The six episodes were written by series creator Mike Bullen, produced by Christine Langan, and directed by Declan Lowney, Mark Mylod and Nigel Cole.
The storylines focus on three couples: Adam Williams and Rachel Bradley, Pete and Jenny Gifford, and David and Karen Marsden.
They are played by James Nesbitt, Helen Baxendale, John Thomson, Fay Ripley, Robert Bathurst and Hermione Norris respectively.
As the series progressed, critics' opinions became more positive; the production values rated highly and the fantasy scenes, which became a hallmark of Cold Feet, were well received.
Cold Feet's pilot episode was intended by Andy Harries, the executive producer and Granada Television's controller of comedy, to lead to a series commission from the ITV network.
Poor ratings on its night of broadcast in March 1997 stalled a commission; Harries told writer and creator Mike Bullen and producer Christine Langan to "forget it".
[7] ITV's limited portfolio of comedy[8] meant that although it was a ratings failure, the pilot was selected by default to represent the network at the Montreux Television Festival that year.
[8] In August 1997, David Liddiment, who had chaired the panel of judges at Montreux, became ITV's director of programming and pledged to rebrand the network's comedy output.
Salles was a bit-part actress in BBC sitcoms and had previously appeared in the 1998 Granada film The Misadventures of Margaret, which was co-produced by Harries.
Many of the plots were drawn from his own life; Pete and Jenny bringing up their new baby paralleled Bullen and his wife, whose first child was born in late 1997.
[20] The scenes where Pete and Jenny attend the antenatal classes were written from Bullen's memory, when he and his wife were "given callipers, forceps and a suction cup to play with".
[18] Not all storylines were based on real life: For Karen and David's marriage guidance scenes in Episode 5, Bullen consulted the relationship support charity Relate.
Langan suggested to Bullen that they return to Rachel's marriage later in the series, using an adage she had learned from working on a soap opera that if the "seeds" of a storyline are sown early on it can pay off later.
[25] Langan asked Father Ted director Declan Lowney to helm the first two episodes after his successful direction of the pilot.
Sets were constructed at Granada's Blue Shed studios in Salford for interior filming, which ran over 14 weeks from March to May.
[27] A long lens was used to film the Mini approaching Thomson and Bathurst, making it appear closer to them than it was and avoiding having to drive it on the green.
Ripley wore a prosthetic abdomen to simulate the appearance of pregnancy throughout the episode and had a pubic wig applied for the birth scene.
To avoid giving away the plot they were told that Baxendale was filming a bed advertisement, capitalising on her exposure from appearing in Friends.
The lighting and focus of the fantasy station was intended to be a direct contrast to the harsh modernity of Piccadilly, which appeared in the "real life" scenes.
The trailer featured clips from the pilot episode, including the scene where Adam sings with a rose clenched between his buttocks.
[36] The series was welcomed as "the British Thirtysomething" and there was additional publicity generated off the back of Helen Baxendale's appearances in Friends.
Barber concluded his review with positive comments about the rest of the series, singling out Ripley as being "reminiscent of Elaine in Seinfeld".
[43] On The Late Review, Germaine Greer described Nesbitt's acting as "especially awful" and suggested that the series had been developed by a marketing department.
[46] In the Evening Standard, following the conclusion of Vanity Fair and prior to the broadcast of Episode 6, Billen wrote, "The style is light, the narrative frequently inconsequential.
If domestic trivia has now been outlawed by the BBC as a subject for sitcoms and if even soap operas rely on murders and armed sieges to keep up their figures, why should the travails of a set of ex-dinkies have become a minor cult?"
He analysed the series in relation to its early-middle-aged viewers being "a forgotten people", comparing the storylines to real-life issues experienced by friends.
Yet somehow, probably because the moral judgments are lightly made, superannuated singletons such as myself can look on and see an advertisement for, rather than a warning against, that famously honourable estate—just as we do when we gaze at the more benign marriages of our friends.
[47]Of Episode 6, The Mirror's Charlie Catchpole wrote "Although I wouldn't want to bump into any of these people in a wine bar, I found I really cared about their unravelling relationships, their sad sexual misadventures, their petty jealousies" and concluded by calling the series "Exquisitely written, stylishly produced, superbly performed.
"[48] In The Times, Paul Hoggart summarised all six episodes as "[walking] a tightrope between satire and sentimentality, frequently falling off on the sugary side", but wrote positively of the writing, directing, acting, and editing.
Ian Johnson, the publicist for the series, believed that the European judges did not understand the farcical humour in the episode, noting that the British delegates to the festival were "helpless with laughter".