Our Friends in the North
Encyclopedia
Our Friends in the North is a British
television
drama serial
, produced by the BBC
and originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC Two
in early 1996. Telling the story of four friends from the city of Newcastle upon Tyne
in North East England
over 31 years from 1964 to 1995, it also brought in real political and social events specific to Newcastle and Britain as a whole during the era portrayed, including general elections, police and local government corruption, the UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
and the Great Storm of 1987
. Publicity material for the serial used the tagline "Three decades, four friends and the world that shaped their lives".
The serial is commonly regarded as one of the most successful BBC television drama
s 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." In a poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute
in 2000, it was 25th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
of the 20th century.
It was also a controversial production, as its stories were partly based on real politicians and political events, and several years passed before it was adapted from a play performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company
, due in part to the BBC's fear of litigation.
The four friends are Dominic 'Nicky' Hutchinson (played by Christopher Eccleston
), Mary Soulsby (Gina McKee
), George 'Geordie' Peacock (Daniel Craig
) and Terry 'Tosker' Cox (Mark Strong
). The series begins in 1964 with Nicky returning from a period working with the civil rights
movement in the southern United States to resume his studies at the University of Manchester
and reuniting with his girlfriend, Mary, and best friend Geordie. Geordie is hoping to form a pop
group
with his mate Tosker.
However, Nicky is persuaded to drop out and work for corrupt local politician Austin Donohue (Alun Armstrong
), swayed by Donohue's apparent idealism and desire to change Newcastle for the better. This is much to the annoyance of his trade union
ist father Felix (Peter Vaughan
), who does not want his son to waste the opportunity to better himself by taking chances he never had when he was Nicky's age. Nicky's relationship with Mary ends when she sleeps with Tosker and gets pregnant, later marrying him, which means she also drops out of university. On the run from a pregnant girlfriend himself and his abusive alcoholic father, Geordie leaves for London
, where he falls in with seedy underworld baron Benny Barrett (Malcolm McDowell
).
Geordie is initially successful while employed by Barrett in his Soho
nightclubs and sex shop
s. He also helps Tosker and Mary, introducing Tosker to Barrett who lends him the money to start his own fruit and vegetable business, his former dreams of musical stardom having gradually faded away. Nicky, meanwhile, realises the extent of Donohue's corrupt dealings with the building contractor John Edwards (Geoffrey Hutchings
) and resigns in disgust, eventually becoming involved with left-wing anarchists
in London.
By the early 1970s, the police have cracked down on Barrett's business, and their own corruption, but not before Barrett has set Geordie up, sending him to prison in retaliation for an affair Geordie had with Barrett's lover. Nicky's anarchist cell is raided and he returns to Newcastle, as eventually does Geordie. By 1979, Nicky has returned to more mainstream politics and stands as a Member of Parliament
in the general election for the Labour Party
, but is defeated by the Conservative Party
candidate (Saskia Wickham
) after a smear campaign
. Geordie leaves again shortly before the election, not to be seen in the series again until 1987.
By 1984, Nicky is working as a successful photographer, and Mary has divorced Tosker, who has remarried and is rapidly becoming a rich businessman. Nicky and Mary renew their earlier relationship during the turbulent events of the miners' strike and eventually marry. By 1987, however their marriage is falling apart, Nicky has an affair with a young student and is also forced to confront his father's descent into Alzheimer's disease
. He meets Geordie, now a homeless, drunken vagrant, by chance in London, but his old friend disappears before he has a chance to help him. Eventually Geordie is sentenced to life in prison as a danger to the public after setting fire to a mattress in a hostel. Despite her failing marriage to Nicky, Mary's life is becoming an increasing success, and she is now a councillor
. Tosker, meanwhile, has lost his fortune in the stock market crash
.
