This Life at 30: How the Cult Drama Sexed Up TV and Changed a Generation
Booze, drugs, and a full-frontal Andrew Lincoln shower scene—all in the first episode. Welcome to This Life, the landmark BBC drama that swaggered onto screens thirty years ago, leaving a lasting mark on television. To mark the anniversary, the BBC is rerunning the none-more-90s saga, with a new introduction by actor Daniela Nardini, who played the breakout heroine Anna. This cult classic not only captured the hedonistic spirit of the Cool Britannia era but also reinvented TV drama with its bold portrayal of young adulthood.
The Creation of a Cultural Phenomenon
Amy Jenkins, the show's creator and chief writer, recalls how This Life came into being. "Michael Jackson—not that one, the BBC Two controller—wanted to be more like Channel 4, so he commissioned a cool drama for young people about trainee lawyers," she says. Jenkins, who had briefly been a lawyer, agreed to write it on one condition: no courtroom scenes. "I didn't want to write a show about lawyers! Fuck, so boring. That's why I'd left to become a writer," she explains. Instead, she infused the series with the spirit of the rave scene, creating a raw, unfiltered look at a generation.
The show followed a gang of law graduates sharing a shabby house near London's Southwark Bridge, where booze flowed, quips flew, and debauchery ensued. "It was oddly radical at the time to show middle-class young people who were drinking, swearing, taking drugs, and having sex," Jenkins notes. "It struck such a chord because that generation had never been represented on TV. No one had even tried."
Characters That Captured Hearts and Minds
Viewers felt they truly knew the characters, from daydreamer Edgar "Egg" (Andrew Lincoln) to the love-hate relationship between posh playboy Miles (Jack Davenport) and chippy, lippy Anna (Daniela Nardini). For mid-90s audiences, Miles and Anna became a homegrown Ross and Rachel—two frenemies whose will-they-or-won't-they dynamic titillated viewers. "Our relationship was an important hook for the audience," says Nardini. "People really bought into it and wanted them to get together."
Anna, a self-sabotaging but lovable hot mess, was a proto-Fleabag—a chain-smoking whirlwind of charisma. Phoebe Waller-Bridge cites This Life as one of her formative shows. Nardini won a Bafta for her performance, adding, "Despite being this outspoken, cursing, hard-drinking tough nut, there was this real vulnerability about Anna."
Breaking Taboos and Pushing Boundaries
With its bracingly bold portrayal of recreational drug-taking and casual sex, This Life spoke to a generation. "It was fresh and youthful but didn't feel like Hollyoaks," Nardini recalls. "They drank and did drugs but there wouldn't be any big consequences. Nobody dropped down dead or went into recovery. It was unapologetic." The Daily Mail pronounced itself "appalled," but Jenkins sees it as a badge of honor. "I'm glad if it moved things forward in terms of inclusivity, especially the gay sex scenes," she says.
The BBC largely left the creative team to it, except for F-bombs and fellatio. "They once cut three seconds off a blowjob," Jenkins laughs. "We also had a limited number of 'fucks' that could be said per episode." Nardini grins: "They gave them all to Anna because she swore the best." Storylines tackled previously taboo subjects, from eating disorders to HIV scares, and even the provocative theory that "the Beatles are boring."
Innovative Style and Lasting Influence
Veteran producer Tony Garnett, a longtime Ken Loach collaborator, wanted the action to feel grittily real. This Life was shot almost entirely on location, with pioneering use of wobbly handheld cameras that gave it a raw, voyeuristic, documentary-like feel. "That fly-on-the-wall intimacy has become the norm now," Jenkins notes. This technique would later be adopted by shows from The Cops to Succession.
When the show launched in spring 1996, it was only a modest success, but a second series and a prime-time slot helped it take off, drawing 4 million viewers. "Tony wanted people to stumble across it and feel like it belonged to them," Jenkins says. "Happily, that's exactly what happened." This Life became one of the first word-of-mouth, box set-style hits on British TV, with a soundtrack album curated by an unknown named Ricky Gervais, three years before his own on-screen career began.
Legacy and Impact
Groundbreaking in style and content, This Life reinvented TV drama, ushering in a wave of sexed-up soaps about urban professionals. "We inspired a whole swathe of brilliant shows that came after," Jenkins reflects. "Cold Feet, Coupling, all the fantastic Russell T Davies stuff. This Life definitely moved the dial a bit." She adds that the current show Industry has a strong This Life vibe.
The show also unearthed a generation of talent, with Andrew Lincoln achieving global fame in The Walking Dead and Jack Davenport starring in films like Pirates of the Caribbean. Thirty years on, the lusty lawyers are back on BBC Four, proving their enduring appeal. "It's fantastic that it's still being discovered," Jenkins says. "People often tell me they begged their mum to let them stay up late to watch it. I've even met people who went into law because of This Life. I'm always slightly apologetic about that!"
