ОООО, хочу,хочу,хочу!!!!!!

Нет, но будет,надеюсь

Our Friends in the North is a British television drama serial, produced by the BBC and originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC2 in early 1996. Telling the story of four friends from the city of Newcastle in north-eastern England over 31 years from 1964 to 1995, it also brought in real political and social events both specific to Newcastle and from Britain as a whole during the era portrayed.

The serial is commonly regarded as one of the most successful BBC television dramas of the 1990s, described by The Daily Telegraph as "A production where all... worked to serve a writer's vision. We are not likely to look upon its like again."[1] In a poll of industry professionals conducted by the British Film Institute in 2000, it was 25th in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century.

It was also a controversial production, as its stories were partly based on real politicians and political events, and several years passed before it was adapted from a play performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, due in part to the BBC's fear of legal action.

Plot

Each of the nine episodes of the serial takes place in the year after which it is named; 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987, and 1995. 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 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 friends Geordie and Tosker, with whom he is hoping to form a pop group.

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 of bettering himself by taking chances he was never given when he was Nicky's age. Nicky's relationship with Mary ends when she is made pregnant by Tosker, whom she later marries, which also causes her to have to drop out of university. On the run from his own pregnant girlfriend and abusive alcoholic father, Geordie heads for London, where he falls in with seedy underworld baron Benny Barrett (Malcolm McDowell).

Geordie initially becomes successful under Barrett's employ, working in his Soho nightclubs and sex shops. He also manages to help 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 extreme left-wing anarchists in London.

By the early 1970s, the police have cracked down on Barrett's business, but not before Barrett has set Geordie up, sending him to prison for three years 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 left Tosker who has married for a second time and is rapidly becoming a rich businessman. Nicky and Mary renew their former 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 elsewhere 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. Mary, now a Labour MP, 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 makes it to the opening night party, but the four friends are eventually 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 up with 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.

Background

Our Friends in the North was originally written by the playwright Peter Flannery for the theatre, while he was a resident playwright for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982. The play was produced by the RSC, and in its original form went up only to the 1979 general election and the coming to power of the new Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher.

Flannery was heavily influenced not only by his own political viewpoints and life experiences, but by the real-life history of his home city of Newcastle during the 1960s and 1970s. Characters such as Austin Donohue and John Edwards were directly based on the real-life scandals of T. Dan Smith and John Poulson, who built cheap high-rise housing projects in Newcastle that they knew to be of low quality. Flannery went to visit Smith and explained that he was going to write a play based on the events of the scandal, to which Smith apparently replied, "There is a play here of Shakespearean proportions."[2]

The stage version of the story was seen by BBC television drama producer Michael Wearing, who was immediately keen on producing a television adaptation. Wearing was based at the BBC English Regions Drama Department at BBC Birmingham, which had a specific remit for making "regional drama", and had established his reputation by producing Alan Bleasdale's Boys from the Blackstuff in 1982. Flannery was also keen on writing a television version, but during the 1980s the pair were frustrated in their attempts to bring the story to the screen, as various BBC executives failed to green light the project, which twice stalled in preproduction.

By 1989, however, Wearing had been recalled to the central BBC drama department in London, where he was made Head of Serials. This new seniority eventually allowed him to further the cause of Our Friends in the North, and Flannery also wrote to the BBC's then Managing Director of Television, Will Wyatt, "accusing him of cowardice for not approving it."[3] The BBC were concerned not only with the budget and resources that would be required to produce the serial, but also with potential legal issues, due to the basing of so much of the background story on real-life events and people such as Smith and Poulson and former Home Secretary Reginald Maudling, upon whom another character, Claud Seabrook, was based. According to The Observer newspaper, one senior BBC lawyer, Glen Del Medico, even threatened to resign if the production was made, while others tried to persuade Flannery to reset the piece "in a fictional country called Albion rather than Britain."[4]

However, the legal situation was eased after the deaths of Smith and Poulson in 1993, and Wearing, Flannery and their chosen producer for the serial, Charles Pattinson, were able to persuade the then Controller of BBC2, Michael Jackson, to commission the piece. The long delay in production did, however, have the advantageous side effect of allowing Flannery to extend the story, and instead of ending in 1979 it now carried on into the 1990s, allowing him to cover other politically charged events such as the miners' strike of 1984.

