1996 British television drama serial
Our Friends in the North
is a
British television
drama
serial
produced by the
BBC
. It was originally broadcast in nine episodes on
BBC2
in early 1996. Written by
Peter Flannery
, it tells the story of four friends from
Newcastle upon Tyne
over a period of 31 years, from 1964 to 1995. The story makes reference to certain political and social events which occurred during the era portrayed, some specific to Newcastle and others which affected Britain as a whole. These include general elections, police and local government corruption, the
UK miners' strike (1984?85)
, and the
Great Storm of 1987
.
The serial is commonly regarded as one of the most successful
BBC television dramas
of the 1990s, described by
The Daily Telegraph
as "a production where all ... worked to serve a writer's vision. We are not likely to look upon its like again".
[1]
It has been named by the
British Film Institute
as one of the
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
of the 20th century, by
The Guardian
as the third greatest television drama of all time and by
Radio Times
as one of the 40 greatest television programmes.
[2]
[3]
[4]
It was awarded three
British Academy Television Awards
(BAFTAs), two
Royal Television Society
Awards, four
Broadcasting Press Guild
Awards, and a Certificate of Merit from the
San Francisco International Film Festival
.
[5]
Our Friends in the North
helped to establish the careers of its four lead actors,
Daniel Craig
,
Christopher Eccleston
,
Gina McKee
and
Mark Strong
. Daniel Craig's part in particular has been referred to as his
breakthrough role
.
[6]
[7]
It was also a controversial production, as its stories were partly based on real people and events. Several years passed before it was adapted from a play, performed by the
Royal Shakespeare Company
, to a television drama, owing in part to the BBC's fear of legal action.
In February 2022, it was announced that Flannery had rewritten
Our Friends in the North
for
BBC Radio 4
and that it would feature a new, tenth episode written by Adam Usden that was set in Newcastle in 2020. It features
James Baxter
, Norah Lopez Holden, Philip Correia and Luke MacGregor in the respective roles of Nicky, Mary, Tosker and Geordie, and began 17 March 2022.
[8]
Plot
[
edit
]
Christopher Eccleston
(pictured in 2013) played Dominic 'Nicky' Hutchinson in
Our Friends in the North
, earning a
BAFTA
nomination for his performance.
In 1964 twenty-year-old university student Nicky Hutchinson (
Christopher Eccleston
) returns to Newcastle after volunteering for the summer in the
U.S. civil rights movement
. His friends Geordie (
Daniel Craig
) and Tosker (
Mark Strong
) are eager to start a band but Nicky rebuffs them as he is occupied with his volunteering work.
Nicky's girlfriend, Mary (
Gina McKee
), is also unhappy with his lack of attention and they drift apart. Tosker takes advantage of the situation and successfully woos Mary, getting her pregnant. Nicky is offered a job working for Austin Donohue (
Alun Armstrong
), a former council leader who is starting a PR and
lobbying
firm.
Nicky is impressed by Austin's apparent passion for change and he drops out of university to accept the job, to the dismay of his working-class father, Felix (
Peter Vaughan
). Geordie gets into a fight with his abusive, alcoholic father and runs away from home, abandoning his pregnant fiancee.
Now living in London, Geordie accepts a job offer from sleazy crime boss Benny Barratt (
Malcolm McDowell
) and begins working as his assistant in the
Soho sex industry
. Meanwhile Mary and Tosker struggle to adapt to their new married life. Their high-rise
council flat
, despite being brand new, is plagued by structural issues including rampant
damp
. Nicky is dismayed that Austin's firm is representing John Edwards, the owner of the company responsible for the sub-standard flats. After discovering records of the extensive bribery that took place in the project's development, Nicky resigns in protest. Austin later receives four years in prison for his involvement and Edwards is declared bankrupt. Tosker's dreams of becoming a professional musician rapidly fade after a brutal audition with a local talent scout. Dejected, he continues to do menial jobs to make ends meet. After visiting Geordie in London, he is given a loan from Benny and starts his own grocery business. Around this time, Geordie starts an affair with Benny's girlfriend, Julia.
Working as a
photo journalist
in London, Nicky's ideologies become extreme to the point he joins an
anarchist terrorist
cell. While lying low in Newcastle he is confronted by his parents and family friend, Eddie Wells (
David Bradley
), after his mother, Florrie (
Freda Dowie
), finds a
submachinegun
in his room. Despite his insistence he is in the right, his anarchist activities are brought to a sudden halt when the cell's hideout is raided by the police and everyone but him is arrested. Later Eddie runs as an
independent Labour
candidate in a
Westminster by-election
, after Felix agrees to be his
campaign agent
. Owing to Nicky's past ties to extremism, Eddie rejects his support, narrowly winning the seat nevertheless. Nicky eventually returns to mainstream politics in Newcastle and becomes a
Labour
parliamentary candidate himself. However, despite running in a safe Labour constituency and receiving an endorsement from Eddie, he manages to lose the seat to the
Conservatives
after a
smear campaign
depicts him as an
IRA
sympathiser.
