 Cold Feet's pilot episode was intended by Andy Harries, the executive producer and Granada Television's controller of comedy, to lead to a series commission from the ITV network. Poor ratings on its night of broadcast in March 1997 stalled a commission; Harries told writer and creator Mike Bullen and producer Christine Langan to "forget it". ITV's limited portfolio of comedy meant that although it was a ratings failure, the pilot was selected by default to represent the network at the Montreux Television Festival that year. The pilot won the Silver Rose for Humour and the Rose d'Or. ITV still did not commission a series, and in the meantime Granada received offers from the BBC and Channel 4 for a six-part series. In August 1997, David Liddiment, who had chaired the panel of judges at Montreux, became ITV's director of programming and pledged to rebrand the network's comedy output. This included six new episodes of Cold Feet, which were announced that August. Production began in January 1998. Each episode was budgeted at £ 500,000, a small amount for a 50-minute drama.
