Â鶹Éç

Peter Flannery once famously said of Our Friends in the North, "...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 1964. The series tackles corporate, political and police corruption in the 1960s, the rise and fall of the Soho porn empires in the 1970s, 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.The series now ends with a new, tenth episode by writer Adam Usden, bringing the story up to the present day.

In episode four, it’s now 1970. Nicky and his anarchist friends are intent on bringing down Edward Heath’s government by force, Geordie is still working for Benny Barratt in Soho, and Mary and Tosker continue to grow apart. Chief Constable Roy Johnson is brought in as an outsider to investigate corruption in the London Metropolitan Police force. He faces an uphill struggle.

Cast
Felix: Trevor Fox
Helen: Eve Shotton
Nicky: James Baxter
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
Commander Harold Chapple: James Gaddas
DI Salway / Tosker: Philip Correia
Austin Donohue / Claud Seabrook / D.I. Cockburn: Tom Goodman-Hill
Sir Colin Blamire: Des Yankson
DS Conrad: Andrew Byron
Benny Barratt / Chief Constable Roy Johnson: Tony Hirst
Mary: Norah Lopez Holden
Florrie: Tracey Wilkinson

Writer: Peter Flannery
Studio Engineer: Paul Clark
Sound Design: Paul Cargill
Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Jeremy Mortimer
A Sparklab production for Â鶹Éç Radio 4