Alun Armstrong

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. Written by Peter Flannery, it tells the story of four friends from the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England over 31 years from 1964 to 1995. The story references many real political and social events, both specific to Newcastle and to Britain as a whole, which occurred during the era portrayed, including general elections, police and local government corruption, the UK miners’ strike and the Great Storm of 1987.

The serial is commonly regarded as one of the most successful BBC television dramas 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.” It has been named by the British Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, by The Guardian newspaper as the third greatest television drama of all time, and by the Radio Times magazine as one of the 40 greatest television programmes. Our Friends in the North was awarded three British Academy Television Awards, two Royal Television Society Awards, four Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, and a Certificate of Merit from the San Francisco International Film Festival.