The final episode, 1995, sees Nicky – who has emigrated to Italy – returning to Newcastle to oversee the funeral of his mother. Tosker has managed to rebuild his business and is about to hold the opening night of his new floating nightclub, based on a boat moored on the River Tyne (filmed on the real club the Tuxedo Princess). Mary, now a Labour MP sympathetic to New Labour, is also invited to the opening, and Tosker is surprised to find Geordie back in the city as well – he has escaped from prison. Neither Mary nor Geordie make it to the opening night party, but the four friends are reunited the following day, at Nicky's house after his mother's funeral
. Tosker leaves to be with his grandchildren and Mary also leaves after agreeing to meet Nicky for lunch the next day. However, a desperate Nicky realises that "Tomorrow's too late" and runs after Mary's car, eventually attracting her attention and breathlessly asking, "Why not today?" to which she agrees, smiling. Meanwhile, Geordie walks off, and the series ends with him heading off into the distance across the Tyne Bridge
, after looking down at Tosker playing with his grandchildren on the boat below. As Geordie walks away and the credits fade up, the music of Oasis
's "Don't Look Back in Anger
" is heard.
for the theatre
, while he was a resident playwright for the Royal Shakespeare Company
in 1982. The play was produced by the RSC, and in its original form went up only to the 1979 general election
and the coming to power of the new Conservative
government under Margaret Thatcher
. 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. These scenes were dropped from the televised version.
Flannery was heavily influenced not only by his own political viewpoints and life experiences, but by the real-life history of his home city of Newcastle during the 1960s and 1970s. Characters such as Austin Donohue and John Edwards were directly based on the real-life scandals of T. Dan Smith
and John Poulson
, who built cheap high-rise housing projects in Newcastle that they knew to be of low quality. Flannery went to visit Smith and explained that he was going to write a play based on the events of the scandal, to which Smith apparently replied, "There is a play here of Shakespearean proportions."
The stage version of the story was seen by BBC television drama
producer Michael Wearing
, who was immediately keen on producing a television adaptation. Wearing was based at the BBC English Regions Drama Department at BBC Birmingham
, which had a specific remit for making "regional drama", and had established his reputation by producing Alan Bleasdale
's Boys from the Blackstuff
in 1982. Flannery was also keen on writing a television version, but during the 1980s the pair were frustrated in their attempts to bring the story to the screen, as various BBC executives failed to green light the project, which twice stalled in preproduction.
By 1989, however, Wearing had been recalled to the central BBC drama department in London
, where he was made Head of Serials. This new seniority eventually allowed him to further the cause of Our Friends in the North, and Flannery also wrote to the BBC's then Managing Director of Television, Will Wyatt
, "accusing him of cowardice for not approving it." The BBC were concerned not only with the budget and resources that would be required to produce the serial, but also with potential legal issues, due to the basing of so much of the background story 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. According to The Observer
newspaper, one senior BBC lawyer, Glen Del Medico, even threatened to resign if the production was made, while others tried to persuade Flannery to reset the piece "in a fictional country called Albion rather than Britain."
However, the legal situation was eased after the deaths of Smith and Poulson in 1993, and Wearing, Flannery and their chosen producer for the serial, Charles Pattinson
, were able to persuade the then Controller of BBC Two
, Michael Jackson
, to commission the piece. The long delay in production did, however, have the advantageous side effect of allowing Flannery to extend the story, and instead of ending in 1979 it now carried on into the 1990s, allowing him to cover other politically charged events such as the miners' strike of 1984.
The series did encounter further 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 factors in common. The drama had originally shown Roe as taking advantage of tax breaks to build a large shopping centre.
The stage play was revived by Northern Stage
in 2007 with 14 cast members playing 40 characters.
The epic scale of the production required Jackson to devote a budget of £8 million to the serial – half of his serials budget for the entire year. The speaking cast numbered 160, the production employed over 3000 extras and filming lasted for a year, from the autumn of 1994 to the autumn of 1995. Although he had originally intended to produce the serial himself in the 1980s, Wearing was now Executive Producer, with Charles Pattinson producing.
