Our Friends in the North: The Thatcher Years review – old pals back on the toon as TV series gets squished

By Mark Lawson · The Guardian Culture

Theatre Royal, Newcastle They have appeared in epic BBC dramas since their RSC debut but Peter Flannery’s immortal foursome now return in an 80s-focused play The four thwarted, postwar north-eastern dreamers created by dramatist Peter Flannery have now played more than a whole day of drama across different formats. The 1982 RSC world premiere of Our Friends in the North featured almost four hours in the lives of lawyer-councillor Mary, drifting philanderer Tosker, photo-journalist Nicky and petty criminal Geordie. The award-winning 1996 BBC Two version ran 10 hours, as did the 2022 Radio 4 adaptation. Now Flannery brings the quartet home to the stage and to Newcastle (where the first version toured) in another play. Starting in 1964, with Labour PM Harold Wilson promising a new Britain, the first stage version ended in 1979, as Margaret Thatcher’s victory heralded a rightwing transformation. Exploiting the way that saga dramas test characters against landmark events, the TV version took them to 1995 (brink of Blair) and the radio one to 2020 (Boris Johnson and Covid). It would be intriguing to know if the idealism of these now triple-locked pensioner characters burns again under Burnham, but Flannery has tracked back to 1979-85, adapting the sixth (Thatcher in) and seventh (miners out) TV episodes. Continue reading...