As my sister Jess points out, the 10 year anniversary ‘This Life + 10‘ was rather the anti-climax we had feared it would be.

For one thing, the magnificent cast of ten years ago was rather depleted. The main protagonists were present, but +10 revealed just how important the supporting cast like Luisa Bradshaw-White (Kira), Ramon Tikaram (Ferdy) and Natasha Little (the excellently played Rachel) were. Not only this, the writing by Amy Jenkins left rather a lot to be desired. Despite her creating the original programme, it is not in fact her that is to be thanked for the most fabulous of the episodes (she was always rather obvious and clichéd in comparison.) Furthermore, some of the actors (ahem, Mr. Lincoln.) were slightly hammy were as in the past the acting had seemed authentic.

There were plus points; four of the main characters dancing to the Manic Street Preachers classic A Design For Life while the other seemingly attempted to top himself was of old-school-This-Life-aptness albeit in a more clinical and less natural way.

The character of Milly (Amita Dhiri) was just as I had anticipated she would be. Still a driven bitch, with a different drive. Obsessed with her baby now instead of work, but resentful at the same time. Cliché? Yes. As Milly would be? Probably a yes as well if I’m honest.

This was all reversed with the beloved Anna (Daniela Nardini). Anna now wants babies, and not the law. As if! I am afraid I didn’t really buy this complete transformation of character in the slightest. Another thing that struck me, as my mother said, was that she had lost some of her sexiness and identifiable characteristics. But for those who have yet to see This Life +10, worry not, as her character wasn’t entirely wasted - she was still a bit of a bastard.

Miles (Jack Davenport) was interesting to watch. His presumed divorce to Francesca was unsubstantiated, but he had re-married to Vietnamese model Me-Linh (maybe there’s a more stereotypical name for an east-Asian character, but I doubt it) whose involvement seemed false and contrived. I guess the character of Miles got better as the programme drew its conclusion, but it was still riddled with hypocracy and unexplained sillyness.

Egg (Andrew Lincoln) inexplicably emerged as a successful author despite his endeavors in the kitchen (which he presumably jacked in). The acting for Egg was (by far, far and away) the worst of the five, which was always the case, and let down the character rather substantially. His character hadn’t really developed as one would have invisaged, either.

That brings me to Warren (Jason Hughes). There were moments of the old Warren we all knew and loved, but on the whole Amy Jenkins re-wrote Warren as a parody of an excentric gay man whose only real pre-occupations were therapy and the consumption of his anti-depressant medication, used to help him grieve the death of Ferdy. She lathered on the “irony” rather too thickly — yes, we got that he was screwed up from the original series — cheers, Amy.

I suppose it was worth watching. It could have been worse. It just all seemed a little contrived and over-boiled, when all we wanted was a nice ending to the best TV series ever! Never mind, there’s always This Life + 20…