Of the actors playing the four main roles, only Eccleston was well-known prior to featuring in the serial, having starred in the ITV
drama series Cracker and the film Shallow Grave
. He had initially been seen by the production team as being a good candidate to play Geordie, but had been very keen to play Nicky instead, eventually winning that role. He had become aware of the serial after being told about the scripts by the director of Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle
, who had been approached by Michael Wearing to direct all nine episodes. Boyle was initially keen, but wanted to see how Shallow Grave fared first. When the film proved to be a success Boyle decided to concentrate on his film career instead.
Following Boyle's turning down of directing duties, Pattinson and Wearing decided to assign different directors to each 'era' of the project, with Stuart Urban
assigned the first five episodes and Simon Cellan-Jones
the final four. 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 – Christopher Eccleston's viewpoint is that Urban was apparently "only interested in painting pretty pictures." Director Pedr James
was hired to shoot the remainder of what were to have been Urban's episodes, with all three directors being credited on the third instalment.
However, there were to be further problems with the already completed opening instalment, 1964, again partially due to the dissatisfaction of the production team with Urban's direction. After viewing the completed material for the episode, Wearing and Pattinson took the expensive decision to entirely reshoot it, under James's direction, in between the sixth (1979) and seventh (1984) episodes. However, it was not a simple reshooting of existing scenes – Flannery took the opportunity to completely rewrite the opening episode, in some cases changing the initial storylines of the characters quite dramatically, such as no longer having Mary already married to Tosker when the serial begins. This was mainly done because the initial episode had been the one most faithful to the original text of the stage play, and Flannery felt that the storyline needed opening out for television, as well as simply having changed his mind about various ideas since he had written the original play.
Aside from the remount of the first episode, the serial was shot on an episode-by-episode basis, with the exception of the scenes involving the character of Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell
across various episodes from 1966 to 1979. These were all shot together in one block, as McDowell was not resident in the UK, living then in the United States, and for budgetary reasons the production team did not want to keep him in the country for any longer than was necessary. 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 rarely did television work.
Much use was made throughout the production of contemporaneous popular music to evoke the feel of the year in which each episode was set. This led to a particular piece of synchronicity in the final episode, 1995, which Cellan-Jones had decided to close with the song Don't Look Back in Anger
by Oasis
, which while the serial was in production was only another track from their (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
album. However, during transmission of Our Friends in the North it was released as a single, and to Cellan-Jones's delight it was at the top of the UK Singles Chart
the week of the final episode's transmission.
Our Friends in the North was broadcast in nine episodes on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday nights, from 15 January to 11 March 1996. Unusually for a drama series, the running times of the episodes were inconsistent – although nominally seventy minutes each, they in fact varied from 63 minutes, 49 seconds (1966) to 74 minutes 40 seconds (1987). The total running time of the serial is ten hours, twenty-three minutes.
Following its great success, Our Friends in the North was given a repeat broadcast in the summer of 1997 on BBC2, on Saturday nights. It was also released on VHS
across two double-video packs (1964 – 1974 and 1979 – 1995). In 2002, BMG Video
released the complete series on DVD
in a four-disc set, which along with the original episodes contained several extra features. These were a retrospective discussion of the series by Wearing, Pattinson, Flannery, James and Cellan-Jones; specially shot interviews with Eccleston and McKee, and a detailed text synopsis of the plot of the original opening episode. In the 2000s, the serial has also been screened by the digital television
station UKTV Drama
. BBC Four
broadcast a repeat screening in February 2006.
After being out of print for a few years, the DVD was re-released in September 2010, this time as a three-disc set with a 20-page "Viewers' Notes" booklet written by Marcus Hearn. For an unknown reason, 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 rolling in silence.
Both Eccleston and Craig would later go on to achieve notable high "cult
" status when they took over the respective high-profile roles of the Doctor
in Doctor Who
and James Bond
. Mark Strong has become known for playing villains in Hollywood movies and Gina McKee is well known to British television audiences.
Both during and after its original transmission on BBC Two, the serial was generally praised by the critics. Reviewing the first episode in The Observer
, Ian Bell wrote that: "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."
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," 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."
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," 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."