The series did encounter further legal problems when some references to the fictional businessman Alan Roe were removed because of a perceived similarity to Sir John Hall, a Newcastle businessman who had a number of factors in common. The drama had originally shown Roe as taking advantage of tax breaks to build a large shopping centre.[5]

Production and broadcast

The epic scale of the production required Jackson to devote a budget of £8 million[6] to the serial – half of his serials budget for the entire year.[7] The speaking cast numbered 160, the production employed over 3000 extras and filming lasted for a year,[8] from the autumn of 1994 to the autumn of 1995.[9] Although he had originally intended to produce the serial himself in the 1980s, Wearing was now Executive Producer, with Charles Pattinson producing.

Of the actors playing the four main roles, only Eccleston was well-known prior to featuring in the serial, having starred in the ITV drama series Cracker and the film Shallow Grave. He had initially been seen by the production team as being a good candidate to play Geordie, but had been very keen to play Nicky instead, eventually winning that role.[10] He had become aware of the serial after being told about the scripts by the director of Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle, who had been approached by Michael Wearing to direct all nine episodes. Boyle was initially keen, but wanted to see how Shallow Grave fared first. When the film proved to be a success Boyle decided to concentrate on his film career instead.[11]

Following Boyle's turning down of directing duties, Pattinson and Wearing decided to assign different directors to each 'era' of the project, with Stuart Urban assigned the first five episodes and Simon Cellan-Jones the final four. However, after completing the first two episodes and some of the shooting for the third, Urban left the project after disagreements with the production team – Christopher Eccleston's viewpoint is that Urban was apparently "only interested in painting pretty pictures."[12] Director Pedr James was hired to shoot the remainder of what were to have been Urban's episodes, with all three directors being credited on the third instalment.

However, there were to be further problems with the already completed opening instalment, 1964, again partially due to the dissatisfaction of the production team with Urban's direction. After viewing the completed material for the episode, Wearing and Pattinson took the expensive decision to entirely reshoot it, under James's direction, in between the sixth (1979) and seventh (1984) episodes. However, it was not a simple reshooting of existing scenes – Flannery took the opportunity to completely rewrite the opening episode, in some cases changing the initial storylines of the characters quite dramatically, such as no longer having Mary already married to Tosker when the serial begins.[13] This was mainly done because the initial episode had been the one most faithful to the original text of the stage play, and Flannery felt that the storyline needed opening out for television, as well as simply having changed his mind about various ideas since he had written the original play.[14]

Aside from the remount of the first episode, the serial was shot on an episode-by-episode basis, with the exception of the scenes involving the character of Benny Barrett, played by Malcolm McDowell across various episodes from 1966 to 1979. These were all shot together in one block, as McDowell was not resident in the UK, living then in the United States, and for budgetary reasons the production team did not want to keep him in the country for any longer than was necessary.[15] This was considered more than worthwhile, however, for the prestige of being able to use an actor such as McDowell, predominantly a film actor who rarely did television work.

Much use was made throughout the production of contemporaneous popular music to evoke the feel of the year in which each episode was set. This led to a particular piece of synchronicity in the final episode, 1995, which Cellan-Jones had decided to close with the song Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis, which while the serial was in production was only another track from their (What's the Story) Morning Glory? album. However, during transmission of Our Friends in the North it was released as a single, and to Cellan-Jones's delight it was at the top of the UK Singles Chart the week of the final episode's transmission.[16]

Our Friends in the North was broadcast in nine episodes on BBC2 at 9pm on Monday nights, from January 15 to March 11 1996, with a break on January 22 when no episode was shown. Unusually for a drama series, the running times of the episodes were inconsistent – although nominally seventy minutes each, they in fact varied from 63 minutes, 49 seconds (1966) to 74 minutes 40 seconds (1987). The total running time of the serial is ten hours, twenty-three minutes.

