History Series / OurFriendsInTheNorth

* ClimacticMusic: The end credits of every episode are soundtracked with a piece of music from the year in which the episode was set. The final episode, "1995"
, is probably the most notable for this, featuring Music/{{Oasis}}'s ''Don't Look Back In Anger''. By coincidence, the song was on top of the charts in the week the episode was aired, and the writers hadn't even known it was going to be released as a single.

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Geordie and Mary only interact during Nicky's birthday tea in the first episode.

** Geordie's father is a violent drunk who eventually drives Geordie to run away from home after assaulting him

* TheAlcoholic: ''1987'' reveals that Geordie and Eddie Wells both became this, for different reasons. [[spoiler:the former as result of becoming a homeless vagrant, and the latter out of bitterness over the state of the country under the Tories]].

* BombThrowingAnarchist: Nicky falls in with some in ''1970''.

* BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats: [[spoiler:Tosker]] joins the Freemasons in ''1984'' in the hope that it will further his business venture as a dodgy buy-to-let landlord.
* BuryYourDisabled: Mary's physically and mentally handicapped brother Patrick passes away of natural causes in ''1970''.

* ClimacticMusic: The end credits of every episode are soundtracked with a piece of music from the year in which the episode was set. The final episode, ''1995'', is probably the most notable for this, featuring Music/{{Oasis}}'s ''Don't Look Back In Anger''. By coincidence, the song was on top of the charts in the week the episode was aired, and the writers hadn't even known it was going to be released as a single.
* CrazyHomelessPeople: [[spoiler:When Nicky encounters Geordie in ''1987'', he's become a mentally deranged, alcoholic vagrant who doesn't recognise his former friend. After seeing Eddie Wells make a speech on television, he gets mixed messages and proceeds to start a fire at the hostel he's staying at]].

* DeathOfAChild: In ''1995'', Sean Collins, having been rebuffed by his father, steals a car and crashes into a wall, killing himself.

* DisappearedDad: Tosker is never around for his and Mary's children, Anthony and Bernadette, and they don't think too highly of him. Anthony even vows that he'll grow up to murder him.

* DrivenToSuicide: In ''1966'', Berger, a former police constable, hangs himself when his allegations about police corruption aren't acted upon.

* TheEighties: Episodes 7 and 8 are respectively set in 1984 and 1987.

** In ''1970'', Nicky shows Geordie some down-and-outs to explain why he's politically motivated, but Geordie remains apathetic. [[spoiler:In ''1987'', Geordie ends up like them. Also, in the first episode, his first scene in London has him sleeping on a park bench]].
** In ''1964'', Mary gives Nicky a camera for his birthday. Twenty years down the line, he finds success as a photographer.

* FriendToAllChildren: Geordie gets on very well with children. He befriends the daughter of a hotel owner in ''1970'' and Sean Collins in ''1995''.

* IHaveNoSon: Felix disowns Nicky in ''1970'' when Florrie finds a machine gun under his bed.

* ItsAllMyFault: In ''1987'', Elaine encourages Tosker to invest their money in the stock market. They then lose everything on Black Friday. She says this word-for-word. Thankfully, Tosker gets them back on their feet.
* ImportantHaircut: In ''1984'' [[strike:Tosker]] Terry can be seen to have finally cut his long hair short.
* {{Jerkass}}: We meet Christopher Collins in three different stages, and he's an utter shit in all of them - as a juvenile tearaway who annoys Felx and Florre, as a teenage delinquent and criminal, and an adult who neglects his own son.

** Geordie experiences this in ''1966'' while manning one of Barrett's knocking shops. He ends up with broken ribs.
** Nicky gets a first-hand view of the violence between the police and the miners in ''1984''.

** Nicky delivers one to Eddie in ''1987'' when he explains why he doesn't want to get involved in politics anymore- by telling Eddie that he's just as corrupt and pathetic as his fellow Members of Parliament whom he claims to despise.

** Mary delivers one to Claudia Seabrook in ''1987'':

* TheSeventies: Episodes 4, 5, and 6 are respectively set in 1970, 1974, and 1979.

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: In ''1987'', Christopher Collins causes a siege at his council estate when he brandishes an air rifle. This gets him shot in the shoulder by a police marksman.
* ShotgunWedding: Having got a local girl pregnant, Geordie runs away to escape both the wedding and his alcoholic father. After cheating on Nicky with Tosker, Mary discovers she is pregnant and leaves Nicky to enter a loveless marriage with Tosker. [[note]]Both of these unplanned pregnancies occurred in the first episode, ''1964'', which is set before the contraceptive pill was available to unmarried women in the UK, and when there was a major stigma attached to having a child out of wedlock.[[/note]]
* TheSixties: The first three episodes are respectively set in 1964, 1966, and 1967.