Despite such criticisms, the high regard in which the serial was generally held saw it win several major awards in the year following its transmission. The British Academy Television Awards
, the most prestigious in the British television industry, saw the serial win Best Actress (Gina McKee) and Best Drama Serial; at the Royal Television Society
Awards it won for Best Actor (Christopher Eccleston), Best Actress (McKee), Best Drama Serial and Best Writer; the Broadcasting Press Guild
Awards for Best Actor (Eccleston) and Best Actress (McKee), and a Certificate of Merit in the Television Drama Miniseries
category at the San Francisco International Film Festival
.
The years since its broadcast have also seen the serial maintain its reputation as one of the most successful British television drama serials ever to have been screened. 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." The serial was also included in an alphabetical list of the forty greatest TV shows published by the Radio Times
magazine in August 2003, chosen by their television editor Alison Graham.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
drama serial
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
, produced by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
in early 1996. Telling the story of four friends from the city of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
in North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
over 31 years from 1964 to 1995, it also brought in real political and social events specific to Newcastle and Britain as a whole during the era portrayed, including general elections, police and local government corruption, the UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
UK miners' strike (1984–1985)
The UK miners' strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement...
and the Great Storm of 1987
Great Storm of 1987
The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the night of 15/16 October 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France...
. Publicity material for the serial used the tagline "Three decades, four friends and the world that shaped their lives".
The serial is commonly regarded as one of the most successful BBC television drama
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
s of the 1990s, described by The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
as "A production where all... worked to serve a writer's vision. We are not likely to look upon its like again." In a poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
in 2000, it was 25th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes
100 Greatest British Television Programmes
The BFI TV 100 is a list compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute , chosen by a poll of industry professionals, to determine what were the greatest British television programmes of any genre ever to have been screened....
of the 20th century.
It was also a controversial production, as its stories were partly based on real politicians and political events, and several years passed before it was adapted from a play performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, due in part to the BBC's fear of litigation.
Plot
Each of the nine episodes of the serial takes place in the year for which it is named; 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987, and 1995. The episodes follow the four main characters and their changing lives, careers and relationships against the backdrop of the political and social events in the United Kingdom at the time.Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
), Mary Soulsby (Gina McKee
Gina McKee
Georgina "Gina" McKee is an English actor known for her television roles in Our Friends in the North , The Lost Prince and The Forsyte Saga ; and her portrayal of Bella in the film Notting Hill ....
), George 'Geordie' Peacock (Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig
Daniel Wroughton Craig is an English actor. His early film roles include Elizabeth, The Power of One, A Kid in King Arthur's Court and the television episodes Sharpe's Eagle, Zorro and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Daredevils of the Desert...
) and Terry 'Tosker' Cox (Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
). The series begins in 1964 with Nicky returning from a period working with the civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
movement in the southern United States to resume his studies at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
and reuniting with his girlfriend, Mary, and best friend Geordie. Geordie is hoping to form a pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
group
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
with his mate Tosker.
However, Nicky is persuaded to drop out and work for corrupt local politician Austin Donohue (Alun Armstrong
Alun Armstrong (actor)
Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...
), swayed by Donohue's apparent idealism and desire to change Newcastle for the better. This is much to the annoyance of his trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
ist father Felix (Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
), who does not want his son to waste the opportunity to better himself by taking chances he never had when he was Nicky's age. Nicky's relationship with Mary ends when she sleeps with Tosker and gets pregnant, later marrying him, which means she also drops out of university. On the run from a pregnant girlfriend himself and his abusive alcoholic father, Geordie leaves for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he falls in with seedy underworld baron Benny Barrett (Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
).
Geordie is initially successful while employed by Barrett in his Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
nightclubs and sex shop
Sex shop
A sex shop, erotic shop is a shop that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, clothing, pornography, and other related products...
s. He also helps Tosker and Mary, introducing Tosker to Barrett who lends him the money to start his own fruit and vegetable business, his former dreams of musical stardom having gradually faded away. Nicky, meanwhile, realises the extent of Donohue's corrupt dealings with the building contractor John Edwards (Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings was a British stage, film and television actor.-Early life and career:Hutchings was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England. After attending Hardye's School, he studied French and Physical Education at Birmingham University before he became a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic...
