As with the first cast, the performances were impressively acted and, for the most part, well sung.
In 1952, Sheila and Richard (as Detective Sergeant Trotter) led the first cast of a play which was to became a theatrical phenomenon.
Although she played the lead in the crime drama Blue Murder – and one of her early jobs was as a prostitute in the first cast of Les Misérables – many of her most recent TV roles have been firmly in the mum mould (one of whom is in ITV2's new post-apocalyptic comedy Cockroaches).
The first casts Heath Ledger as an amnesiac drifter, except that the actor appears only fitfully and his death – midway through filming – has forced Gilliam to use other actors (Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell) to embroider the holes he left behind.
Almost as irksome was the costume for the second-cast hero, Denis Matvienko.
As the first person cast, what really attracted me to the project was the involvement of Scott Free, Ridley Scott's production company.
This was done to avoid moving the show to a primarily college setting, as the first generation cast aged or "graduated" out of Degrassi Community School into college.
Despite joining the series in its second season, Sara Ramirez is on the same negotiation schedule as the first season cast and has also inked a new two-year deal.
In a good performance, however, as with the current first cast on Wednesday, "The Leaves Are Fading" becomes a special elegy, an autumnal remembrance of multiple facets of young love when it is dewy but not intoxicated.
