Our Friends in The North - Plot

Plot

See also: List of Our Friends in the North episodes

Each of the nine episodes of the serial takes place in the year for which it is named; 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987, and 1995, for the most part representing a UK election year. The episodes follow the four main characters and their changing lives, careers and relationships against the backdrop of the political and social events in the United Kingdom at the time.

The four friends are Dominic 'Nicky' Hutchinson (played by Christopher Eccleston), Mary Soulsby (Gina McKee), George 'Geordie' Peacock (Daniel Craig) and Terry 'Tosker' Cox (Mark Strong). The series begins in 1964 with Nicky returning from a period working with the civil rights movement in the southern United States to resume his studies at the University of Manchester and reuniting with his girlfriend, Mary, and best friend Geordie. Geordie is hoping to form a pop group with his mate Tosker.

However, Nicky is persuaded to drop out and work for corrupt local politician Austin Donohue (Alun Armstrong), swayed by Donohue's apparent idealism and desire to change Newcastle for the better. This is much to the annoyance of his trade unionist father Felix (Peter Vaughan), who does not want his son to waste the opportunity to better himself by taking chances he never had when he was Nicky's age. Nicky's relationship with Mary ends when she sleeps with Tosker and gets pregnant, later marrying him, which means she also drops out of university. On the run from a pregnant girlfriend himself and his abusive alcoholic father, Geordie leaves for London, where he falls in with seedy underworld baron Benny Barrett (Malcolm McDowell).

Geordie is initially successful while employed by Barrett in his Soho nightclubs and sex shops. He also helps Tosker and Mary, introducing Tosker to Barrett who lends him the money to start his own fruit and vegetable business, his former dreams of musical stardom having gradually faded away. Nicky, meanwhile, realises the extent of Donohue's corrupt dealings with the building contractor John Edwards (Geoffrey Hutchings) and resigns in disgust, eventually becoming involved with left-wing anarchists in London.

By the early 1970s, the police have cracked down on Barrett's business, and their own corruption, but not before Barrett has set Geordie up, sending him to prison in retaliation for an affair Geordie had with Barrett's lover. Nicky's anarchist cell is raided and he returns to Newcastle, as eventually does Geordie. By 1979, Nicky has returned to more mainstream politics and stands as a Member of Parliament in the general election for the Labour Party, but is defeated by the Conservative Party candidate (Saskia Wickham) after a smear campaign. Geordie leaves again shortly before the election, not to be seen in the series again until 1987.

By 1984, Nicky is working as a successful photographer, and Mary has divorced Tosker, who has remarried and is rapidly becoming a rich businessman. Nicky and Mary renew their earlier relationship during the turbulent events of the miners' strike and eventually marry. By 1987, however their marriage is falling apart, Nicky has an affair with a young student and is also forced to confront his father's descent into Alzheimer's disease. He meets Geordie, now a homeless, drunken vagrant, by chance in London, but his old friend disappears before he has a chance to help him. Eventually Geordie is sentenced to life in prison as a danger to the public after setting fire to a mattress in a hostel. Despite her failing marriage to Nicky, Mary's life is becoming an increasing success, and she is now a councillor. Tosker, meanwhile, has lost his fortune in the stock market crash.

The final episode, 1995, sees Nicky – who has emigrated to Italy – returning to Newcastle to oversee the funeral of his mother. Tosker has managed to rebuild his business and is about to hold the opening night of his new floating nightclub, based on a boat moored on the River Tyne (filmed on the real club the Tuxedo Princess). Mary, now a Labour MP sympathetic to New Labour, is also invited to the opening, and Tosker is surprised to find Geordie back in the city as well – he has escaped from prison. Neither Mary nor Geordie make it to the opening night party, but the four friends are reunited the following day, at Nicky's house after his mother's funeral. Tosker leaves to be with his grandchildren and Mary also leaves after agreeing to meet Nicky for lunch the next day. However, a desperate Nicky realises that "Tomorrow's too late" and runs after Mary's car, eventually attracting her attention and breathlessly asking, "Why not today?" to which she agrees, smiling. Meanwhile, Geordie walks off, and the series ends with him heading off into the distance across the Tyne Bridge, after looking down at Tosker playing with his grandchildren on the boat below. As Geordie walks away and the credits fade up, the music of Oasis's "Don't Look Back in Anger" is heard.