First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on January 1st 2023

VISION ON SOUND’s old friend SANDY McGREGOR is back again this week to take a look at another of the serious television dramas that he enjoys so much and likes to talk to me about.

This time it’s PETER FLANNERY’S epic nine-part drama OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH that he has been watching. It’s a story based upon the original scripts created for a stage show version, written whilst FLANNERY was writer-in-residence at the ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, and which, when it came to be produced, was such a huge production that it was allocated half of the BBC’s DRAMA BUDGET for the entire year it was made in.

The story unfolds across a quarter of a century. The story starts in 1964 and the TV version, unlike the stage play, which ends in 1979, takes the story on to the year 1995.

The series follows the lives of four friends who grew up in NEWCASTLE, GEORDIE PEACOCK, NICKY HUTCHISON, MARY SOULSBY and TOSKER COX as played in career-making roles by DANIEL CRAIG, CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON, GINA McKEE, and MARK STRONG, in a variety of hairpieces and make-up.

The series is set around the backdrop of seismic and significant political and social upheavals, and we meet these characters in several historically significant years as they grow up and grow apart, and as their lives continue to cross and diverge over the decades, and we witness the various triumphs and disappointments that they meet along the way.

Much like in real life really.

With a supporting cast of acting greats like PETER VAUGHAN, MALCOLM MACDOWELL, ALUN ARMSTRONG, DAVID BRADLEY, TONY HAYGARTH, PETER JEFFREY and DONALD SUMPTER on the roster, this was the definite “must see” event drama of the year 1996, and won the BEST DRAMA SERIAL BAFTA AWARD in 1997 with several of the actors also being nominated, alongside nominations in several technical categories.

In 2022, the story was rewritten, and updated as a radio series for RADIO FOUR featuring different actors LUKE McGREGOR, JAMES BAXTER, NORAH LOPEZ HOLDEN and PHILIP CORREIA, featuring a tenth chapter written by ADAM USDEN which was set in 2020, so I think, like a lot of the very best sagas, this is a story that keeps on getting more fascinating as the years pass.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.