) and resigns in disgust, eventually becoming involved with left-wing anarchists
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
in London.
By the early 1970s, the police have cracked down on Barrett's business, and their own corruption, but not before Barrett has set Geordie up, sending him to prison in retaliation for an affair Geordie had with Barrett's lover. Nicky's anarchist cell is raided and he returns to Newcastle, as eventually does Geordie. By 1979, Nicky has returned to more mainstream politics and stands as a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
in the general election for the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, but is defeated by the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
candidate (Saskia Wickham
Saskia Wickham
Saskia Wickham is a British actress best known for playing Dr. Erica Matthews in the ITV television drama series Peak Practice between 1996 and 1998.She is daughter of the British actor Jeffrey Wickham....
) after a smear campaign
Smear campaign
A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is a metaphor for activity that can harm an individual or group's reputation by conflation with a stigmatized group...
. Geordie leaves again shortly before the election, not to be seen in the series again until 1987.
By 1984, Nicky is working as a successful photographer, and Mary has divorced Tosker, who has remarried and is rapidly becoming a rich businessman. Nicky and Mary renew their earlier relationship during the turbulent events of the miners' strike and eventually marry. By 1987, however their marriage is falling apart, Nicky has an affair with a young student and is also forced to confront his father's descent into Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. He meets Geordie, now a homeless, drunken vagrant, by chance in London, but his old friend disappears before he has a chance to help him. Eventually Geordie is sentenced to life in prison as a danger to the public after setting fire to a mattress in a hostel. Despite her failing marriage to Nicky, Mary's life is becoming an increasing success, and she is now a councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
. Tosker, meanwhile, has lost his fortune in the stock market crash
Black Monday (1987)
In finance, Black Monday refers to Monday October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed, shedding a huge value in a very short time. The crash began in Hong Kong and spread west to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already declined by a significant margin...
.
The final episode, 1995, sees Nicky – who has emigrated to Italy – returning to Newcastle to oversee the funeral of his mother. Tosker has managed to rebuild his business and is about to hold the opening night of his new floating nightclub, based on a boat moored on the River Tyne (filmed on the real club the Tuxedo Princess). Mary, now a Labour MP sympathetic to New Labour, is also invited to the opening, and Tosker is surprised to find Geordie back in the city as well – he has escaped from prison. Neither Mary nor Geordie make it to the opening night party, but the four friends are reunited the following day, at Nicky's house after his mother's funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
. Tosker leaves to be with his grandchildren and Mary also leaves after agreeing to meet Nicky for lunch the next day. However, a desperate Nicky realises that "Tomorrow's too late" and runs after Mary's car, eventually attracting her attention and breathlessly asking, "Why not today?" to which she agrees, smiling. Meanwhile, Geordie walks off, and the series ends with him heading off into the distance across the Tyne Bridge
Tyne Bridge
The Tyne Bridge is a through arch bridge over the River Tyne in North East England, linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead. It was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, and was built by Dorman Long and Co. of Middlesbrough. At the time...
, after looking down at Tosker playing with his grandchildren on the boat below. As Geordie walks away and the credits fade up, the music of Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
's "Don't Look Back in Anger
Don't Look Back in Anger
"Don't Look Back in Anger" is a song by English rock band Oasis, released in 1996 as the fourth single from their hit second album Morning Glory?. The song was written by the band's guitarist and main songwriter, Noel Gallagher. The song became the band's second single to reach #1 in the UK...
" is heard.
Background
Our Friends in the North was originally written by the playwright Peter FlanneryPeter Flannery
Peter Flannery is a British playwright and screenwriter. He was educated at Bath Spa University and is best known for his work while a resident playwright at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
for the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, while he was a resident playwright for the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in 1982. The play was produced by the RSC, and in its original form went up only to the 1979 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
and the coming to power of the new Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
government under Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
. The play also contained a significant number of scenes set in Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
, chronicling UDI
Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia from the United Kingdom was signed on November 11, 1965, by the administration of Ian Smith, whose Rhodesian Front party opposed black majority rule in the then British colony. Although it declared independence from the United Kingdom it...
