Cold Feet season eight: Everything you need to know as the classic show returns

The Cold Feet gang are back for their eighth season, which is the third since the hit 90s show was rebooted in 2016.

Ever since ITV decided to grant fans’ wishes by reviving the much-loved comedy drama, the channel has had a major hit on its hands, with each episode of the most recent series drawing in an average of 5.1 million viewers.

Though viewers initially got to know the show's characters as thirty-somethings, these days they're grappling with middle age and all its associated dramas and dilemmas.

The show is back after a longer hiatus than fans had originally bargained for. Though the first two seasons in the reboot aired over two consecutive years (from 2016 to 2017), star James Nesbitt revealed last summer that the show wouldn’t land on our screens until 2019.

Here's everything you need to know as the series makes its big return.

The show’s core characters are all back on board for the eighth season, meaning that Nesbitt (as Adam), Hermione Norris (Karen), Robert Bathurst (David), John Thomson (Pete) and Fay Ripley (Jenny) will all be making a return.

First introduced in the 2016 reboot, the show’s younger generation will also be reprising their roles, with Cel Spellman playing Adam’s son Matthew and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Karen’s daughter Olivia. Plus, Happy Valley’s Siobhan Finneran will be back as Nikki.

According to show creator Mike Bullen, the latest instalment will have “plenty of trials and tribulations in store for [the characters] as they navigate their way through middle age,” with a newly single Adam once again looking for love and exes Karen and David also pursuing new romances.

The new season will kick off with major health worries for Jenny, who’ll be the subject of a breast cancer scare that'll also put her marriage and friendships under pressure. Discussing the new storyline, Ripley revealed that she was determined that the show would deal with this plot point sensitively, out of respect for those who have faced the disease.

“They asked me how I’d feel about it and I said I wanted it dealt with properly because of the weight of that responsibility, and because so many people I know are affected by breast cancer and cancer in general,” the actress said at a screening of the new episodes. “Sometimes it’s going to be funny, sometimes it’s going to be scary. I just wanted it to be honest.”

Keep your fingers crossed. Nesbitt has previously revealed his hopes for several more seasons of the hit show, telling ITV's Ruth Langford and Eamonn Holmes: "Hopefully we'll do it for another year or two."

"The idea would be great to bring it back when we're all 70. It'll be good to see what happens at that age."

The show has now swapped its usual Friday night slot for a Monday night fixture, meaning that the first episode will air on January 14 at 9pm on TV. Subsequent instalments will then be broadcast at the same time on Monday evenings.