Our Friends in the North (BBC Drama, 1996)

Our Friends in the North (1996)

3.31 GB | DVDRIP | AVI | DivX 5.2.1 (WaffleDay) OR XviD 1.1.0 Final | 720 x 576 | 25 fps | MP3, Stereo | Genre: TV Drama

An epic saga stretching from 1964 to 1995, follows the lives of four young people in North-East England. Nicky Hutchinson (Christopher Eccleston) is initially courting Mary Soulsby (Gina McKee) but the relationship cools when it takes second place to his campaigning for Harold Wilson's Labour Party. She weds Tory Tosker Cox instead, but their marriage is a miserable one, living in a rot-infested high rise block built following a dubious new housing scheme. Meanwhile, "Geordie" Peacock, finally tiring of his drunken, abusive father, headbutts him and hitches down to London, where he ends up working for a surrogate "family" led by Malcolm McDowell's flash Soho sex club baron. Over the years, the paths of these characters intertwine, diverge then cross again, albeit occasionally stretching the bounds of plausible coincidence. The drama takes place against the backdrop of local authority and police corruption in the 60s, the radical far-left militancy of the early 70s, Thatcher's election, the 1984 miner's strike and the subsequent "murder" of Northern communities. What's brilliant about Our Friends is its melding of the personal and the political, with the soap opera of family estrangement played out against a backdrop of social decline. Peter Vaughn, playing Nicky's Dad as a former Jarrow marcher stricken by Alzheimer's, is especially poignant. If you didn't see this the first time, do so now.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY
State of the Nation
When it was first screened in 1996, reflected back the social decay of the sixties and seventies, at a time when a further big change, the rise of New Labour and Tony Blair's seemingly inevitable journey to Downing Street was providing the pivot for mid-nineties, pre-millennial self-examination. Tracing the lives of 4 friends from Newcastle, bonded by often clumsy and socially awkward situations, the epic piece of drama that unfolds remains one of the standout recent works in it's genre. It's an overtly political piece, but in a way that demonstrates how political changes inform social change. Nicky (Christopher Eccleston) is consumed by involvement in the grubby and incestuous world of sixties north-east Labour politics, dominated by the exotic Austen Donohue. As Donohue's corruption unfolds, and the hopes formed by the election of a Labour government at the end of the first instalment fade away, Nicky turns to radicalism and protest, spending the seventies as a political and social photo-journalist, eventually marrying his childhood companion, Mary - herself bruised by a violent and turbulent first marriage to their mutual friend Tosker, which decays with the passage of the seventies. Geordie meanwhile is drawn into the Soho strip-clubs, run by Malcolm McDowell's grimy, fragile Benny Barrett. Throughout, their lives are underpinned by their 'friends in the north' - fixers like Eddie Wells, whose life of solid political service to Labour masters is blown away in the storms of 1987, as the political tide reaches the high watermark of Thatcherism. Geordie's escape from the vice dens of Soho is complicated by ongoing investigations into vice and corruption in the Met. Nicky and Mary's marriage collapses under the weight of Nicky's independence and Mary's prospective career as a Blairite new Labour MP. Tosker's business and home are sacrificed at the altar of free market capitalism that he previously worshipped. Returning to the Newcastle in the nineties for the funeral of Nicky's mother, they survey a landscape still scarred by the miner's strike, but hope and optimism about the future. Crossing the Tyne Bridge, they step into the next phase of their lives, as Newcastle itself prepares to cast off it's former image with ambitious social building programmes, and a Labour government prepares to take office in London. The symmetry of their lives is complete. Taking such a broad sweep across political, social and economic landscapes whilst retaining a cohesive and compelling narrative is a challenge fraught with potential hazards. achieves all those aims. It is often icily uncomfortable, but it more than does justice to the themes and the times that it depicts. With some magnificent central performances, it remains both memorable, and essential viewing.

– A customer, amazon.co.uk, 20 July 2002

MAJOR CHARACTERS
Christopher Eccleston… Nicky Hutchinson (9 episodes, 1996)
Mark Strong… Tosker Cox (9 episodes, 1996)
Gina McKee… Mary Cox / … (9 episodes, 1996)
Daniel Craig… Geordie Peacock / … (8 episodes, 1996)
Peter Vaughan… Felix Hutchinson (8 episodes, 1996)
David Bradley… Eddie Wells (8 episodes, 1996)
Freda Dowie… Florrie Hutchinson (7 episodes, 1996)
Alun Armstrong… Austin Donohue (5 episodes, 1996)
Malcolm McDowell… Benny Barrett (5 episodes, 1996)
Danny Webb… Detective Inspector Ron Conrad / … (4 episodes, 1996)
David Schofield… DCI John Salway / … (4 episodes, 1996)
Geoffrey Hutchings… John Edwards (4 episodes, 1996)
Donald Sumpter… Commander Harold Chapple (4 episodes, 1996)
Frank Couchman… Patrick Soulsby (4 episodes, 1996)
Daniel Casey… Anthony Cox (3 episodes, 1996)
Rod Culbertson… Bede Connor (3 episodes, 1996)
Tony Haygarth… Roy Johnson (3 episodes, 1996)
Tracey Wilkinson… Elaine Cox / … (3 episodes, 1996)
Peter Jeffrey… Commisioner Colin Blamire / … (3 episodes, 1996)
John Dair… Charlie Dawson (3 episodes, 1996)
Mark Drewry… Michael Frisch (3 episodes, 1996)
Louise Salter… Julia Allen (3 episodes, 1996)
Anne Orwin… Mrs Weightman (3 episodes, 1996)
Saskia Wickham… Claudia Seabrook (3 episodes, 1996)
Val McLane… Rita Cox (3 episodes, 1996)
Tony Hodge… Brian Cox (3 episodes, 1996)
Julian Fellowes… Claud Seabrook (3 episodes, 1996)

More info - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115305/

Awards for this TV series



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