In London the situation gets progressively more difficult for Benny's businesses as continued pressure from the
Metropolitan Police
(Met) Commissioner Colin Blamire (
Peter Jeffrey
) forces the heavily corrupt vice ("dirty") squad to reluctantly act. Meanwhile, tired of being repeatedly blackmailed by the dirty squad, one of Benny's men takes evidence of Met corruption to the Sunday papers and the resulting scandal forces the government to hold an independent inquiry. Roy Johnson (
Tony Haygarth
) is brought in from Newcastle as an outsider to run the investigation but is obstructed at every turn by Blamire, dirty squad Commander Harold Chapple (
Donald Sumpter
) and his henchman John Salway (
David Schofield
). Despite the setbacks, Johnson is able to present a report to the
Home Secretary
detailing extensive Met corruption. Blamire, however, is able to leverage a separate investigation into the Home Secretary's past business dealings to blackmail him into suppressing the inquiry findings. A disheartened Johnson returns to Newcastle to take early retirement. With the inquiry behind them, Benny and the dirty squad are free to reach new lucrative arrangements. Benny also has Geordie framed and imprisoned in revenge for the affair with Julia years before. Subsequent police investigations eventually bring down Chapple, Salway and many other corrupt Met officers.
Some years later Tosker is now a moderately successful businessman and Mary is occupied with her advocacy work. After Tosker's repeated infidelity, their marriage breaks down and he moves out to live with his new girlfriend, Elaine (
Tracey Wilkinson
). Nicky and Mary briefly reunite, but she is hesitant to resume their relationship out of concern for her young children. Out of prison and back living in Newcastle, Geordie is devastated to learn that Julia has been killed in an apparent accident. He aggressively questions Benny over her death but accepts Benny's argument that he had no motive to kill her. Eventually Geordie's casual drug dealing gets him in trouble with the law again and he departs for London a second time.
In 1984 Nicky is covering the ongoing
miners' strike
. After being injured in a brawl between the police and the miners, he rekindles his relationship with Mary. Tosker meanwhile has made his fortune as a
slum landlord
, straining his marriage with Elaine. At her urging, he sells the properties and invests heavily in stocks, which are subsequently wiped out in
the 1987 market crash
. Three years later, Nicky is struggling with his marriage to Mary and also with his father Felix who has been diagnosed with
Alzheimer's disease
. While in London, he needlessly picks a fight with Eddie Wells and starts an affair with a young student, Alice. He eventually separates from Mary to pursue Alice but by then she is not interested in a serious relationship. Geordie, who is now an alcoholic and living at a
homeless shelter
, sets fire to his bed in a moment of madness. Quickly apprehended, he is deemed a danger to society and is stunned when the judge sentences him to life in prison. Nicky reconciles with Eddie after he discovers Eddie's assistant is a mole for a PR company. Eddie resigns in embarrassment but as he is leaving Westminster he is caught up in the
Great Storm of 1987
and dies of a heart attack. The storm also presents Geordie an opportunity to escape his
prison transport
but he chooses not to take it. In Newcastle, Mary initially refuses to run in the by-election for Eddie's seat but eventually changes her mind and is subsequently elected. Exasperated at Felix's increasingly outlandish behaviour, Florrie can no longer cope and she sends him to a
care home
.
Seven years later in 1995, Nicky has been living in Italy and returns to Newcastle to attend Florrie's funeral. Tosker and Elaine have slowly rebuilt their business and are on the eve of opening a new
floating nightclub
. Geordie has escaped from prison and approaches the club looking for work, where he is recognised by Elaine. Although Tosker and Elaine privately do not believe his story that he is out on parole, they take him in and give him a job playing keyboards for the opening night band. Nicky desperately tries to convince Felix that his life, in particular the
Jarrow March
, was not a failure, but Felix's mind is too far gone to understand. Geordie tries to attend the club launch event but is refused entry due to a miscommunication with the bouncers. Tosker fills in for the band at the last minute and finally achieves his dream of musical stardom, albeit on a small scale. The four friends reunite at Florrie's funeral for the first time for 31 years. Afterwards Tosker spends time with his grandchildren, Nicky decides to try and patch things up with Mary and Geordie walks off to an unknown fate.
Cast
[
edit
]
Background
[
edit
]
Stage play
[
edit
]
Northumberland Street
in
Newcastle upon Tyne
, pictured in 1969 before it was pedestrianised. Life in Newcastle in the 1960s was a major influence on
Peter Flannery
's writing of
Our Friends in the North
.
Our Friends in the North
was originally written by the playwright
Peter Flannery
for the
theatre
, while he was a
writer in residence
for the
Royal Shakespeare Company
(RSC).
