The drama about middle-class Mancunians has hit its stride at long last – thanks largely to a love affair that’s been bubbling under since the 90s

When ITV first announced Cold Feet would be coming back after a 13-year absence, I was deeply sceptical. I enjoyed Mike Bullen’s tale of middle-class Mancunians, but by the time it finished in 2003 it felt less like an old friend you loved spending time with and more like an unwanted guest who lingers long after the party has come to a natural close.

Times, and television, had moved on. Surely resurrecting Cold Feet was just another example of a channel scraping the barrel by rehashing the past instead of coming up with something new? Well, I hold my hands up and admit it: I was wrong.

Yes, the sixth series of Cold Feet was patchy, and even with the seventh, Bullen was still writing his way back to these characters. But the eighth series, which comes to an end this evening, has been must-watch TV: a well-balanced mix of drama and comedy that has accurately reflected the reality of life for many people, while wringing humour out of even the most heartbreaking moments.

We’ve seen Jenny (Fay Ripley) and Pete (Jon Thomson) deal with her breast cancer diagnosis, David (Robert Bathurst) slowly slip down the ladder into homelessness and Adam (James Nesbitt) and Karen (Hermione Norris) inch their way towards realising they love each other.

This last plotline has been particularly well handled. Norris has long been Cold Feet’s unsung MVP, her steadfast, sensible Karen able to keep her head when all around are losing theirs. Nesbitt, by contrast, is often the worst thing about Cold Feet. His bumptious Adam has always walked the line between lovable and irritating, and as his character aged, the Jack-the-lad charm curdled further.

The brilliance of this series is that it sees that. From the opening episode, in which Adam made a fool of himself chatting up a series of younger women at Ramona’s wedding, to the time he mistakenly believed a friendly barista must be attracted to him, it has been clear that he needs to grow up.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Absolutely believable ... Karen (Hermione Norris) and Adam (James Nesbitt) in Cold Feet. Photograph: Ben Blackall/ITV/Big Talk

His relationship with Karen, which blossomed from a wasted kiss at a music festival to a more serious moment last week, has felt utterly organic. It’s driven not by a stupid “Oh, let’s put this couple together for the sake of it” twist that so many TV romances are, but rather from a narrative inevitability that has always lurked in their friendship – and that has only grown in power because of the length of time we have spent with these characters.

For, as Bullen’s writing makes clear, these are two people who have known each other for years, who have always liked each other, and who are coming together not in the first flush of lust but with a real sense of understanding. Each knows the other’s flaws and accepts that they will annoy each other, but they genuinely love each other and know that only this person will do. As a depiction of mature love it is smart, sensitive and absolutely believable.

Bullen has been similarly astute in his depiction of Jenny’s diagnosis. Cancer plotlines are tricky to pull off as the temptation to lapse into maudlin sentiment is immense. Bullen has been largely careful to avoid this. (I say largely because Cold Feet has always leaned in to sentiment – not for nothing did the king of romantic comedy, David Nicholls, cut his teeth here.) Instead, the plot has concentrated on Jenny’s struggle for acceptance, her very real fears about the progression of the disease and last week, most movingly, what it means to her younger daughter Chloe, who is not Pete’s natural child.

Then there’s David. Bathurst has always had the most difficult role in Cold Feet. The stiff and reserved David is often used as the force against which the other characters define themselves. Yet over the years, he is also the character who has changed the most.

He has been tested by job losses and career shifts, shaken by the realisation that his place in the world is not guaranteed and slowly come to terms with his own upbringing and the damage it wrought. His slow slide into homelessness, and the way he wrestled with his pride rather than let those closest to him know, has been beautifully written. Like Jenny’s illness, there is never the sense that this is issue TV but rather a well-told story in which a series of decisions lead a character, whom thanks to some great writing we truly care about, to a certain point in their lives.

This, ultimately, is why this series of Cold Feet has been such a joy. It’s partly the sense that for the first time since the revival was announced, we are truly hanging out with the characters we so enjoyed spending time with back in the day. And it’s partly the fact that those characters have grown and changed as we have grown and changed with them. But mostly it’s because while Cold Feet is at heart warm, comforting television, it is also a show driven by clever, mature writing that is confident enough to make us laugh in the most unexpected moments. Sometimes returning to the scene of past glories really does pay off.