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. It has been named by the British Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. Written by Peter Flannery, it tells the story of four friends from Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England over a period of 31 years.
About Our Friends in the North in brief
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 the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England 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. These include general elections, police and local government corruption, the UK miners’ strike, and the Great Storm of 1987. It has been named by the British Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. Daniel Craig’s part in particular has been referred to as his breakthrough role. 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, due in part to the BBC’s fear of legal action. In 1964, twenty year-old university student Nicky Hutchinson returns to Newcastle after volunteering for the summer in the U.S. civil rights movement. Nicky is offered a job working for Austin Donohue, a former council leader who is starting a PR and lobbying firm. He drops out of university to accept the job, to the dismay of his working-class father, Felix. Geordie gets into a fight with his abusive, alcoholic father and runs away from home, abandoning his pregnant fiancée. Tosker takes advantage of the situation and successfully woos Mary, getting her pregnant.
Mary and Tosker struggle to adapt to their new married life, despite being brand new, despite structural issues including rampant damp. The situation gets progressively more difficult for Benny’s businesses as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Colin Bliream reluctantly acts heavily on the corrupt police forces. Despite turning down Nicky’s help, Nicky eventually returns to mainstream politics in Newcastle and becomes a Labour candidate in a safe Labour constituency. He manages to hand the seat to the Conservatives after a smear campaign depicts him as an IRA sympathiser after a campaign to smear him. Later, Eddie asks Nicky for help in his campaign to run as an independent candidate in an by-election, but Nicky turns it down due to his ties to Nicky. After the election, Eddie narrowly wins the seat and Nicky becomes a parliamentary candidate himself. After visiting Geordies in London, he is given a loan from Benny and starts his own grocery business. Around this time, Geordsie starts an affair with Benny’s girlfriend Julia. The relationship between Benny and Julia is rocky and Benny eventually leaves Benny for a younger woman, Julia. After Benny’s death, Benny takes a job with sleazy crime boss Benny Barrett and begins working as his assistant in the Soho sex industry. Meanwhile, Tosker’s dreams of becoming a professional singer rapidly fade after a brutal audition with a local talent scout. He continues to work menial jobs to make ends meet.
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