[9]
The idea came to Flannery while he was watching the rehearsals for the company's production of
Henry IV, Part 1
and
Part 2
at
Stratford-upon-Avon
in 1980; the scale of the plays inspired him to come up with his own historical epic.
[9]
The original three-hour long theatre version of
Our Friends in the North
, directed by
John Caird
and featuring
Jim Broadbent
and
Roger Allam
among the cast, was produced by the RSC in 1982. It initially ran for a week at
The Other Place
in Stratford before touring to the city in which it was set,
Newcastle upon Tyne
, and then playing at The Pit, a
studio theatre
in the
Barbican Centre
in London.
[10]
In its original form the story went up only to the
1979 general election
and the coming to power of the new
Conservative
government under
Margaret Thatcher
.
[11]
The play also contained a significant number of scenes set in
Rhodesia
, chronicling
UDI
, the oil embargo and the emergence of armed resistance to white supremacy.
[12]
This plot strand was dropped from the televised version, although the title
Our Friends in the North
, a reference to how staff at
BP
in
South Africa
referred to the Rhodesian government of
Ian Smith
, remained.
[13]
Flannery was heavily influenced not only by his own political viewpoints and life experiences but also by the actual history of his home city of Newcastle during the 1960s and 1970s.
[14]
Characters such as Austin Donohue and John Edwards were directly based on the real-life scandals of
T. Dan Smith
and
John Poulson
. Flannery contacted Smith and explained that he was going to write a play based on the events of the scandal, to which Smith replied, "There is a play here of Shakespearean proportions."
[15]
1980s attempts at production
[
edit
]
The stage version of
Our Friends in the North
was seen by
BBC television drama
producer
Michael Wearing
in Newcastle in 1982, and he was immediately keen on producing a television adaptation.
[16]
At that time, Wearing was based at the
BBC English Regions
Drama Department at
BBC Pebble Mill
in Birmingham, which had a specific remit for making "regional drama".
[17]
Wearing initially approached Flannery to adapt his play into a four-part television serial for
BBC2
, with each episode being 50 minutes long and the Rhodesian strand dropped for practical reasons.
[18]
[19]
A change of executives meant that the project was not produced, although Wearing persisted in trying to get it commissioned. Flannery extended the serial to six episodes,
[18]
one for each
United Kingdom general election
from 1964 to 1979.
[20]
However, by this point in the mid-1980s,
Michael Grade
was Director of Programmes for BBC Television, and he had no interest in the project.
[21]
By 1989, Wearing had been recalled to the central BBC drama department in
London
where he was made Head of Serials.
[22]
This new seniority eventually allowed him to further the cause of
Our Friends in the North
. Flannery wrote to the BBC's then managing director of television,
Will Wyatt
, "accusing him of cowardice for not approving it."
[23]
The BBC was concerned not only with the budget and resources that would be required to produce the serial, but also with potential legal issues. Much of the background story was based on real-life events and people, such as Smith and Poulson and former
Home Secretary
Reginald Maudling
, upon whom another character, Claud Seabrook, was based.
[24]
According to
The Observer
newspaper, one senior BBC lawyer, Glen Del Medico, even threatened to resign if the production was made. Others tried to persuade Flannery to reset the piece "in a fictional country called Albion rather than Britain."
[23]
Both Smith and Poulson died before the programme aired.
[25]
The character of Benny Barratt was based on the pornographer
James Humphreys
.
[
citation needed
]
Pre-production
[
edit
]
In 1992, Wearing was able to persuade the controller of BBC Two,
Alan Yentob
, to commission Peter Flannery to write scripts for a new version of the project.
[21]
Yentob had no great enthusiasm for
Our Friends in the North
, as he remembered a meeting with Flannery in 1988, when the writer had left him unimpressed by stating that
Our Friends in the North
was about "post-war
social housing
policy".
[21]
[26]
As Wearing was now a head of department at the BBC, he was too busy overseeing other projects to produce
Our Friends in the North
.
[27]
George Faber
was briefly attached to the project as producer before he moved on to become Head of Single Drama at the BBC.
[27]
Faber was succeeded by a young producer with great enthusiasm for the project,
Charles Pattinson
.
[28]
When Yentob was succeeded as controller of BBC Two by
Michael Jackson
, Pattinson was able to persuade him to commission full production on the series.
[29]
This was in spite of the fact that Jackson and Wearing were not close and did not get on; Pattinson took to dealing with Jackson directly.
[21]
Jackson had agreed to nine one-hour episodes but Flannery protested that each episode should be as long as it needed to be, to which Jackson agreed.
[29]
The long delay in production did have the advantage of allowing Flannery to extend the story and instead of ending in 1979, it carried on into the 1990s, bringing the four central characters into
middle age
.
[30]
Flannery later commented that: "The project has undoubtedly benefited from the delay. I'm not sure I have".