, the oil embargo and the emergence of armed resistance to white supremacy. These scenes were dropped from the televised version.
Flannery was heavily influenced not only by his own political viewpoints and life experiences, but by the real-life history of his home city of Newcastle during the 1960s and 1970s. Characters such as Austin Donohue and John Edwards were directly based on the real-life scandals of T. Dan Smith
T. Dan Smith
Thomas Daniel Smith was a British politician who was Leader of Newcastle upon Tyne City Council from 1960 to 1965. He was a prominent figure in the Labour Party in the north east of England, such that he was nicknamed 'Mr Newcastle'...
and John Poulson
John Poulson
John Garlick Llewellyn Poulson was a British architect and businessman who caused a major political scandal when his use of bribery was disclosed in 1972. The highest-ranking figure to be forced out was Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling...
, who built cheap high-rise housing projects in Newcastle that they knew to be of low quality. Flannery went to visit Smith and explained that he was going to write a play based on the events of the scandal, to which Smith apparently replied, "There is a play here of Shakespearean proportions."
The stage version of the story was seen by BBC television drama
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
producer Michael Wearing
Michael Wearing
Michael Wearing is a British television producer, who has spent much of his career working on various drama productions for the BBC. He is best known as the producer of the highly-acclaimed serials Boys from the Blackstuff and Edge of Darkness , which created for him a reputation as one of...
, who was immediately keen on producing a television adaptation. Wearing was based at the BBC English Regions Drama Department at BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham, West Midlands. It was the first region outside of London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter...
, which had a specific remit for making "regional drama", and had established his reputation by producing Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
's Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2....
in 1982. Flannery was also keen on writing a television version, but during the 1980s the pair were frustrated in their attempts to bring the story to the screen, as various BBC executives failed to green light the project, which twice stalled in preproduction.
By 1989, however, Wearing had been recalled to the central BBC drama department in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he was made Head of Serials. This new seniority eventually allowed him to further the cause of Our Friends in the North, and Flannery also wrote to the BBC's then Managing Director of Television, Will Wyatt
Will Wyatt
Will Wyatt is a British media consultant and company director, formerly a journalist, television producer and senior executive at the BBC. His career began in 1964 as a trainee journalist on the Sheffield Telegraph newspaper, before moving to the BBC in 1965 as a sub-editor in BBC radio news...
, "accusing him of cowardice for not approving it." The BBC were concerned not only with the budget and resources that would be required to produce the serial, but also with potential legal issues, due to the basing of so much of the background story on real-life events and people such as Smith and Poulson and former Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling was a British politician who held several Cabinet posts, including Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had been spoken of as a prospective Conservative leader since 1955, and was twice seriously considered for the post; he was Edward Heath's chief rival in 1965...
, upon whom another character, Claud Seabrook, was based. According to The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
newspaper, one senior BBC lawyer, Glen Del Medico, even threatened to resign if the production was made, while others tried to persuade Flannery to reset the piece "in a fictional country called Albion rather than Britain."
However, the legal situation was eased after the deaths of Smith and Poulson in 1993, and Wearing, Flannery and their chosen producer for the serial, Charles Pattinson
Charles Pattinson
Charles Pattinson is a British television producer. His initial career was in the theatre, where he was an assistant director at the Royal Court Theatre in the mid-1980s...
, were able to persuade the then Controller of BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson (TV)
Michael Richard Jackson is a British television producer and executive. He is notable for being one of only three people to have been Controller of both BBC One and BBC Two, the main television channels of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and for being the first media studies graduate to...
, to commission the piece. The long delay in production did, however, have the advantageous side effect of allowing Flannery to extend the story, and instead of ending in 1979 it now carried on into the 1990s, allowing him to cover other politically charged events such as the miners' strike of 1984.
