User reviews

Brilliant series documenting 4 Geordie's lives, from young adulthood to middle/old age, and set to a backdrop of politics. More a social documentary than a mini series, not only on our times but on the fallibility of the human race.

The acting is outstanding, particularly from Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Craig and Gina McKee who have all become very successful, in part, no doubt, due to this series.

Combine this with an amazing soundtrack covering over 30 years of great music and it gets even better. The inclusion of Pulp's "Common People" in the final episode is one of the most effective uses of music in film ever! The song builds as the action builds and the crescendo is heartbreaking but so realistic that I challenge you not to cry in despair for our young.

US citizens may find the accents a bit hard to cope with, heck even some Londoner's will struggle, but it is well worth persevering.

Moving, gritty, realistic OFITN is a must-see.

This is truly one of the finest series to come out of Britain. It took writer Flannery 15 years to get the series made, and when it was eventually produced the UK channel BBC2 spent their entire drama budget for the year on it. However, it was a fine investment.

The lives of four friends from Newcastle are followed from 1964 to 1995, against a backdrop of massive social and political change. It says much for the quality of the writing and the performances of the principal actors that you find yourself getting heavily involved with the characters' lives and caring a great deal for them. The leads have gone on to further successes, but this series catches them all early in their careers, and on astonishing form.

It was, in hindsight, a good thing that it took so long to get the show made. Flannery's original play ended in 1980, but the elongated production process enabled him to write more and more about the characters' fortunes, and take them another 15 years into the future. The most changed character was Geordie, who served in the army in Rhodesia in the original play, but finds himself instead in swinging London in a strip club in the finished series.

Do yourself a favour. Pick up the DVD set, and savour 14 hours of top television. It will make you think, it will move you, and we will never see its like again.

I felt compelled to comment after reading a disparaging comment, I too come from a 'North/South' family with a mix of working and middle class and in no way found this patronising or contrived.

Instead I found a drama that personalised Britain's modern history, which also gave me an anchor of historical facts while watching to really emerse myself in the stories.

I found the characters at times to be self important but this was clearly the intention- Eccleston's character Nicky was self-important and selfish with his views- these are character flaws. This was the brilliance of the length of the series as you become so intimately knowledgeable of the characters. The tragedy of Geordie and the on/off nature of Nicky and Mary's relationship. By the end you feel like you have lived their lives with them, something only achievable with a top notch cast and great script.

I would unreservedly recomend this to anyone, even outside of the UK, as it is quite simply brilliant drama.

One of the finest moments of British Television and any other television for that matter. Three decades in the lives of 4 friends covering their youth, their dreams, defeats, disappointments and tragedies while at the same time showing us all the changes happening in the English society from 1960's-1990's. First class acting, wonderful use of music to depict the time period and marvelous production values make this one of the viewing events that will stay forever in your memory since after watching this it will be hard to find anything better.

Masterpiece if there was one

This series is excellent, both heart warming and tragic, as the characters go through thirty years of youth to middle age experiencing the cycle of life as the society and its politics evolve in a very haphazard way. The major actors are Gina McKee, Daniel Craig, Mark Strong and Chris Ecclestone. I like the role of Gina McKee who is a favourite of mine. Aristocratic and sexy, she has a tremendous presence in any role she takes. The love scene with Chris Ecclestone in the first show is one of the most stunning I've ever seen. Over time, she evolves to become the most admirable character. Ecclestone is the political idealist who finds that the practise of politics doesn't measure up to his ambition to make life better for ordinary people. He's a man in a hurry. To his credit, he does care about people but his ambition overrules his judgement. Mark Strong seemed to be the least impressive and the one most likely to mess up. This he did. In time, however, he matured and found happiness in a second relationship. Daniel Craig grew up in a dysfunctional family. As a youth, he seemed to handle it well and was a model youth. Time and the wrong people eventually took their toll. When it was over, I was disappointed but also hopeful that sometimes things can go well. I seem to be one of the relatively few viewers in North America to follow this series. I was fortunate to be a subscriber to Britbox because I developed a taste for British television watching PBS from 1975 on. British television now provides more gritty fare than in the days of Alastair Cooke. I'm not complaining because this series is a good example of the best of British television. It was actually made in 1996 but I only became aware of it through Britbox.

When the story kicks off,I was 2 years old. As it progresses I could recall more and more of what it was all about.