[29]
The series encountered more legal problems, when some references to the fictional businessman Alan Roe were removed, because of a perceived similarity to Sir
John Hall
, a Newcastle businessman who had a number of things in common. The drama had originally shown Roe as taking advantage of tax subsidies to build a large shopping centre.
[25]
Production and broadcast
[
edit
]
Daniel Craig
(pictured in 2015) played George 'Geordie' Peacock, one of the four main characters in
Our Friends in the North
. It was one of his first major starring roles on British television.
The scale of
Our Friends in the North
required BBC Two controller Michael Jackson to devote a budget of £8 million to the production, which was half of his channel's drama serials budget for the entire year.
[31]
Producer Charles Pattinson attempted to gain co-production funding from overseas broadcasters, but met with a lack of interest. Pattinson believed it was because the story was so much about Britain and had limited appeal to other countries.
[32]
BBC Worldwide
, the corporation's commercial arm which sells its programmes overseas, offered only £20,000 of funding towards the production.
[32]
The speaking cast of
Our Friends in the North
numbered 160;
[23]
more than 3,000
extras
were used,
[23]
and filming took place across 40 weeks, from November 1994 until September 1995.
[33]
Directors
[
edit
]
The first
director
approached to helm the production by Michael Wearing was
Danny Boyle
.
[34]
Boyle was keen to direct all nine episodes, but Pattinson believed that one director taking charge of the entire serial would be too punishing a schedule for whoever was chosen.
[35]
Boyle had recently completed work on the feature film
Shallow Grave
and wanted to see how that film was received before committing to
Our Friends in the North
.
[34]
When
Shallow Grave
proved to be a critical success, Boyle was able to enter pre-production on
Trainspotting
. He withdrew from
Our Friends in the North
.
[36]
Sir Peter Hall
was also briefly considered, but he too had other production commitments.
[36]
Two directors were finally chosen to helm the project.
Stuart Urban
was assigned the first five episodes and
Simon Cellan Jones
the final four.
[36]
However, after completing the first two episodes and some of the shooting for the third, Urban left the project after disagreements with the production team.
[37]
Peter Flannery was concerned that Urban's directorial style was not suited to the material that he had written.
[36]
Christopher Eccleston's viewpoint is that Urban was "only interested in painting pretty pictures."
[38]
Pattinson agreed that a change was needed, and Michael Jackson agreed to a change of director mid-way through production, which was unusual for a British television drama of this type so far into proceedings.
[37]
Director
Pedr James
, who had recently directed
an adaptation of
Martin Chuzzlewit
for Michael Wearing's department, was hired to shoot the remainder of what were to have been Urban's episodes.
[37]
Casting
[
edit
]
Of the actors cast in the four leading roles, only Gina McKee was a native of
North East England
, and she was from
Sunderland
rather than from Newcastle.
[36]
McKee related strongly to many of the characters and story elements in the scripts and was very keen to play Mary, but the production team was initially uncertain whether it would be possible to age her up convincingly enough to portray the character in her 50s.
[39]
McKee was concerned that she would not be given the part after an unsuccessful makeup test where efforts to make her appear to be in her 50s resulted in her resembling a
drag queen
.
[39]
Christopher Eccleston was the only one of the four lead actors who was already an established television face, having previously co-starred in the
ITV
crime drama series
Cracker
.
[36]
Eccleston first heard about the project while working with Danny Boyle on the film
Shallow Grave
in the autumn of 1993.
[38]
Initially, Eccleston had been considered by the production team as a candidate to play Geordie, but he was more interested in playing Nicky, whom he saw as a more emotionally complex character.
[38]
Eccleston was particularly concerned about being able to perform with the Newcastle
Geordie accent
. He did not even attempt the accent at his audition, concentrating instead on characterisation.
[38]
He drew inspiration for his performance as the older Nicky from Peter Flannery, basing aspects of his characterisation on Flannery's personality. He even wore some of the writer's colourful shirts.
[38]
Daniel Craig was auditioned late for the role of Geordie. At the audition he performed the Geordie accent very poorly but won the part, which came to be regarded as his breakthrough role.
[7]
[6]
Mark Strong worked on the Geordie accent by studying episodes of the 1980s comedy series
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
, which featured lead characters from Newcastle.
[40]
Strong later claimed that Christopher Eccleston took a dislike to him and outside of their scenes together the pair did not speak while the series was filming.
[40]
Among the supporting roles, one of the highest-profile pieces of casting was
Malcolm McDowell
as Soho porn baron Benny Barratt. Barratt appears in scenes in episodes from
1966
to
1979
but the production could only afford him for three weeks.
[7]
This was because McDowell was then a resident of the United States.
[41]
All of McDowell's scenes were shot by Stuart Urban as part of the first block of filming; the rest of the production was filmed roughly chronologically.
