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The four friends are Dominic 'Nicky' Hutchinson (played by Christopher Eccleston), Mary Soulsby ( Gina McKee), George 'Geordie' Peacock ( Daniel Craig ) and Terry 'Tosker' Cox ( Mark Strong). The series begins with Nicky returning from a period working with the civil rights movement in the southern United States to resume his studies at Manchester University and reuniting with his girlfriend, Mary, and best friends Geordie and Tosker.

However, Nicky decides to drop out and work for a corrupt local politician, much to the annoyance of his trade unionist father who does not want his son to waste the opportunity of bettering himself, of taking chances he was never given when he was Nicky's age. Nicky's relationship with Mary ends when she is made pregnant by Tosker, whom she later marries. On the run from his own pregnant girlfriend, Geordie heads for LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri, where he falls in with seedy underworld baron Benny Barrett (played by Malcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowell (born June 13, 1943) is an English actor. He was born Malcolm John Taylor in Leeds, England. Possibly best known for his portrayal of Alex in A Clockwork Orange ( 1971) he began his professional life first serving drinks in his parents' p).

The series takes many dramatic twists and turns as it follows the fortunes of the four friends through the 1970sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Years: 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 Events and trends and 80sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends, telling a story both of human emotion and tragedy and of the politics of the era. It finally reunites them in a more optimistic Britain of 1995, with the old ThatcheriteMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born October 13, 1925) is a British politician and the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a position she held from 1979 to 1990. She is a member of the Conservative Party and still politics falling away to the promise of a new era.

Writer Peter Flannery originally wrote the piece for the stage in the early 1980s, reflecting much of his own life experiences and political beliefs through the lives of the four characters and the events of the story. It was produced for the theatre by the Royal Shakespeare CompanyThe Royal Shakespeare Company is a theatre company located in Stratford-upon-Avon, London, and Newcastle. It was founded by Peter Hall in 1960. Key productions The Wars of the Roses adaptation of the Henry VI plays, directed by Sir Peter Hall ( 1963- 64), and BBC drama Producer Michael WearingMichael Wearing is a British television producer, who has spent much of his career working on various drama productions for the BBC. He is best known as the producer of the highly-acclaimed serials Boys from the Blackstuff ( 1982) and Edge of Darkness ( 1, who was based at BBC BirminghamThe Mailbox, current home to BBC Birmingham BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC. It was the first region outside of London to start brodcasting both the corporation's radio (in 1922) and television (in 1948) transmissions from the with a remit for making "regional drama" and had just come off producing the successful Boys from the Blackstuff, became very keen on the idea of producing a television version.

However, through a combination of bad timing, economics and lack of enthusiasm on the part of various BBC executives, the series went into pre-production twice and both times came to nothing. It was not until 1994, at the third attempt, that the series finally went into production, commissioned by Controller of BBC TWO Michael Jackson, who was committing the majority of his drama budget for the year to it, meaning it was either going to be a great success or a potentially embarrassing failure.

The decade-long delay in Our Friends in the North reaching production had at least had the positive side effect of allowing Flannery to extend the story, which in its original form had ended in 1979 with the coming to power of the new Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher. Now he had written further installments bringing Nicky, Mary, Geordie and Tosker into the (then) present day.

Even in production however all was not plain sailing - after viewing the material that had been completed for the first episode, the production team decided that it was not quite what they had wanted. Not only did they take the decision to re-film almost the entire episode - at considerable expense - but Flannery took the opportunity to re-write it, in the process changing the beginning of the story and some characters' background quite considerably.

All the effort proved to be worthwhile however when the production was eventually screened. It was hailed as one of the finest BBC dramas of the modern age, and was very quickly repeated. Although Eccleston was already fairly well-known from his roles in the TV series Cracker and the film Shallow Grave the series very much consolidated and built his reputation as an actor and star, and helped to establish McKee in much the same vein. Although they have done much television work since, neither Strong nor Craig has attained quite the same level of recognition.

The programme won a string of awards in 1997, including: the BAFTA Television Awards for Best Actress ( Gina McKee) and Best Drama Serial; Royal Television Society Awards for Best Actor ( Christopher Eccleston), Best Actress (McKee), Best Drama Serial and Best Writer; Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for Best Actor (Eccleston) and Best Actress (McKee), and a Certificate of Merit in the Television Drama Miniseries category at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

The series was made available in the UK on VHS across two double-video packs soon after transmission, and was released on DVD in a four-disc box set by BMG in 2002. In a 2000 poll of industry professionals to find the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes conducted by the British Film Institute, Our Friends in the North was voted into 25th place. It was also included in an alphabetical list of the Forty Greatest TV Shows published in Radio Times magazine in August 2003.