‘Corruption has only got worse’: can a new version of Our Friends in the North still shock audiences 30 years on?
Peter Flannery’s 90s TV drama classic is getting a theatre reworking in Newcastle.
The director and cast talk about doing justice to its themes of scandal and decay – and emulating its star-making actors In a small room at the top of Newcastle upon Tyne’s Live theatre, four actors are bringing to life the principal characters from one of British television’s best-loved dramas.
Sitting around a table strewn with coffee cups, water bottles and annotated scripts, Tosker and Geordie have been boozing in a nightclub and weighing up their chances of pulling.
Mary and Nicky have been arguing about whether they have a future together.
The scenes are from a new stage version of Our Friends in the North , the landmark nine-episode series first broadcast in 1996 on BBC Two.
Set against a backdrop of Labour politics and police corruption, it charted 30 years in the lives of four working-class geordies and made stars of Mark Strong, Daniel Craig, Gina McKee and Christopher Eccleston.
It was a hit with critics and viewers, won awards and regularly makes “greatest ever” lists.
Continue reading...
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.theguardian.com — the content belongs to The Guardian UK.