* SmugSnake: Colin Butler, the odious agent who runs a smear campaign against Nicky when he runs for Labour MP in ''1979''.

* TakeItToTheBridge: Newcastles' Tyne Bridge is featured prominentely. Nicky and Eddie have a conversation on it in ''1967'' and the series ends with Geordie walking across it.

* TheTramp: In ''1970'', Nicky encounters a group of them being harassed by the police. In ''1987'', he photographs the down-and-outs of London. [[spoiler:One of which turns out to be Geordie]].
* TraumaCongaLine: Geordie. Over the miniseries, he's been abused by his dad, beaten up, made unemployed when the cafe he worked at closed, sent to prison on false charges, had the woman he loves commit suicide, made homeless and jailed again.

** Young Sean Collins' favourite pastime is stealing cars and joyriding.

** The single mother Geordie romances in ''1970'' meets the same fate.

** Nicky has an affair with a photography student in ''1987''.

* TheEighties: Episodes 4, 5, and 6 are respectively set in 1970, 1974, and 1979.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Geordie leaves Newcastle to escape both his abusive father and his impending marriage to a girl he made pregnant. Neither are seen or even mentioned again after the first episode.

* DreadfulMusician: Tosker is convinced he is destined to become a famous musician one day despite his [[GiftedlyBad obvious lack of talent]].

* StrawMisognynist: When Benny reveals to Geordie that he knows about his affair with Julia, he shares his view:

The series provided four {{Star Making Role}}s for the then little-known actors cast as the four Friends of the title- Creator/ChristopherEccleston as WideEyedIdealist and would-be politician Dominic "Nicky" Hutchinson; [[Film/InTheLoop Gina McKee]] as downtrodden but quietly ambitious Mary Soulsby; Creator/MarkStrong as deluded would-be rockstar Terry "Tosker" Cox; and Creator/DanielCraig as troubled and naive runaway George "[[UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland Geordie]]" Peacock. It also featured Creator/MalcolmMcDowell as LondonGangster Benny Barrett and Creator/PeterVaughan as Nicky's father Felix.

* ArtifactTitle: The original play contained a significant number of scenes set in Rhodesia, chronicling UDI, the oil embargo and the emergence of armed resistance to white supremacy. This plot strand was dropped from the televised version, although the title Our Friends in the North, a reference to how staff at BP in South Africa referred to the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith, remained.

** Geordie experiences this in ''1966''.

** Mary delivers one to Claudia Seabrook in ''1987'', chewing her out for the mess the Tories made of things.

BBC drama series following the lives of four friends from UsefulNotes/NorthEastEngland over three decades. Each of the nine episodes is named after the year in which it is set- 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987, and 1995- and they chart political events and social changes occurring in these years, from the widespread police corruption of the 1960s, the miners strikes and the rise of Thatcher in the 1980s, and the birth of New Labour in the 1990s. The series was adapted for television by playwright Peter Flannery, from his stage play of the same name.

* TheEighties

* TheSeventies.

* TheSixties.

BBC drama series following the lives of four friends from NorthEastEngland over three decades. Each of the nine episodes is named after the year in which it is set- 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987, and 1995- and they chart political events and social changes occurring in these years, from the widespread police corruption of the 1960s, the miners strikes and the rise of Thatcher in the 1980s, and the birth of New Labour in the 1990s. The series was adapted for television by playwright Peter Flannery, from his stage play of the same name.

The series provided four {{Star Making Role}}s for the then little-known actors cast as the four Friends of the title- Creator/ChristopherEccleston as WideEyedIdealist and would-be politician Dominic "Nicky" Hutchinson; [[Film/InTheLoop Gina McKee]] as downtrodden but quietly ambitious Mary Soulsby; Creator/MarkStrong as deluded would-be rockstar Terry "Tosker" Cox; and Creator/DanielCraig as troubled and naive runaway George "[[NorthEastEngland Geordie]]" Peacock. It also featured Creator/MalcolmMcDowell as LondonGangster Benny Barrett and Creator/PeterVaughan as Nicky's father Felix.

* TheCasanova: Geordie, in general but notably when out on the pull with Tosker.

** In ''1970'', Nicky shows Geordie some down-and-outs to explain why he's politically motivated, but Geordie remains apathetic. [[spoiler:In ''1987'', Geordie ends up like them]].

* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Geordie has an affair with Benny's mistress. Benny finds out and asks Heordie straight up if he is seeing her and he tells the truth. Benny doesn't seem at all mad and admires his honesty. Then later on, he sets Geordie up as a FallGuy for the police in retaliation for the affair.

