise
The story focuses on Philip Raymond (Phil) Mee and Margaret Eileen Brenda (Maggie) Thornhill-Mee and how their lives, plus those of their two children, James and Rebecca, change when Phil announces he is leaving Maggie for another woman. The first series follows Maggie's struggle to cope with adapting to single life, including finding a job, and later a new boyfriend, with the tables later turned on Phil somewhat when his new relationship fails. The series also features various friends and relatives of the couple and their dramas, such as the struggles of Maggie's parents, Eric and Brenda.

History
The first series 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 time-slots. 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 series 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.

Cast

 * Caroline Quentin as Maggie Mee
 * Alexander Armstrong as Phil Mee
 * Elliot Henderson-Boyle as James Mee
 * Ace Ryan as Rebecca Mee
 * Anne Reid as Brenda Thornhill
 * Frank Finlay as Eric Thornhill
 * Claire Skinner as Clare
 * Stuart McQuarrie as Guy
 * Ellie Haddington as Kathleen
 * Sarah Ozeke as Karen
 * Beans El-Balawi as Freddie
 * Roy Dotrice as Frank
 * Alan Williams as George
 * Naomi Allis Stone as Anna
 * Nicholas Boulton as Kieron
 * Chloe Howman as Helen
 * Paul Thornley as Jeff
 * Danny Webb as Paul
 * Abby Ford as Samantha
 * Michelle Holmes as Genevieve
 * Finlay Robertson as Kevin
 * David Westhead as Brian
 * Suzanne Burden as Penny
 * Laura Patch as Tina
 * Alexandra Gilbreath as Mia
 * Matthew Cottle as Nick
 * Jon Newman as Simon
 * Lewis Rose as Tom
 * Kelly Hunter as Mrs Lane

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.

UK air dates

 * Series One - 16 February 2004 to 22 March 2004
 * Series Two - 16 February 2005 to 30 March 2005
 * Series Three - 4 September 2006 to 9 October 2006

From June 2014, the show was repeated on ITV Encore, a channel exclusive to Sky customers, which closed down in 2018.

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.