Family (2003 TV series)


Family is an ITV crime drama series, first broadcast on 29 September 2003, starring Martin Kemp and Jamie Foreman as the protagonists, Joey and Dave Cutler. Based on a crime family operating in London's east-end, Family only lasted one series before being axed by the broadcaster. A DVD of the complete series was released on 30 March 2009.

Plot

Family follows a family of London gangsters headed by Ted Cutler. One of his sons, Joey, is happily married with two children and tries to keep 'business' separate from home life, while the other son, Dave is a loose cannon with a nasty temper who has just returned from America, where he fled following a family rift. Only Joey sees a way out by running a high class restaurant - but this venture is not without violence.

Production

devised and co-wrote the show alongside scriptwriters Tim Vaughan and Roger Smith. Nick Elliott, controller of ITV drama, said of the series;
"Jamie plays the loopy brother, while Martin is like Al Pacino's character in the Godfather, desperately wanting to be straight but going along with the dodgy stuff. There will also be this father figure. It's a contemporary London gangster show and it will have a lot of authenticity. There'll be a contrast between Martin living a normal suburban lifestyle, then going to meetings to discuss rubbing someone out and being involved in rackets and organised crime. He's got a wife and a daughter who takes cello lessons, who don't know about the other life he leads."
Elliott commissioned the six-part series alongside Granada South drama controller, Michele Buck.

Reception

Family was well received by critics and media buyers, who welcomed it as part of a "quality-based offensive" in ITV's autumn schedule. But after a respectable start with 6.1 million viewers watching on 29 September, the programme lost nearly two million viewers, drawing only 4.3 million in the same slot four weeks later. Although there were only two more episodes to be aired, Nigel Pickard, Head of ITV's programming, ditched the show from its prime time slot and consigned it instead to a graveyard slot of 11:30pm on Wednesdays. This meant that the episode previously scheduled for 27 October 2003 was replaced with a re-run of Airline.

Cast