Ceallach Spellman to appear in Cold Feet reboot

Cel Spellman currently presents a Sunday afternoon show on BBC Radio 1

Actor and BBC Radio 1 presenter Ceallach Spellman is to join the cast of Cold Feet.

A reboot of the ITV show, which was originally broadcast from 1997 - 2003, is to be screened later this year.

Spellman will take on the role of Matthew - the son of Adam and Rachel, played in the original series by James Nesbitt and Helen Baxendale.

The character was last seen as a baby in the final episodes of the show's original run.

Spellman said he was "so excited and somewhat humbled" to be joining for the programme's return.

He described his casting as a "wonderful opportunity to be part of this fantastic story which was so popular and successful 14 years ago".

The 20-year-old will be appearing alongside the programme's original cast members, including Robert Bathurst, Hermione Norris, John Thomson and Fay Ripley.

A trained actor, Spellman has previously appeared in BBC One's Waterloo Road and Channel 4 drama Cucumber.

But he is currently best known as the presenter of BBC Radio 1's The Number 1 Show, broadcast on the station on Sunday afternoons.

Cold Feet was first broadcast on ITV in 1997

Fans of Cold Feet will recall Matthew's mother Rachel dying in a car crash at the end of the fifth series, after which his father left Manchester - where the show is set - with his infant son.

Spellman joked he was "particularly looking forward" to working alongside his on-screen dad, "even if he is a Man United fan".

The part of baby Matthew was originally played by Jacob Hughes, now a teenager living in Lancashire.

Cold Feet followed the ups and downs of three 30-something couples, and made household names of the cast.

The show was not initially well received by critics but became a firm favourite with viewers, with more than 10 million people tuning into the final episode in the UK.

ITV will be keen to see whether the reboot can replicate the programme's previous success, but the series will face much tougher competition this time around because of the significantly different television landscape.

Catch-up and on-demand services such as Netflix and the BBC's iPlayer mean TV programmes now rarely get as many live viewers as was standard at the time of Cold Feet's original broadcast.

The new eight-part series is currently shooting in Manchester. A broadcast date has yet to be announced.