[35]
[37]
This was considered more than worthwhile, however, for the prestige of being able to use an actor such as McDowell, predominantly a film actor who seldom did television work.
[7]
[41]
Daniel Craig's performance would first bring him to the attention of producer
Barbara Broccoli
, who later cast him in the role of secret agent
James Bond
in the
long-running film series
.
[42]
Christopher Eccleston went on to achieve success in a screen role when he appeared as the
Ninth Doctor
in the BBC science-fiction series
Doctor Who
in 2005. Since then various media articles have noted the coincidence of the future James Bond and
Doctor Who
leads having co-starred in the same production earlier in their careers.
[3]
[43]
[44]
[45]
Episode one re-shoot
[
edit
]
Mark Strong
(pictured in 2010) played Terry 'Tosker' Cox across thirty years of his life in
Our Friends in the North
, from a young man in 1964 to middle-age in 1995.
After Stuart Urban left the production and the decision had been made to re-shoot some of the material that he had completed with Pedr James directing, producer Charles Pattinson suggested to Peter Flannery that the first episode should not simply be remade, but also rewritten.
[46]
Flannery took the opportunity to completely change the opening storyline, introducing the love story element between Nicky and Mary earlier. This was introduced in later episodes of the television version, but had not been part of the original play.
[46]
Other storyline and character changes were made with the new version of the first episode because it was the script that had most closely resembled the original stage play. Michael Wearing felt that the story could be expanded to a greater degree for television.
[34]
Production of the new version of the opening episode took place in what was to have been a three-week break for the cast between production blocks.
[39]
Gina McKee was initially very concerned about having her character's early life story changed when she had already based elements of her later performance on the previously established version.
[39]
Eccleston was also unhappy about the sudden changes.
[46]
However, McKee felt that the new version of episode one eventually made for a much stronger opening to the story.
[39]
Due to budgetary constraints, it was not possible to re-shoot some scenes of episode one in the north-east, and they instead had to be filmed in and around
Watford
.
[37]
Beach-set scenes were shot at
Folkestone
rather than
Whitley Bay
, which was obvious to locals on screen due to the presence of pebbles on the beach, which are not present at Whitley Bay.
[47]
This led to some critics mockingly referring to the production as
Our Friends in the South
.
[47]
Music
[
edit
]
Contemporary popular music was used throughout the production to evoke the feel of the year in which each episode was set.
[48]
The BBC's existing agreements with various music publishers and record labels meant that the production team was easily able to obtain the rights to use most of the desired songs.
[48]
A particular piece of synchronicity occurred in the final episode,
1995
, which Cellan Jones had decided to close with the song "
Don't Look Back in Anger
" by
Oasis
from the album
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
. While
Our Friends in the North
was airing, it was released as a single and was at the top of the
UK Singles Chart
in the week of the final episode's transmission.
[41]
Broadcast
[
edit
]
Our Friends in the North
was broadcast in nine episodes on BBC2 at 9pm on Monday nights, from 15 January to 11 March 1996.
[49]
The episode lengths varied, with
1966
being the shortest at 63 minutes, 48 seconds and
1987
the longest at 74 minutes, 40 seconds.
[33]
The total running time of the serial is 623 minutes.
[50]
The first episode of
Our Friends in the North
gained 5.1 million viewers on its original transmission.
[51]
In terms of viewing figures, the series was BBC2's most successful weekly drama until 2001.
[52]
[
failed verification
]
Reception
[
edit
]
Critical response
[
edit
]
The floating nightclub
Tuxedo Princess
beneath the
Tyne Bridge
in Newcastle, pictured in 2005. Both of these locations feature prominently in
Our Friends in the North
.
Both during and after its original transmission on BBC2, the serial was generally praised by the critics. Reviewing the first episode in
The Observer
newspaper, Ian Bell wrote: "Flannery's script is faultless; funny, chilling, evocative, spare, linguistically precise. The four young friends about to share 31 hellish years in the life of modern Britain are excellently played."
[53]
The conclusion of the serial in March brought similar praise. "
Our Friends in the North
confounded the gloomier predictions about its content and proved that there was an audience for political material, provided that it found its way to the screen through lives imagined in emotional detail ... It will be remembered for an intimate sense of character, powerful enough to make you forgive its faults and stay loyal to the end,"
[31]
was the verdict of
The Independent
on the final episode. Writing in the same newspaper the following day,
Jeffrey Richards
added that "Monday night's final episode of
Our Friends in the North
has left many people bereft. The serial captivated much of the country, sketching a panoramic view of life in Britain from the sixties to the nineties ... At once sweeping and intimate, both moving and angry, simultaneously historical and contemporary, it has followed in the distinguished footsteps of BBC series such as
Boys from the Blackstuff
."