Following its great success, Our Friends in the North was very quickly given a repeat broadcast on BBC2, on Saturday nights. It was also released on VHS across two double-video packs (1964 – 1974 and 1979 – 1995). In 2002, BMG Video released the complete series on DVD in a four-disc set, which along with the original episodes contained several extra features. These were a retrospective discussion of the series by Wearing, Pattinson, Flannery, James and Cellan-Jones; specially shot interviews with Eccleston and McKee, and a detailed text synopsis of the plot of the original opening episode. In the 2000s, the serial has also been screened by the digital television station UKTV Drama. In February 2006, BBC4 began a repeat screening of the serial.

Both Eccleston and Craig would later go on to achieve notable high "cult" status when they took over the respective high-profile roles of Doctor Who and James Bond. Gina McKee and Mark Strong are also well known to British television audiences.

Critical reception

Both during and after its original transmission on BBC2, the serial was generally praised by the critics. Reviewing the first episode in The Observer, Ian Bell wrote that: "Flannery's script is faultless; funny, chilling, evocative, spare, linguistically precise. The four young friends about to share 31 hellish years in the life of modern Britain are excellently played."[17]

The conclusion of the serial in March brought similar praise. "Our Friends in the North confounded the gloomier predictions about its content and proved that there was an audience for political material, provided that it found its way to the screen through lives imagined in emotional detail... It will be remembered for an intimate sense of character, powerful enough to make you forgive its faults and stay loyal to the end,"[18] was the verdict of The Independent on the final episode. Writing in the same newspaper the following day, Jeffrey Richards added that "Monday night's final episode of Our Friends in the North has left many people bereft. The serial captivated much of the country, sketching a panoramic view of life in Britain from the Sixties to the Nineties... At once sweeping and intimate, both moving and angry, simultaneously historical and contemporary, it has followed in the distinguished footsteps of BBC series such as Boys from the Blackstuff."[19]

However, the response was not exclusively positive. In The Independent on Sunday, columnist Lucy Ellmann criticised both what she saw as the unchanging nature of the characters and Flannery's concentration on friendship rather than family. "What's in the water there anyway? These are the youngest grandparents ever seen! Nothing has changed about them since 1964 except a few grey hairs... It's quite impressive that anything emotional could be salvaged from this nine-part hop, skip and jump through the years. In fact we still hardly know these people – zooming from one decade to the next has a distancing effect,"[20] she wrote of the former point. And of the latter, "Peter Flannery seems to want to suggest that friendships are the only cure for a life blighted by deficient parents. But all that links this ill-matched foursome in the end is history and sentimentality. The emotional centre of the writing is still in family ties."[21]

Despite such criticisms, the high regard in which the serial was generally held saw it win several major awards in the year following its transmission. The British Academy Television Awards, the most prestigious in the British television industry, saw the serial win Best Actress (Gina McKee) and Best Drama Serial; at the Royal Television Society Awards it won for Best Actor (Christopher Eccleston), Best Actress (McKee), Best Drama Serial and Best Writer; the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for Best Actor (Eccleston) and Best Actress (McKee), and a Certificate of Merit in the Television Drama Miniseries category at the San Francisco International Film Festival.[22]

The years since its broadcast have also seen the serial maintain its reputation as one of the most successful British television drama serials ever to have been screened. In 2000, the British Film Institute conducted a poll of industry professionals to find the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, with Our Friends in the North finishing in twenty-fifth position, eighth position out of the dramas featured on the list. The commentary for the Our Friends in the North entry on the BFI website described it as a "Powerful and evocative drama series... The series impressed with its ambition, humanity and willingness to see the ambiguities beyond the rhetoric."[23] The serial was also included in an alphabetical list of the forty greatest TV shows published by the Radio Times magazine in August 2003, chosen by their television editor Alison Graham.