The series did encounter further legal problems when some references to the fictional businessman Alan Roe were removed because of a perceived similarity to Sir John Hall
John Hall (businessman)
Sir John Hall is a property developer in North East England. He is also life president and former chairman of Newcastle United.-Biography:...
, a Newcastle businessman who had a number of factors in common. The drama had originally shown Roe as taking advantage of tax breaks to build a large shopping centre.
The stage play was revived by Northern Stage
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne
Northern Stage is a theatre and producing theatre company based in Newcastle upon Tyne. It is adjacent to Newcastle University's city centre campus on King's Walk, opposite the students' union building. It hosts various local, national and international productions in addition to those produced by...
in 2007 with 14 cast members playing 40 characters.
Production and broadcast
Of the actors playing the four main roles, only Eccleston was well-known prior to featuring in the serial, having starred in the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
drama series Cracker and the film Shallow Grave
Shallow Grave
-Track listing:# Leftfield – "Shallow Grave" – 4:38# Simon Boswell – "Shallow Grave Theme" – 3:30# Nina Simone – "My Baby Just Cares for Me" – 3:38# Simon Boswell – "Laugh Riot" – 3:02# Leftfield – "Release the Dubs" – 5:45...
. He had initially been seen by the production team as being a good candidate to play Geordie, but had been very keen to play Nicky instead, eventually winning that role. He had become aware of the serial after being told about the scripts by the director of Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
, who had been approached by Michael Wearing to direct all nine episodes. Boyle was initially keen, but wanted to see how Shallow Grave fared first. When the film proved to be a success Boyle decided to concentrate on his film career instead.
Following Boyle's turning down of directing duties, Pattinson and Wearing decided to assign different directors to each 'era' of the project, with Stuart Urban
Stuart Urban
Stuart Urban is a British film and television director. At the age of thirteen in 1972, he became the youngest director to have a film shown at the Cannes Film Festival with his short feature The Virus of War...
assigned the first five episodes and Simon Cellan-Jones
Simon Cellan-Jones
Simon Cellan-Jones is a Welsh television director and film director, who began his career as a production assistant in the mid-1980s, working on series such as Edge of Darkness. By the late 1980s he had worked his way up to become a director, and he gained credits on some of the most acclaimed...
the final four. 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 – Christopher Eccleston's viewpoint is that Urban was apparently "only interested in painting pretty pictures." Director Pedr James
Pedr James
Pedr James is a British television director. His career in the industry began in the 1970s, and in the 1980s he worked on highly-rated series such as the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside. In the 1990s he moved into directing more prestigious drama serials, such as the 1994 BBC adaptation of the...
was hired to shoot the remainder of what were to have been Urban's episodes, with all three directors being credited on the third instalment.
However, there were to be further problems with the already completed opening instalment, 1964, again partially due to the dissatisfaction of the production team with Urban's direction. After viewing the completed material for the episode, Wearing and Pattinson took the expensive decision to entirely reshoot it, under James's direction, in between the sixth (1979) and seventh (1984) episodes. However, it was not a simple reshooting of existing scenes – Flannery took the opportunity to completely rewrite the opening episode, in some cases changing the initial storylines of the characters quite dramatically, such as no longer having Mary already married to Tosker when the serial begins. This was mainly done because the initial episode had been the one most faithful to the original text of the stage play, and Flannery felt that the storyline needed opening out for television, as well as simply having changed his mind about various ideas since he had written the original play.
Aside from the remount of the first episode, the serial was shot on an episode-by-episode basis, with the exception of the scenes involving the character of Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell
Malcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
across various episodes from 1966 to 1979. These were all shot together in one block, as McDowell was not resident in the UK, living then in the United States, and for budgetary reasons the production team did not want to keep him in the country for any longer than was necessary. This was considered more than worthwhile, however, for the prestige of being able to use an actor such as McDowell, predominantly a film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actor who rarely did television work.