[54]
However, the response was not exclusively positive. In
The Independent on Sunday
, columnist
Lucy Ellmann
criticised both what she saw as the unchanging nature of the characters and Flannery's concentration on friendship rather than family. "What's in the water there anyway? These are the youngest grandparents ever seen! Nothing has changed about them since
1964
except a few grey hairs ... It's quite impressive that anything emotional could be salvaged from this nine-part hop, skip and jump through the years. In fact we still hardly know these people ? zooming from one decade to the next has a distancing effect,"
[55]
she wrote of the former point. And of the latter, "Peter Flannery seems to want to suggest that friendships are the only cure for a life blighted by deficient parents. But all that links this ill-matched foursome in the end is history and sentimentality. The emotional centre of the writing is still in family ties."
[55]
Michael Jackson, the BBC2 controller who had finally commissioned production of the serial, felt that even though it was successful, its
social realist
form was outdated.
[56]
The academic
Georgina Born
, writing in 2004, also felt that although the serial had its strengths, it also contained "involuntary marks of pastiche" in its treatment of social realism.
[56]
In contrast, the
British Film Institute
's
Screenonline
website praises the serial for its realistic and un-cliched depiction of life in the
North East
, stating that: "Unlike many depictions of the North-East, it has fully rounded characters with authentic regional accents. It's clearly a real place, not a generic 'up North'."
[30]
Awards and recognition
[
edit
]
At the
British Academy Television Awards
(BAFTAs) in 1997,
Our Friends in the North
won the award for
Best Drama Serial
, ahead of other nominees
The Crow Road
,
The Fragile Heart
and
Gulliver's Travels
.
[57]
At the same ceremony, Gina McKee won the Best Actress category.
[58]
Both Christopher Eccleston and
Peter Vaughan
(who played Nicky's father, Felix) were nominated for the
Best Actor
award for their performances in
Our Friends in the North
, but they lost to
Nigel Hawthorne
for his role in
The Fragile Heart
.
[59]
Also at the 1997 BAFTAs, Peter Flannery was presented with the honorary
Dennis Potter
Award for his work on the serial.
[60]
Our Friends in the North
also gained BAFTA nominations for costume design, sound, and photography and lighting.
[5]
The
Royal Television Society
Awards covering the year 1996 saw
Our Friends in the North
win the Best Drama Serial category, and Peter Flannery was given the Writer's Award.
[61]
Peter Vaughan also gained another Best Actor nomination for his role as Felix.
[5]
At the 1997
Broadcasting Press Guild
Awards,
Our Friends in the North
won the categories for Best Drama Series or Serial, Best Actor (Eccleston), Best Actress (McKee) and the Writer's Award for Peter Flannery.
[62]
In the United States,
Our Friends in the North
was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the Television Drama Miniseries category at the
San Francisco International Film Festival
in 1997.
[5]
In 2000, the
British Film Institute
conducted a
poll of industry professionals
to find the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, with
Our Friends in the North
finishing in twenty-fifth position, eighth position out of the dramas featured on the list. The commentary for the
Our Friends in the North
entry on the BFI website described it as a "powerful and evocative drama series ... The series impressed with its ambition, humanity and willingness to see the ambiguities beyond the rhetoric."
[2]
The serial was also included in an alphabetical list of the 40 greatest TV shows published by the
Radio Times
magazine in August 2003, chosen by their television editor Alison Graham.
[4]
[63]
In January 2010, the website of
The Guardian
newspaper produced a list of "The top 50 TV dramas of all time," in which
Our Friends in the North
was ranked in third position.
[3]
Legacy
[
edit
]
Following the success of
Our Friends in the North
, Flannery proposed a "kind of
prequel
" to the serial under the title of
Our Friends in the South
.
[64]
This would have told the story of the
Jarrow March
.
[65]
Although the BBC initially took up the project, it did not progress to script stage and was eventually abandoned.
[64]
[65]
Our Friends in the North
was given a repeat run on BBC2 the year following its original broadcast, running on Saturday evenings from 19 July to 13 September 1997.
[66]
[67]
It received a second repeat run on the BBC ten years after its original broadcast, running on
BBC Four
from 8 February to 29 March 2006.
[66]
[67]
In the early 2000s, the serial was also repeated on the
UK Drama
channel.
[68]
In April 1997, the serial was released on
VHS
by
BMG Video
in two sets,
1964 ? 1974
and
1979 ? 1995
.
[69]
[70]
In 2002, BMG released the series on
DVD
, which along with the original episodes contained several
extra features
, including a retrospective discussion of the series by Wearing, Pattinson, Flannery, James and Cellan Jones, and specially shot interviews with Eccleston and McKee.
[71]
Simply Media brought out a second DVD release of the serial in September 2010, although on this occasion there were no extra features.
[72]
This edition contained an edit not present on the 2002 BMG release; most of the song "Don't Look Back in Anger" by Oasis is removed at the end of the final episode, fading out early and the credits instead running in silence.
