My Wonderful Life (TV series)

My Wonderful Life is a British comedy-drama series by Simon Nye that starred Emma Wray, Philip Glenister, Hamish Clark, Elizabeth Berrington, Tony Robinson, Clare Perkins, Gary Webster and Nicola Stephenson. A total of three series were produced by Granada Television, and were broadcast on ITV from 1 May 1997 to 18 July 1999. It initially began as a one-off television film titled True Love shown on 25 February 1996, following its transmission Granada commissioned a series of six episodes. Only the likes of Wray and Glenister were transposed from the pilot to the main series, and several new characters were introduced. The series was successful with viewers, regularly attracting audiences of over 8 million and it was ITV's most popular comedy series during 1998. Due to his commitments with other TV shows at the time, Nye collaborated with a number of writers on the series including Amanda Swift and Paul Dornan, who each wrote several episodes respectively. Despite its earlier success, the third series was erractically scheduled by ITV Network Centre and was poorly advertised, this led co-star Glenister to directly complain to an ITV press officer. Speaking in January 2000, he noted that he was extremely proud of the series and was very angry about the way the show was treated at the time.

Plot summary

Donna (Emma Wray) is a single mother struggling to raise her two unruly daughters, whilst trying to hold down her nursing job at St. Mark's Hospital. At the start of the series, she is divorced from her ex-husband Phil (Philip Glenister), and is torn between her relations with two of her colleagues, adventurous ambulance driver Lawrie Johnson (Gary Webster), who is always keen on having a quick snog in the laundry room, or dithering and sensitive soul of a doctor, Roger Graham (Hamish Clark), who treats her like a rare butterfly. Due to the demands of her job, she has no money for babysitters and has to rely on her neighbours Marina (Elizabeth Berrington) and Alan (Tony Robinson) to regularly look after her kids. They routinely give her a hard time, Marina is patronising and habitually gives her parental advice, whilst Alan is a dull and pedantic town planner who frequently gets on everyone's nerves, while his marriage and career increasingly comes under strain over time. Later on, Phil subsequently confounds matters and returns to Donna's life, following an accident that lands him in the hospital where she works. He attempts to move on with a new girlfriend Gail (Nicola Stephenson), her stylish and glamorous lifestyle puts Donna's nose out of joint as she tries to compete with her; whilst concurrently Donna tries to manage her increasingly problematic relationship with Roger. == Cast ==

Cast

• Emma Wray as Donna • Philip Glenister as Phil • Hamish Clark as Roger • Elizabeth Berrington as Marina • Tony Robinson as Alan • Vicky Cornett as Shirley • Amanda Riley as Rhiannon • Clare Perkins as Bridget • Oliver Furness as Simon • Gary Webster as Lawrie (Series 1) • Race Davies as Lydia (Series 2) • Nicola Stephenson as Gail (Series 2–3) • Charlie Hunnam as Wes (Series 3) == Episodes ==

Episodes

Pilot (1996) Series 1 (1997) Series 2 (1998) Series 3 (1999) == Home media ==

Home media

The series has rarely been repeated on television since it was initially transmitted, aside from a repeat run on ITV2 in early 2001. To date, the series has never been released on DVD or VHS. == References ==

Source: Wikipedia ↗

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