References

1. ^ Unknown. "The Daily Telegraph". Quoted on the DVD release cover. (BMG DVD 74321 941149).
2. ^ Flannery, Peter. Retrospective - An interview with the creators of the series. Included as a bonus feature on the DVD release. (BMG DVD 74321 941149).
3. ^ Brooks, Richard (Media Editor). Friends come in from the BBC cold. As election looms, controversial political drama serial comes to screen after 14-year gestation. "The Guardian". Monday January 1 1996 (page 7).
4. ^ Ibid.
5. ^ Hellen, Nicholas. BBC cuts drama over legal fears. Sunday Times, December 3, 1995 (page 1).
6. ^ Sutcliffe, Thomas. Our Friends in the North (BBC2) "The Independent". Tuesday March 12 1996 (page 24).
7. ^ Brooks, Richard (Media Editor). Friends come in from the BBC cold. As election looms, controversial political drama serial comes to screen after 14-year gestation. "The Guardian". Monday January 1 1996 (page 7).
8. ^ Eccleston, Christopher. Interview with Christopher Eccleston. Filmed at the Circle Club, Manchester, 10th April 2002. Included as a bonus feature on the DVD release. (BMG DVD 74321 941149).
9. ^ Ibid.
10. ^ Wearing, Michael. Retrospective - An interview with the creators of the series.
11. ^ Eccleston, Christopher. Interview with Christopher Eccleston. Filmed at the Circle Club, Manchester, 10th April 2002.
12. ^ Wearing, Michael. Retrospective - An interview with the creators of the series.
13. ^ Ibid.
14. ^ Cellan-Jones, Simon. Ibid.
15. ^ Ibid.
16. ^ Bell, Ian. A brief history of Tyne. Peter's friends corner the market in absorbing political drama while symbols clash in Covent Garden. "The Observer". Sunday January 21 1996 (page 18).
17. ^ Sutcliffe, Thomas. Our Friends in the North (BBC2) "The Independent". Tuesday March 12 1996 (page 24).
18. ^ Richards, Jeffrey. The BBC's voice of two nations. "The Independent". Wednesday March 13 1996 (page 15).
19. ^ Ellmann, Lucy. With friends like these... "The Independent on Sunday". Sunday March 17 1996 (page 12).
20. ^ Ibid.
21. ^ Internet Movie Database awards page for Our Friends in the North. Retrieved September 14 2005.
22. ^ Wickham, Phil (2000). British Film Institute TV 100 entry on Our Friends in the North. Retrieved September 14 2005.

Source

Часть 1

Итак, в центре сериала история четырех друзей (я бы, правда, не назвала их большими друзьями) из Ньюкастла (северо-восточная Англия) в течение 31 года (с 1964-го по 1995-й). Кроме прочего, сериал повествует о политических и социальных событиях специфичных для Ньюкастла и Британии в целом, иллюстрируя достаточно большой период времени.

"Наши друзья на Севере" стали очень популярны, даже сегодня сериал занимает 25-е место в сотне лучших телепроектов Британии 20 века. Рейтинг на IMDb, хоть и с относительно небольшим количеством голосов - User Rating: 8.7/10 (325 votes) - тоже внушителен. Кроме того, фильм и актеры получили ряд наград, включая Бафту (список наград).

Теперь о персонажах. Пожалуй, главный из них - Ники Хатчинсон (Кристофер Экклестон).

Это человек очень целеустремленный, умный, уверенный в себе и пробивной. Он достаточно эгоцентричен, но тем не менее, обаятелен и вызывает симпатию. Впрочем, поначалу он не совсем симпатичен, как внешне так и характером, но с течением времени (поскольку наблюдаем мы за ним достаточно долго), он кажется все более положительным, юношеская спесь и горячность немного отходит в сторону. Он революционер по натуре и человек с обостренным чувством справедливости. К сожалению, его отец никак не хочет признавать и ценить его, оставаясь сдержанным. Всю свою жизнь, по сути, Ники пытается доказать отцу, что он "не бесполезен".