[72]
Our Friends in the North
has been invoked on several occasions as a comparison when similar drama programmes have been screened on British television. The year following
Our Friends in the North
'
s broadcast,
Tony Marchant
's drama serial
Holding On
was promoted by the BBC as being an "
Our Friends in the South
," after Marchant made the comparison when discussing it with executives.
[73]
The 2001 BBC Two drama serial
In a Land of Plenty
was previewed by
The Observer
newspaper as being "the most ambitious television drama since
Our Friends in the North
."
[74]
The writer
Paula Milne
drew inspiration from
Our Friends in the North
for her own
White Heat
(2012); she felt that
Our Friends in the North
had been too centred on white, male, heterosexual characters and she deliberately wanted to counter that focus.
[75]
The original stage version of
Our Friends in the North
was revived in Newcastle by
Northern Stage
in 2007, with 14 cast members playing 40 characters.
[76]
[77]
In August 2016, Flannery was interviewed for an event, part of the Whitley Bay Film Festival, that celebrated the 20th anniversary of the series being broadcast.
[78]
Radio
[
edit
]
In February 2022, it was announced that Peter Flannery had revived and rewritten
Our Friends in the North
for
BBC Radio 4
, with a tenth episode, written by Adam Usden, set in Newcastle in 2020.
[8]
Produced and directed by Melanie Harris, and with lead sound design by Eloise Whitmore, it features
James Baxter
, Norah Lopez Holden, Philip Correia and Luke MacGregor as, respectively, Nicky, Mary, Tosker and Geordie, Bryony Corrigan as Amy and with
Tracey Wilkinson
and Trevor Fox reappearing from the TV series but in new roles.
The cast also includes
Tom Goodman-Hill
, Eve Shotton,
David Leon
,
Tom Machell
,
James Gaddas
,
Tony Hirst
, Des Yankson and Maanuv Thiara; weekly broadcasts began 17 March 2022.
References
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Unknown.
The Daily Telegraph
. Quoted on the DVD release cover. (
BMG
DVD 74321 941149)
- ^
a
b
Wickham, Phil (2000).
"BFI TV 100 ? 25: Our Friends in the North"
.
British Film Institute
. Archived from
the original
on 21 March 2012
. Retrieved
31 August
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
"The top 50 TV dramas of all time: 2?10"
.
The Guardian
. 12 January 2010
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Classic comedy drama voted TV's greatest"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. 27 August 2003
. Retrieved
2 September
2003
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Awards for Our Friends in the North"
.
IMDb
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Daniel Craig: Our friend in MI6"
.
BBC Online
. 14 October 2005
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Raphael, Amy (18 September 2010).
"Our Friends in the North made a star of Daniel Craig but almost wasn't made"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"Peter Flannery revives Our Friends in the North for Radio 4"
. BBC Media Centre. 24 February 2022
. Retrieved
24 February
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Eaton, p. 2
- ^
Eaton, p. 8
- ^
Eaton, p. 121
- ^
Eaton, p. 6
- ^
Eaton, p. 7
- ^
Eaton, pp. 4?5
- ^
Flannery, Peter (2002).
Retrospective: An Interview with the Creators of the Series
(DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.
- ^
Eaton, p. 9
- ^
Eaton, p. 12
- ^
a
b
Born, p. 357
- ^
Eaton, p. 13
- ^
Eaton, p. 14
- ^
a
b
c
d
Born, p. 358
- ^
Cooke, Lez.
"Wearing, Michael (1989?)"
.
Screenonline
. Retrieved
31 August
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Brooks, Richard (1 January 1996). "Friends come in from the BBC cold".
The Guardian
. p. 7.
- ^
Eaton, p. 65
- ^
a
b
Hellen, Nicholas (3 December 1995). "BBC cuts drama over legal fears".
Sunday Times
. p. 1.
- ^
Eaton, p. 18
- ^
a
b
Eaton, p. 21
- ^
Eaton, p. 23
- ^
a
b
c
Eaton, pp. 24?25
- ^
a
b
Hackston, Ronald.
"Our Friends in the North"
.
Screenonline
. Retrieved
31 August
2013
.
- ^
a
b
Sutcliffe, Thomas (12 March 1996). "Our Friends in the North (BBC2)".
The Independent
. p. 24.
- ^
a
b
Born, p. 359
- ^
a
b
Eaton, p. 130
- ^
a
b
c
Wearing, Michael (2002).
Retrospective: An Interview with the Creators of the Series
(DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.
- ^
a
b
Eaton, p. 26
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Eaton, p. 27
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Eaton, pp. 28?29
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Eccleston, Christopher (2002).
Interview with Christopher Eccleston
(DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
McKee, Gina (2002).
Peter Flannery interviews Gina McKee
(DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.
- ^
a
b
Thompson, Ben (25 February 1996).
"The Interview: Mark Strong talks to Ben Thompson"
.
