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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 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 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.

In episode 6, it’s 1979. Mary and Tosker are barely holding it together for the kids, their son Anthony is going off the rails thanks to Geordie’s influence, and Nicky is trying to get selected as a candidate for the Labour Party. But the Tories are breaching the red wall.

Cast
Mary: Norah Lopez Holden
Tosker: Philip Correia
Geordie: Luke MacGregor
Nicky / young Anthony: James Baxter
Alison / Elaine: Eve Shotton
Commissioner Jellicoe: Darren Kuppan
Florrie / Claudia Seabrook: Tracey Wilkinson
Felix: Trevor Fox
Roy Johnson / Benny Barratt : Tony Hirst
Eddie Wells: James Gaddas
Assistant Commissioner Fieldson: Des Yankson
Colin Butler: Tom Goodman-Hill

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

A Sparklab production for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4