Тут небольшое отступление... В фильме вообще большое внимание уделяется взаимоотношениям между родителями и детьми. Сначала сами герои еще по сути дети (конечно, тяжело одним и тем же актерам сыграть себя в 19 и в 50 лет), потом они родители и опекуны для своих родителей, затем бабушки и дедушки. И все эти категории и уровни взаимоотношений очень неплохо раскрыты в фильме. Образ семьи, детские травмы и т.д.

Так вот, возвращаясь к Ники... Мне очень понравился актер, Кристофер Экклестон. Я только к концу сериала осознала, что уже видела его раньше в других фильмах. У него достаточно резкая внешность, нельзя назвать его красивым, но он впечатляет, весьма. Есть в нем харизма, острота и специфичность. И еще мне ужасно понравился его акцент и дикция... Он такой типично английский, даже Манчестерский, я бы сказала точнее...

З.Ы. Кстати, не о фильме, вот очень интересный клип с участием Экклестона.
Proof - I Am Kloot

Вторая героиня "по главности", скажем так, это Мэри Соулсби (Джина МакКи).

Она очень обаятельна и симпатична, у нее есть младший брат, который болен ДЦП (по-видимому), и Мари очень внимательна к нему. Ее характер жертвенный, терпеливый, ответственный, она ошибается в выборе мужа, выйдя замуж за Тоскера и посчитав Ники слишком сосредоточенным на себе, но очень скоро понимает, как ошиблась. Ощущение ответственности за детей и желание дать им полноценную семью заставляет терпеть неудовлетворенность в личных отношениях и отвергать запоздалые притязания Ники. Их отношения фактически все 30 лет остаются живыми, но очень болезненными. Сын Мари, ставший полицейским также повторяет модель семьи, и Мари получает повторение от сына поступков его отца.

Немного непривычно наблюдать за актрисой, которая практически не изменяется внешне с течением времени. Пожалуй, ей могли бы сделать хотя бы морщины, потому что другая прическа, одежда и несколько седых волос не дают в ней распознать 50-летнюю Кроме того, родители, например, Ники, к началу сериала тоже были 50-тилетними (если не моложе), но уже тогда выглядели лет на 65... Вот тут есть небольшой недочет...

Но сама МакКи мне очень понравилась. Красивое лицо, интересные губы, глаза. У ее героини не очень удачная судьба, кажется, незаслуженно. Очень часто ее искренне жаль. Но она вызывает уважение своей неконфликтностью, попытками найти компромисс в тяжелых жизненных ситуациях.

Остальные два героя идут немного на заднем плане, как мне показалось.
Один из них - Тоскер (Терри) Кокс (Марк Стронг).

Тоскер, кажется, самый малоприятный персонаж. Причем даже его яркая внешность не делает его привлекательнее. Он в общем-то, тоже пробивной человек, как и Ники, но гораздо сильнее зависит от мнения окружающих и не всегда действует по чести. Он пытается сделать карьеру певца, но откровенно не дотягивает до нужного уровня. За ним всегда стоит мамочка, которая восхищается сыном и все ему прощает. Вероятно, различие между Мари и мамой Тоскера и становится одной из причин их неудавшейся семейной жизни. Тоскер разгульный и брутальный тип. Впрочем, спустя много лет он становится интереснее и к нему даже удается проникнуться некоторой симпатией. Он, как и, наверное, все участники этой драмы, слишком долго шел к своему правильному выбору.

Марк Стронг актер в общем-то неплохой (недавно мы могли его видеть в "Звездной пыли" в роли Главгада), но все-таки на фоне остальной троицы он немного меркнет. По сути дела, мне лично не удавалось во время просмотра фильма действительно переживать за него. Хотя, когда все герои становятся немолодыми, становится грустно за всех.... За те мечты, которые не сбылись, возможности, которые не использовались, ожидания, которые не оправдались.

Ну, разумеется, четвертый герой, это наше все Дэниэл в роли Джорди (Джорджа) Пикока.