The Independent
.
Archived
from the original on 24 May 2022
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Cellan Jones, Simon (2002).
Retrospective: An Interview with the Creators of the Series
(DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.
- ^
Weiner, Juli (November 2012).
"Bond Ambition"
. Vanity Fair
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
Mulkerrins, Jane (17 June 2013).
"The Borgias star Gina McKee: The fear of shame is a really good motivator"
.
Metro
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
"Daniel Craig"
.
BBC Online
. May 2007
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
Petrie, Andrew (30 October 2010).
"Friends indeed"
.
The Spectator
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
c
Eaton, p. 30
- ^
a
b
Eaton, p. 33
- ^
a
b
Pattinson, Charles (2002).
Retrospective: An Interview with the Creators of the Series
(DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.
- ^
"BBC Two ? Our Friends in the North"
.
BBC Online
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
Williams, Zoe (27 March 2009).
"Your next box set: Our Friends in the North"
. Retrieved
1 September
2013
.
- ^
"BBC drama gains on ITV".
The Times
. 7 February 1996. p. 23.
- ^
Culf, Andrew (19 February 1996). "A range of options".
The Guardian
. p. 16.
- ^
Bell, Ian (21 January 1996). "A Brief History of Tyne".
The Independent
. p. 18.
- ^
Richards, Jeffrey
(13 March 1996).
"The BBC's voice of two nations"
.
The Independent
. p. 15.
Archived
from the original on 24 May 2022
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
Ellmann, Lucy
(17 March 1996). "With Friends Like These...".
Independent on Sunday
. p. 12.
- ^
a
b
Born, p. 356
- ^
"Television ? Drama Serial in 1997"
.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Television ? Actress in 1997"
.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Television ? Actor in 1997"
.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Television ? Dennis Potter Award in 1997"
.
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Awards Archive February 2011"
(PDF)
.
Royal Television Society
. February 2011
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Broadcasting Press Guild Awards ? Awards for 1997"
.
IMDb
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Top 40 TV shows"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. 27 August 2003
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"The Devil's Whore mixes fact with fiction"
.
Shields Gazette
. 14 November 2008
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
I wanted to do Our Friends in the South for the BBC, which would have been a kind of prequel to Our Friends in the North, but it was never taken up, so it remained an idea only, with no actual play.
- ^
a
b
"Peter Flannery on..."
Broadcast
. 3 November 2008
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
I wanted to do Our Friends in the South [about the Jarrow march], which the BBC took up. Its commitment was so lukewarm, there was really no point in continuing.
- ^
a
b
"BBC Two ? Our Friends in the North, 1964"
.
BBC Online
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
a
b
"BBC Two ? Our Friends in the North, 1995"
.
BBC Online
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
Rampton, James (4 September 2002).
"The Best of Satellite, Cable and Digital"
.
The Independent
. Archived from
the original
on 11 October 2013
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
"Our Friends in the North: 1964?1974"
.
Amazon
. 28 April 1997
. Retrieved
3 September
2013
.
- ^
"Our Friends in the North: 1979?1995"
.
Amazon
. 28 April 1997
. Retrieved
3 September
2013
.
- ^
Eaton, p. 125.
- ^
a
b
Slarek (6 October 2010).
"Our Friends in the North DVD review"
. Cine Outsider
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
Dugdale, John (1 September 1997). "No cheeky chappies, East End villains or Docklands 'glamour'. Can this really be London?".
The Guardian
. p. 14.
Two years ago, Tony Marchant made a fatal mistake. Outlining his plans for an ambitious, layered portrait of London to BBC drama execs, he 'tried to explain its scope with a joke, calling it 'Our Friends in the South'. Looking back, I'm not sure I should've done.' Probably not: BBC high-ups and publicists routinely use the tag when enthusing about Marchant's coruscating new series.
- ^
Lane, Harriet (17 December 2000).
"From famine to feast..."
The Observer
. p. 9
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
Milne, Paula
(7 March 2012).
"Paula Milne on what inspired her to write White Heat"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
The focus of
Our Friends
primarily lay with the social and political events shaping the destinies of its white male heterosexual characters. The contraceptive pill, legalizing abortion, the emergent sexual revolution, racial tension, feminism and gay rights were also part of the second half of the twentieth century, and it was these that I wanted to explore as well with
White Heat
? to see how they too shaped the lives of those of us who had lived through them.
- ^
"Our Friends in the North"
.
BBC Online
. 26 September 2007
. Retrieved
10 October
2007
.
- ^
Walker, Lynne (27 September 2007).
"Tyne and again"
.
The Independent
.
Archived
from the original on 24 May 2022
. Retrieved
2 September
2013
.
- ^
Armstrong, Simon (27 August 2016).
"Our Friends in the North: What made it so special?"
.
BBC News
. Retrieved
27 August
2016
.
External links
[
edit
]