Â鶹Éç

Peter Flannery once famously said of Our Friends in the North, "I've always said it's just a posh soap opera - but it's a posh soap opera with something to say."

And now he has rewritten his multi-award winning and highly acclaimed television series as an audio drama for Â鶹Éç Radio 4.

Ambitious in scale and scope, the drama chronicles the lives of four friends over three decades beginning in the 1960s. The series tackles corporate, political and police corruption in the 1960s, the rise and fall of the Soho porn empires in the 1970s, the nouveau riche and the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s and the rise of New Labour in the 1990s. Some of the stories are directly based on the real-life controversies involving T. Dan Smith and John Poulson in Newcastle during the 60s and 70s.

And the adapted series will now end with a new, tenth episode by writer Adam Usden, bringing the story up to the present day.

The second episode opens in 1966, with Mary and Tosker married and bringing up their baby in a brand new high-rise council flat. Both the flat and the marriage are already showing cracks. Geordie’s in London, soon working for porn baron Benny Barratt, who’s facing crackdowns from the police and a Soho turf battle with a rival gang. Geordie is exactly who Barratt needs. In Newcastle, Nicky and Mary miss seeing each other, but she’s pregnant again and determined to make her marriage work. Nicky is increasingly disillusioned with Austin Donohue and his connections with developer John Edwards. He’s on the brink of another life-changing decision.

Cast
Austin Donohue / Charlie: Tom Goodman-Hill
John Edwards: Maanuv Thiara
Nicky: James Baxter
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
Mary / Julia: Norah Lopez-Holden
D.S. Conrad: Andrew Byron
Benny Barratt: Tony Hirst
Tosker / D.I Salway: Philip Correia
Ernie: Des Yankson
Arthur Watson: James Gaddas

Writer: Peter Flannery
Studio Engineer: Paul Clark
Sound Design: Eloise Whitmore
Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer

A Sparklab production for Â鶹Éç Radio 4