Armstrong, Simon (27 August 2016). "Our Friends in the North: What made it so special?". BBC News . Retrieved 27 August 2016. Williams, Zoe (27 March 2009). "Your next box set: Our Friends in the North" . Retrieved 1 September 2013. The show’s creator, Peter Flannery, once described Our Friends in the North as “a very, very posh soap opera”. While the comparison holds up – there are plenty of affairs, violence and disbelief-pushing narrative coincidences to be found here – its beauty lies in its ability to elevate the mundane. This is, after all, a series about relatively normal people being flung about by the cultural and social upheavals of normal life. However, the point of view rarely dips below epic. 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.

BBC Radio 4 - Our Friends in the North BBC Radio 4 - Our Friends in the North

Alison Hindell, Radio 4 commissioning editor for drama and fiction, said the themes of Our Friends in the North “illuminated the continuing north-south divide today”. She hoped the adaptation would find a new audience as well as being welcomed by fans of the original show. 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.Lane, Harriet (17 December 2000). "From famine to feast..." The Observer. p.9 . Retrieved 2 September 2013. 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.

Our Friends In The North [DVD] [1996] - DVD PWVG The Cheap Our Friends In The North [DVD] [1996] - DVD PWVG The Cheap

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. Flannery, Peter (2002). Retrospective: An Interview with the Creators of the Series (DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321. 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] 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 "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.

Our Friends in the North still thrills 25 years on Why Our Friends in the North still thrills 25 years on

That it never plays like a polemic is down in no small part to Flannery's willingness to explore the flaws, uncertainties, and even self-delusion of his characters and his refusal to place them in easily definable boxes. This is followed through in the impeccable handling (how often have we seen potentially fine TV drama scripts homogenised by off-the-peg casting and formulaic filmmaking?), with different time periods handled individually by directors Simon Cellan Jones and Pedr James (see the extras section for more on this), the shift between the filmmakers occurring without a hint of visual or dramatic discontinuity. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. This, I should point out, is merely the skeleton on which the multi-stranded and densely plotted flesh of the series is built. Each of the four stories is littered with social, political and personal detail, and if Mary seems not to figure prominently in the above summary, it's because her tale is initially one of increasingly unhappy subjugation, from which she later emerges as perhaps the most forward-looking and level-headed of the four, though no less wrapped up in her own obsessions. a b c Wearing, Michael (2002). Retrospective: An Interview with the Creators of the Series (DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321.

Side guide

Television – Dennis Potter Award in 1997". British Academy of Film and Television Arts . Retrieved 2 September 2013. 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] Walker, Lynne (27 September 2007). "Tyne and again". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022 . Retrieved 2 September 2013. I wasn't born or raised in the north, and until recently didn't have any friends who lived there. As a young socialist growing up in the south, this sometimes felt like a credibility millstone, in part because this is where Margaret Thatcher's greed bomb exploded, tarring everyone born in the southern counties with the same wretched pinstripe or barrow-boy brush. It's also fair to say that the north has repeatedly born the brunt of regressive Tory legislation, being far enough from the capital and the common concept of 'Middle England' – whatever the hell that really is – to be of seemingly little concern to those passing the legislation. What the Left of the north always had, something that was too often in short supply down our way, was a strong sense of solidarity and communal unity, in part because of the damage done to those very communities by legislation they were instrumental in opposing. And even today, the song remains the same. Although I live in the southern region that has been calculated to take the biggest hammering from David Cameron's ideologically motivated spending cuts, * it's once again the North East and the Midlands that are set to come off worst, with Middlesborough predicted to suffer the heaviest blow. Eaton, Michael (2005). Our Friends in the North. BFI TV Classics. London: British Film Institute. ISBN 1844570924.

Our Friends in the North: Complete Series [Region 2] Our Friends in the North: Complete Series [Region 2]

These are rich, beautifully drawn characters. Almost without exception, they can tug on your heartstrings and then repulse you within the space of a couple of scenes. Compare this with The Crown – which, in its less inspired moments, feels like a whistle-stop tour of old headlines – and the quality of the writing is immediately apparent. 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] a b c d e Eccleston, Christopher (2002). Interview with Christopher Eccleston (DVD). BMG. BMG DVD 74321. Television – Drama Serial in 1997". British Academy of Film and Television Arts . Retrieved 2 September 2013. Our Friends in the North, broadcast on BBC2 in 1996, was hailed as a landmark show that combined gritty politics with personal relationships. “I’ve always said it’s just a posh soap opera – but it’s a posh soap opera with something to say,” Flannery, who was born in Jarrow, south Tyneside, once said.a b c "The top 50 TV dramas of all time: 2–10". The Guardian. 12 January 2010 . 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. The real-life public figures drawn on here include Labour council leader T. Dan Smith, architect and freemason John Poulson, Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, Newcastle businessman Sir John Hall, and ex-Chief Constable Frank Williamson.