Fay Ripley has revealed she wanted to be killed off in the original run of Cold Feet – but is now thrilled that it did not happen.

The actress starred as Jenny Gifford in the popular drama, which ran from 1997 to 2003, and will reprise the role now that it is returning for a sixth series 13 years later.

She said it might not have happened if her plea for Jenny to die had been listened to.

She said: “I left Cold Feet in series four when Jenny moved to New York and returned in the final episode of series five, the last one we filmed.

“When I left I had asked (creator and writer) Mike Bullen to kill me off because I wanted a big, dramatic dying scene.

“And then I came back at the end because they asked me, I was nostalgic for the show and I was delighted to do so.”

Cold Feet
Cold Feet (Jonathan Ford/ITV/PA)

The actress continued: “But what I hadn’t thought about was that 13 years later it was going to be really handy that I did come back. Because now I can be in Cold Feet in 2016.

“So I am very grateful for having not been killed off.”

Fay, 50, said she was sceptical when she first heard that Cold Feet was finally being rebooted.

She said: “It has been talked about for so long that when eventually it was mooted as a real live, grown up idea, I don’t think any of us believed it.

“There had been a lot of false alarms over the years so all of us were rather cynical. I had put it to bed. I was totally assuming Cold Feet was never going to come back.”

She added: “Initially I probably said yes thinking, ‘Well I’ll say yes but it’ll never happen’.”

Cold Feet
Cold Feet (Neil Marland/ITV)

The new episodes start in September, and Ripley has not ruled out another series.

“In this day and age you certainly don’t count that chicken before it’s hatched. But it would be nice to do it again because we all had a great time making it,” she said.

“I really do think the people that used to like Cold Feet will still like it. And then on top of that I hope it will also find a new audience.
“I guess time will tell on that one.”

Cold Feet will return to ITV on September 5.