Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3128 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-08-19
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 623 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
An epic saga stretching from 1964 to 1995, Our Friends in the North 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.

On the DVD: Our Friends in the North has a bonus disc featuring a discussion with writer Peter Flannery and the producers and directors in which the making of the programme is revealed to have been as epic and protracted a saga as the drama itself. There are interviews also with stars Christopher Eccleston and Gina McKee. --David Stubbs

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

The entire BAFTA winning series
Comprehensive pop-up 'filmographies' for cast members
Complete soundtrack listing with chart history
Exclusive interviews especially for DVD with Gina McKee & Christopher Eccleston
Retrospective from the makers of the series including writer Peter Flannery and executive producer Michael Wearing
Photo Gallery
Precis and colour stills from an unscreened episode

Synopsis
This nine-part miniseries follows the lives of four Newcastle friends--Nicky (Christopher Eccleston), Mary (Gina McKee), Geordie (Daniel Craig), and Tosker (Mark Strong)--from 1964 to 1995. The highly acclaimed production also features Malcolm McDowell, David Bradley, and many other familiar faces.

Customer Reviews

Very, very good TV!
Brilliant drama! Pity it has no English subtitles. Sometimes, the accent from Newcastle is a little difficult to understand!

The BBC's finest drama of the 1990's
Often overshadowed in popularity by the inferior "This Life" - Our Friends in the North was the BBC's finest drama achievment of the 1990's. An epic in every sense, the series covers the lives of four central characters from the optimism of their youth in the 1960's through to mid-life reality in the 1990's. En route, we encounter major political events of the times, including the miners' strike.

It's staggeringly well-done in every sense. The actors all portray the different life-stages of their characters with absolute conviction, and the supporting cast are superb as well. (Notably Peter Vaughan as Christopher Eccelston's crusty old Dad, who turns in a blinder of a performance throughout.)

Like another reviewer has pointed out - who would have thought Daniel Craig as the hapless Geordie Peacock would eventually don the tuxedo of James Bond, or, for that matter, that Chris Eccleston would assume the mantel of Dr Who.

But here's where they all really started - in this unmissable, brilliant drama. If you've not seen it before - a treat awaits.

Classic
If you saw this went it originally came out, loved it and are wondering how much it has dated in the past decade before buying or renting the DVD - don't worry, its still brilliant! The series is made up of nine episodes (three set in the sixties, three in the seventies, two in the eighties and one in the nineties) and is essentially the story of four characters from Newcastle set to a backdrop of labour politics and rock'n'roll. If that sounds a bit boring it isn't, it's actually the one of the BBCs best and most memorable moments and packed full of A-list actors from today (although it has to be said no-one would have guessed Daniel Craig would ever have been Bond after seeing him as the lovely but tragic Geordie!). In the end "Our Friends" is about how people fade in and out of our lives, how we misunderstand those around us and the endemic sadness of lost ideals and distant friends. The series closes to Oasis "Don't Look Back in Anger" and was actually aired on the day that classic went to No.1 in the UK; at the time it seemed like a brilliant and moving moment in my life. Watching back all these years later it's still a special moment, but now I am that little bit older it's tinged with melancholy sadness. Worth watching every year.