What happened to the cast of BBC Two's This Life?
Few TV shows of the Cool Britannia era were more talked about than Amy Jenkins’ short-lived BBC Two drama about young lawyers.
In the mid-90s, every creative industry in this country was touched, it seems, with 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, then it was BBC Two’s This Life that was the small screen’s contribution to the national, flag-waving zeitgeist.
Few TV shows of that era were more talked about and more of the moment than Amy Jenkins’ short-lived drama — it ran from 1996 to 1997 — about a bunch of trainee solicitors in London. And of course it made bona fide stars of its twentysomething cast, most of whom were unknowns at the time of the series’ debut on 18 March ‘96.
But whatever happened to the cast of this culture-quake TV show? As you can see, it’s a story of mixed fortunes, with a couple of cast members eclipsing their This Life fame with even bigger successes 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, performing was clearly in his blood.
Read more: Nostalgia
In the immediate aftermath of This Life, Davenport nabbed the lead role in Channel 4 vampire drama Ultraviolet (1998) and was cast by Anthony Minghella in the director’s movie 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 Steven Moffat’s relationship sitcom Coupling (2000–2004).
Like most of his This Life castmates, Davenport returned for the one-off reunion special, titled +10, in 2007, but most of his work in the past 20 years has been in the US, including stints on such series as FlashForward, Breathless and Swingtown. He can currently be seen as the ex-husband of Jennifer Aniston’s character in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.
Daniela Nardini - Anna Forbes
As the sassy, man-eating Anna Forbes, Daniela Nardini was one of the breakout stars of This Life, with the role earning her a BAFTA Best Actress gong in 1998. After the series ended she starred in the Amy Jenkins-penned movie Elephant Juice (1999) and in 2012, joined the cast of BBC One's Waterloo Road for a four-episode stint.
She can be spotted in such films 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’s 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. We all got quite famous through it, quickly, which was a shock and a little bit terrifying."
Jason Hughes - Warren Jones
Back in 1996 it was still rare to see an openly gay character depicted on TV and so This Life’s Warren Jones was, in its own way, as groundbreaking in terms of representation as Queer as Folk was 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 parts in such prestige dramas 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 perennially popular Midsomer Murders, playing DS Ben Jones in the series for eight seasons.
Since then, he’s popped up 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 other 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. Her most recent TV appearance was as the Kent estate’s housekeeper Mrs Khanna in Netflix’s Bridgerton.
Andrew Lincoln - Edgar ‘Egg’ Cooke
23-year-old Andrew Lincoln had only had a handful of roles on TV when he was cast as Milly’s boyfriend Egg in This Life.
After the series ended, the actor won one of the front-line roles in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually (2003) and headlined as university lecturer Robert Bridge in ITV’s 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 spinoff series The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.
Along the way, he chalked up roles in movies such as Human Traffic (1999), Enduring Love (2004) and Penguin Bloom (2020) and can next be seen, opposite fellow Bathonian Indira Varma, in ITV thriller Cold Water.
Ramon Tikaram - Ferdinand ‘Ferdy’ Garcia
Since starring as motorbike courier Ferdy in This Life, Ramon Tikaram (brother, fact fans, of 80s singer-songwriter Tanita) has enjoyed a prolific career on TV (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 a UK tour of The King and I).
He’s also made quite a name for himself in video games, voicing characters in such RPGs as James Bond 007: Blood Stone, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie and League of Legends. One of Tikaram’s most notable roles of the past few years was as Yorkshire’s Police District Commander in BBC One’s Happy Valley.
He was one of the few This Life regulars not to appear in the 2007 special, due to the episode revolving around his character’s funeral.
This Life is available to stream on ITVX Premium.
