‘I'm In A Cooking Rivalry With Jamie Oliver!'

After smashing records with the return of the hit series last year, Cold Feet is back this week, with the promise of more laughter, romance and drama. We caught up with Fay Ripley – who plays Jenny Gifford – to get the gossip. Here the star, 51, who's married to actor Daniel Lapaine and mum to Parker, 14, and Sonny, 10, tells us more…

- Vicki Power

Fay, you must have been thrilled with the reception to Cold Feet’s return last year…

We were all just so relieved! It was a high-risk proposition, so imagine the relief when it was received very warmly. Loads of people came up to us – one woman didn’t want to let go of my arm, saying, ‘Thank you, thank you.’ I was like, ‘Hey, I wasn’t solely responsible, but I’ll take it.’

Do you get on well with your co-stars on the show?

Yes, but when we’re in group scenes we forget we’re working and there’s quite a lot of, ‘Could you please be quiet!’ from the crew. We get told off a lot for chatting. We’re all up in Manchester at different times, but when we’re all together, I’m the one who organises the dinners out.

What’s new with Jenny?

Last time around she dealt with Pete’s depression and nearly had a fling with a co-worker. Jenny’s kids are growing up, she loves her husband and they’re fairly comfortably off, but she’s looking in the mirror going, ‘It’s OK, but is OK enough?’ I think people will relate to that. Viewers and [writer] Mike Bullen want Pete [John Thomson] and Jenny to be fairly steady, but she’s asking questions about what’s next.

Have you ever done that?