It doesn't attempt to be a documentary but many of the situations the characters find themselves in are incredibly close to what went on over the decades in my families home area.

Yes there's a few dodgy accents but thats entirely forgivable when you're watching what they're up to.

The cast and the casting is superb just about every actor in the production instantly recognisable 25yrs on . The scripts and story line fantastic. Even the sets and costumes 100% bang on.

I've not put any spoilers because a snapshot comment won't help but I will say we binge watched it. Too good not to but were actually quite sad when it ended.

This was a must watch series for me when it was first on television.

So much of it resonated with me as, the issues portrayed, featured heavily in my lifetime. The three day week, the miners strikes and the Thatcher years, in particular. What's more, even though relatively young for most of the years covered by the series, and being a Londoner, I was acutely aware of the injustices of those times; frankly it was miserable.

The performances, the script and the story telling were excellent.

People still talk about how good the series was , it truly was landmark television.

I have just rewatched the series. My goodness, it seems even more brilliant today.

As an aside, it seems that both the major political parties are just as bad now as they were then; nothing really changes.

Strangely, I was not that interested in Geordie's storyline the first time around, but this time I was riveted and often in tears.

The choice of music also resonated more this time around.

The other factor is seeing how well these actors have done since.

Just brilliant TV.

What a real tour de force of British television. I love these 80s and 90s dramas and this one is probably one of the best I've seen. It's long, dark, gritty, dialogue heavy and all the characters' stories interact so beautifully. The writing is second to none and when people say 'they don't make them like this anymore' .. with regards to this, never before or since! Just watch it. It's perfect tv.

Not nearly enough focus on the 4 main cast members. Anything that does happen, it is usually with British politics as the backdrop. Great for Brits, Pretty slow for anyone else.

After 9 episodes, I really didn't care about anything I watched.

No offence Burrobaggy but the review is stereotypical of people with historical chips on their shoulder the size of Knots Landing. WAKE UP. The north east has changed / is changing/ will keep changing. It is not the outpost of England so "fondly" reconciled by anyone living south of the Midlands.

OK, so it's gritty, grim and depressing at times and the one thing I completely agree with is that the smug McKee is truly vile. But put the history of the program in context - it portrayed things "at the time". And that's exactly what it was - yes - even with the heavy dialogue and accent. Take it for what it was, a portrayal of life when it happened throughout the decades.

I happen to think it was a tremendous series brilliantly created for TV depicting credible characters which you warm to, relate to and sympathise with. Heck you even want to be on the frontline with them battling against the Police for the rights of the Miners (and I never agreed with that dispute!) Having recently rented the series after watching it originally on TV I retained the same feeling on conclusion. It left me feeling sad, fulfilled and wanting more even though that was never going to happen. This is truly an excellent drama. Put aside a weekend, rent it and lock out the world. And whatever you do, don't believe the north east is grim.....

This series was well acted, sometimes slow, but almost always depressing. I watch TV for entertainment and I enjoy British drama and murder mysteries, but this series was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

Looking at all the reviews here claiming this as the greatest British TV drama ever and looking at all the awards it won and rave reviews it got, I'm just left asking if there's another show out there called our Friends in the North, because the one I finally finished slogging through on video is a template for every bad I-wanna-be-Ken-Loach cliché out there. I can't vouch for the London scenes, which look as unbelievable as any of the amateur-hour post-Lock Stock gangster movies we slept through over the past few years, but the Newcastle scenes play like a bad joke - the Beeb drama department's version of the 'Thick Scousers' characters that Harry Enfield used to do in his TV show. Every possible cliché is ladled on with a trowel and with heavy handed dialogue that sounds like someone reading from a manifesto or a history book. The performances are also either incredibly self-important - Eccleston in the first of his humourless pompous leftwing stereotypes and McKee so smug you want someone to thump her stand out especially - or so over the top it's not even funny (yes, Malcolm McDowell, I do mean you).

Sure there are a few big themes, but they're swamped by the trite writing, dodgy performance (and bad old-age makeup) and blah direction. Forget all the raves. This is just an unconvincing, overlong timewaster, one of the great so whats? of British television.

Our friends in the North is one of those things you grow to admire in time, long after the details have left your mind and its melancholy essence has been absorbed by your consciousness. You will go back to this essence many many times as you grow old and find yourself identifying with someone or the other in this majestic work.