* OrphanedPunchline: Austin Donohue's joke about the pork pie ("And she says, 'If you're not going to eat that pork pie, I'll have it'").

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Geordie uses the term 'darkies' to describe black people, in keeping with the attitudes of the 1960s.

** Young Sean Collins favourite pastime is stealing cars and joyriding.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Fed up of Tosker's endless futile attempts to become a rock star, Mary finally tells her husband that he's a mediocre musician who will never get anywhere and should give up and get a real job.
** Nicky delivers one to Eddie in ''1987'' when he explains why he doesn't want to get involved in politics anymore- by telling Eddie that he's just as corrupt and pathetic as his fellow Members of Parliament whom he claims to despise.
** Mary delivers one to Claudia Seabrook in ''1987'', chewing her out for the mess the Tories made of things.

* WideEyedIdealist: Nicky. As a keen Labour party activist determined to make a real difference to poor working people's lives, he turns away from the party when he witnesses the corruption within first-hand. He is then driven to a more extreme left-wing activist group but turns away from them when he discovers that [[spoiler:they have procured weapons and are planning terrorist attacks]]. Later still he returns to the Labour Party fold to stand for election on his own idealistic terms, but finds he is totally unprepared for the vicious smear campaign the opposing Tory campaigners launch against him.

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: After [[spoiler:being framed by Benny and doing time for a crime he didn;t commit]] Geordie decides to seek revenge. He acquires a gun and tracks Benny down to Soho, but just as he is taking aim to shoot him [[spoiler:he finds out that the vice squad have also been after Benny, when they show up and arrest him]].

!! This show provides examples of:

** Creator/MarkStrong is famous for playing such roles- this may have been his first.

--> "One last thing, Colin. ''Fuck off'', you scruffy little man. Back to your scruffy little friends".

* SmallNameBigEgo: Tosker, who sees himself as a gifted musician and irresistible to women and even throws out his own catchphrase.

* AuthorAvatar: Creator/MarkStrong believes that the three main characters are these for Peter Flannery. Nicky is the political side, Geordie is the SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll side and Tosker is the Newcastle side.

* BrotherhoodOfFunnyHats: [[spoiler:Tosker]] joins the Freemasons in ''1984''.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The dealings between city boss Austin Donohue and architect John Edwards are an obvious reference to the real life scandal involving T. Dan Smith and John Poulson. Filming did not begin until after both men had died.

* TraumaCongaLine: Geordie. Over the miniseries, he's been abused by hs dad, beaten up, made unemployed when the cafe he worked at closed, sent to prison on false charges, had the woman he loves commit suicide, made homeless and jailed again.

* [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Fed up of Tosker's endless futile attempts to become a rock star, Mary finally tells her husband that he's a mediocre musician who will never get anywhere and should give up and get a real job.

* YourCheatingHeart: Tosker's infidelities lead to his marriage to Mary ending.

* AffablyEvil: Benny Barrett is gangster and porn baron, but is very charming and affable. When Geordie reveals that he's having an affair with Benny's mistress, he takes it well. Hell, he's happy that Geordie didn't lie to him.

* AbusiveParents: Geordie's father is a violent drunk who eventually drives Geordie to run away from home after assaulting him

* AffablyEvil: Benny Barrett

** MarkStrong is famous for playing such roles- this may have been his first.

* CallingTheOldManOut: Geordie to his dad. Nicky to Felix.
** Mary's son Anthony calls her out for being a martyr all his life.

* ForeShadowing:

* [[HeManWomanHater He-Man Woman Hater]]: Tosker has a bit of an old-fashioned view of marriage. He expects Mary to carry out what he perceives to be her wifely duties, and resents her for spending "his" money on getting an education for herself and trying to carve out a new career. he isn't too impressed with the Labour Women's Meeting she hosts in their flat either.

* LawOfInverseFertility: When cheating on Nicky with Tosker, Mary really doesn't want a baby but Tosker gets her pregnant and she ends up marrying him. When Tosker leaves Mary for Elaine, they want a baby and try for one, only to discover that Elaine is infertile.

* PoliceBrutality: Geordie experiences this in ''1966''.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Averted.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Tosker and Mary's son Anthony when he vows that he will one day murder his father. Later he goes on a bit of a crime spree and is arrested.

* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirlfriend: Geordie has an affair with Benny's mistress. Benny finds out and asks Heordie straight up if he is seeing her and he tells the truth. Benny doesn't seem at all mad and admires his honesty. Then later on, he sets Geordie up as a FallGuy for the police in retaliation for the affair.

* ForeShadowing: In ''1970'', Nicky shows Geordie some down-and-outs to explain why he's politically motivated, but Geordie remains apathetic. [[spoiler:In ''1987'', Geordie ends up like them]].