Our Friends In The North Review

• 9th Sep 2010

It’s a mystery that it’s taken so long for this oft-acclaimed BBC series to get a proper DVD release, fourteen years after it originally aired. Hugely ambitious and boasting a stellar cast, it remains essential viewing.

The series charts the fortunes of four Tynesiders as they live through thirty politically tumultuous years in British history. The first episode, 1964 introduces the ensemble cast on the cusp of adulthood: there’s left-wing activist Nicky (Christopher Eccleston), his university-bound sweetheart Mary (Gina McKee), jack-the-lad Geordie (Daniel Craig) and aspiring singer Tosker (Mark Strong). The series catches up with the friends every few years, allowing the characters their own, occasionally intertwining narrative threads as their lives take diverse routes.

Politics is never far from the surface, driving much of the story to varying extents; in fact the series serves as well as a fascinating chronicle of modern history as it does an immersive – and it is utterly, watch-one-episode-after-another, immersive – drama.

The writing is perfect and the incredible performances from the young central cast (to single one of them out would be to do the other three a disservice) anticipate the names they’d soon make for themselves. They are supported by a further embarrassment of riches, among them Malcolm McDowell and David Bradley, who produce memorable turns.

A lot has happened in entertainment since 1996, the BBC is no longer the fertile ground it once was and we’re increasingly looking to the likes of HBO to produce the next great drama series, but to overlook this singular achievement would be drastically remiss.

Our Friends In The North is out on 27th September 2010.

Adam Richardson