It covers 30 years for the most turbulent period in modern British history starting from the early sixties with its anxious flirtations with radical Marxism and ending in the bland nineties enmeshed in the muck of decadent consumerism. The plot revolves around four friends who are archetypes of the times and the greatness of Peter Flannery's script is to lay out in exquisite detail the fantastic interplay of archetypes and time. Some of the greatest of British actors played their life defining roles like Gina Mckee, Christopher Ecclestone, Mark Strong and a young Daniel Craig whose performance alone should make it worth seeing. Its a kind of work which is now largely impossible today primarily because of the class it focuses on; lower middle class Britain and their problems. In our post political age, where the public has been largely relegated to be spectators to their lives, its refreshing to witness a time where politics was the heart and soul of many lives who wanted to change the world albeit a bit foolishly. Nick ( Ecclestone ) is one such character. The cinematography is not the best but the plot makes up for it. Multi episode TV series like this was a creation of British TV and there is no better example to show how time is such a valuable thing to have in narrative expositions. Every episode focuses on a year and three decades gives the audience the chance to see characters play out their fated, entangled lives amidst all their joys and failures, swimming in the turbulence of sweeping historical changes.Every work of literature invariably comes up against the shores of narrative completeness where it faces its most troubled critics. Our Friends in the North has that self contained completeness where you are hard pressed to find leakages and thus you can say with a proud boast that its complete. There is an inevitability to the flow of lives that gives it a self sustaining rhythm till the end where you realize that nothing could have been any different. You feel for every character because by the time you have reached the end, you have come to believe in the old Buddhist maxim which exhorts man to believe in no judge-mental God who sits and punishes from above but to believe in man himself who weaves his own destiny, thread by thread which at the end of time, can chain him to the rock or carry him over to the heavens. A masterpiece which will last many a storm of time.

When this was broadcast in 1996 it was really important. Britain was tired of the Tories and they were incompetent but also the soul of what drives political ideals was gone. A year after this series was shown the Labour party swept to power. Not that there is a correlation there but the mood of the country had changed.

Fourteen years later - in 2010 - there is so much to admire here, even if the political urgency has past: the writing, production, casting, and threads to the long story, but there also parts that don't work anymore: the sex and corruption theme stands out here. As this is a single writer's work it has great features in character and in the human play that covers 40+ years. It also tends to fall into dirge over the miner's strike - as important as that was but like some other elements it is a bit close to agitprop-theater of the 1970s.

The biggest impression made now is that we have lost this type of story on TV. We are too involved with reality TV rubbish and contest shows of dubious merit and consuming more junk than stories about how people live. And finally, in an era of spin politics it reminds us that politics starts from simple things like housing and respect.

It's over 9 hours to watch the whole series and it's worth the time.

Sprawling, epic, jaw-dropping, moving: OFITN is unparalleled. Eccleston, Craig, McKee and Strong lead a stellar cast on top form in an episodic saga that visits the central characters at key moments in British history from 1964-95.

An ambitious series without trying to be epic, Our Friends (for short) is a finely detailed work of art set in Newcastle. The 4 principal characters begin as working class youths in 1964, and we follow them into the 1990s.

A quartet of friends navigate the troubled waters of England in the late 20th century, a world of political and police corruption, labor strikes and housing shortages, crime and what often feels like random punishment. At no point is it predictable, and at no point will you be tempted to turn it off. Especially not when Malcolm McDowell shows up as a detestable London crime boss with charm to spare.

Start with Mary, who is the all-purpose female for the plot-- girlfriend, wife, mother, divorcée, and, eventually, lawyer-- but beautifully brought to life by Gina McKee as an intelligent and honorable woman, a friend to all and a survivor. The three men become a braid that brings different arenas into focus: Nicky, a revolution-minded politico (superb Christopher Eccleston); Tosker, a hot-headed and horny businessman (a vigorous Mark Strong); and Geordie (a versatile Daniel Craig), a simple wounded soul who falls into a life of crime after a brutal childhood: the early scene of his father beating him is almost too real. With their passion for life, all three men defy the stiff-upper-lip stereotype; indeed, all three come to tears at times.

Its strongest qualities include the intricate relationships between parents and children, and couples. The slow demise of Mary's marriage is as balanced and believable as any I've seen in film or on TV.