Джорди вообще стоит особняком от всех. Его юность, пожалуй, была самой неудачной, тоже самое можно сказать и обо всей его жизни в целом. В детстве его жестоко избивает полоумный отец, но Джорди пытается не падать духом и хочет организовать музыкальную группу с участием Тоскера и Ники. Но у Ники другие планы на жизнь, да и папаша задолбал, потому Джорди решает вообще уехать из города.

Его манит жизнь на широкую ногу и он готов за это постараться, только выбирает не самый удачный путь. Вероятно, порок у него в крови, передался от отца. Секс-индустрия его поглощает и дает желанное, но затем безжалостно выбрасывает его за борт. В общем, Джорди привык к страданию с самого детства и ощущение злости и беспомощности также не оставляют его. В то же время, он очень раним и действительно способен на глубокие и человеческие чувства, что неоднократно проявляется в процессе фильма, но обстоятельства, в которые он себя сам же поставил, не дают ему права на счастье. В конце концов он уже даже не пытается что-либо изменить и пойти другим путем.

Разумеется, об актерских способностях тут говорить не приходится. Именно Дэниэл единственный достоверно изменялся в течение 30 лет своей экранной жизни. На нем, как ни на ком другом, действительно ощущался отпечаток времени и пережитых неудач. Насколько он мог быть привлекательным в одних сериях, настолько он был отталкивающим в других.

Шикарное окончание картины, когда Джорди бредет по мосту, который неоднократно мелькает в кадре в течение всего сериала, под музыку Оазис "Don't look back in anger".... очень символично.

Ну и, хотелось бы поговорить о фильме в целом. Ведь на самом деле он далеко не охватывает лишь жизнь четырех человек - соседей, знакомых, не знаю, их тяжело назвать друзьями, хотя их жизни переплетены очень тесно.

В фильме есть множество интересных второстепенных персонажей. Родители Ники, например. Хорошо знакомый нам дедушка из "Матери" и "Отеля Сплендид", актер Питер Вэгон (Феликс Хатчинсон по фильму) тут сыграл потрясную роль. Строгий и замкнутый отец, совершенно съезжающий с катушек, после того как в очередной раз пошатнулись его устоявшиеся представления о ценностях, его мир рухнул и остатки рассудка вместе с ним. Интересна и его жена, мать Ники, всегда сдержанная, глубоко верующая женщина, такая типичная консервативная англичанка.

Некий Эдди, друг семьи Хатчинсонов, тоже интересный персонаж, переживший глубокую жизненную драму и окунувшийся в политику и алкоголь. Вообще, политике тут отведено особое место. Говорят, что у создателей сериала даже были некоторые проблемы с экранизацией, потому что многие герои имеют своих реальных прототипов в политике Англии. Тут вам и зарождение террористических организаций, вдохновленных деяниями Че, и борьба партий, множество выборов и дебатов, и забастовка шахтеров с плачевными последствиями. Кроме политики, интересна еще линия расследования коррупции в Скотланд-Ярде, война (и одновременно сотрудничество) полиции с зарождающимся секс-бизнесом в Сохо ("лицом" которого крайне удачно выступил Малкольм Макдауэлл), проблема бездомных и нищих, громкий скандал государственно-предпринимательского уровня, когда было построено социальное жилье, впоследствии оказавшееся непригодным и приговоренным к сносу....

Короче говоря, тут изображена Англия в лицах и красках, очень в духе тех лет, о которых повествует. Сериал получился очень многоуровневым, глубоким, затрагивающим множественные проблемы. Для меня, конечно, было показательно, что я совершенно не могла оторваться от экрана в течение 7 часов А после просмотра всех серий остался такой отпечаток грусти, что все это окончилось.... Оказалось так интересно наблюдать эту ускоренную картину жизни, сосредоточенную вокруг четверых людей....

В общем, чувствую, писать могу еще долго, так что прерываюсь.
Всем спасибо за внимание, у кого хватило терпения дочитать этот полет мысли

Добавлено (15.12.2007, 20:32)
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А может на e-mule выложишь? Или один черт - что по ослу месяц, что почтой?