Cold Feet series 6 finale review: A satisfying send-off that left us gagging for more

The eighth instalment didn’t need the drama of a shoot-out to reel us in

Adam (James Nesbitt) and Tina (Leanne Best) at his 'fiftieth' birthday party (ITV)

I didn’t watch Cold Feet first time around. Mike Bullen's twenty and thirty-something protagonists didn’t quite resonate with a young teenage me. But I think, had I switched it on then, as now, I’d have taken this warm, real, flawed group of mates to my heart - despite the age difference.

I’m still out of step with the gang; they’ve got teenage kids and a few divorces between them, but from the start of this sixth series, set in the present day, I fell for Adam (James Nesbitt), Pete (John Thomson), Jenny (Fay Ripley), Karen (Hermione Norris) and David (Robert Bathurst). By the end of this eighth episode, I was head over heels and very much looking forward to the next chapter in our relationship.

This finale was framed around Peter Pan man Adam’s fiftieth birthday party – actually, it was his forty-ninth (landlady and love interest Tina just thought he was making too much of a fuss for it not to be the big 5-0 - ouch). The dad-disco tunes – Bryan Ferry, Eurythmics, Fleetwood Mac, Abba and Bob Marley all featured – and the swanky flat’s roof terrace with panoramic views of Manchester were a fitting backdrop for a show in which the city and the soundtrack could be considered two more main characters.

There were loose ends to tie up and new threads to start (it’s no surprise that a show getting an average of seven million viewers a week has been recommissioned). Luckily, the programme goes at quite a pace, helped by zippy flashbacks to fill us in on what the characters had been up to pre-party. Karen had signed her first author up to her new publishing company, and err, celebrated with her Rafa Nadal lookalike business partner. David had been let off his fraud charges and his ex-wife Robyn had agreed to a quickie divorce, so he went on the sauce. Pete’s antidepressants were causing him and Jenny problems in the bedroom, so he called on David and some little blue pills for help. “It’s not exactly flattering; that’s chemically induced, that is,” said Jenny, as Bullen’s script tackled a side of depression not often shown on primetime telly with humour and sensitivity.

There were also plenty of real-time shenanigans at the party. David and Karen’s son Josh rocked up fresh from his travels with the family’s former nanny Ramona. I didn’t get that same hit of nostalgia as original fans when Jacey Salles appeared on screen, but her comedy accent and no-bulls**t chat feels like an injection of fun rather than hackneyed. It turned out Josh is gay and that Ramona’s “boyfriend” Juan, was actually Josh’s. The touching scenes as Josh discussed his sexuality separately with his parents showed again the understated, real-feeling drama this show does very well.

More action-packed was Pete and Adam getting held up at a siege in the off-licence. I could see what they were doing here; getting out of the party, giving us a bit of air and a different kind of drama, but I prefer the more humdrum stuff.

The episode concluded on the roof terrace (where else?). It was the finale so I’ll let them have a trite element. This show does surprising twists well (Pete’s imagined suicide in episode six for one) but it was satisfying to have a more predictable ending. Tina finally binned off her guitar-wielding married man and convinced Adam and Matt to stay put in the apartment. I'll relish coming back to Manchester for more, too.