Much use was made throughout the production of contemporaneous popular music to evoke the feel of the year in which each episode was set. This led to a particular piece of synchronicity in the final episode, 1995, which Cellan-Jones had decided to close with the song Don't Look Back in Anger
Don't Look Back in Anger
"Don't Look Back in Anger" is a song by English rock band Oasis, released in 1996 as the fourth single from their hit second album Morning Glory?. The song was written by the band's guitarist and main songwriter, Noel Gallagher. The song became the band's second single to reach #1 in the UK...
by Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
, which while the serial was in production was only another track from their (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Morning Glory? is the second studio album by the English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 October 1995 through Creation Records. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK and number four in the U.S...
album. However, during transmission of Our Friends in the North it was released as a single, and to Cellan-Jones's delight it was at the top of the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
the week of the final episode's transmission.
Our Friends in the North was broadcast in nine episodes on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday nights, from 15 January to 11 March 1996. Unusually for a drama series, the running times of the episodes were inconsistent – although nominally seventy minutes each, they in fact varied from 63 minutes, 49 seconds (1966) to 74 minutes 40 seconds (1987). The total running time of the serial is ten hours, twenty-three minutes.
Following its great success, Our Friends in the North was given a repeat broadcast in the summer of 1997 on BBC2, on Saturday nights. It was also released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
across two double-video packs (1964 – 1974 and 1979 – 1995). In 2002, BMG Video
BMG
Bertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
released the complete series on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in a four-disc set, which along with the original episodes contained several extra features. These were a retrospective discussion of the series by Wearing, Pattinson, Flannery, James and Cellan-Jones; specially shot interviews with Eccleston and McKee, and a detailed text synopsis of the plot of the original opening episode. In the 2000s, the serial has also been screened by the digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
station UKTV Drama
UKTV Drama
Alibi is a digital television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel launched on 1 November 1997 and relaunched in it's current format on 7 October 2008...
. BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
broadcast a repeat screening in February 2006.
After being out of print for a few years, the DVD was re-released in September 2010, this time as a three-disc set with a 20-page "Viewers' Notes" booklet written by Marcus Hearn. For an unknown reason, 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 rolling in silence.
Both Eccleston and Craig would later go on to achieve notable high "cult
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
" status when they took over the respective high-profile roles of the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
. Mark Strong has become known for playing villains in Hollywood movies and Gina McKee is well known to British television audiences.
Critical reception
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Ian Bell wrote that: "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."
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," was the verdict of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
on the final episode. Writing in the same newspaper the following day, Jeffrey Richards
Jeffrey Richards
Jeffrey Richards is a British historian.Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, he is Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University. A leading cultural historian and film critic, he is the author of over 15 books on British cultural history...
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."
However, the response was not exclusively positive. In The Independent on Sunday, columnist Lucy Ellmann
Lucy Ellmann
Lucy Ellmann is an Anglo-American novelist who now lives in Scotland.Her first book, Sweet Desserts, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is the daughter of the American biographer and literary critic Richard Ellmann, and is married to the American writer Todd McEwen...
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," 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."
Despite such criticisms, the high regard in which the serial was generally held saw it win several major awards in the year following its transmission. The British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
, the most prestigious in the British television industry, saw the serial win Best Actress (Gina McKee) and Best Drama Serial; at the Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Awards it won for Best Actor (Christopher Eccleston), Best Actress (McKee), Best Drama Serial and Best Writer; the Broadcasting Press Guild
Broadcasting Press Guild
The Broadcasting Press Guild is a British association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media generally....
Awards for Best Actor (Eccleston) and Best Actress (McKee), and a Certificate of Merit in the Television Drama Miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
category at the San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival
San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest continuously running film festival in the Americas. Organized by the San Francisco Film Society, the International is held each spring for two weeks, presenting an average of 150 films from over 50 countries...
.
The years since its broadcast have also seen the serial maintain its reputation as one of the most successful British television drama serials ever to have been screened. In 2000, the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
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." The serial was also included in an alphabetical list of the forty greatest TV shows published by the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
magazine in August 2003, chosen by their television editor Alison Graham.