Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Brilliant series documenting 4 Geordie's lives, from young adulthood to middle/old age, and set to a backdrop of politics. More a social documentary than a mini series, not only on our times but on the fallibility of the human race. The acting is outstanding, particularly from Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Craig and Gina McKee who have all become very successful, in part, no doubt, due to this series. Combine this with an amazing soundtrack covering over 30 years of great music and it gets even better. The inclusion of Pulp's "Common People" in the final episode is one of the most effective uses of music in film ever! The song builds as the action builds and the crescendo is heartbreaking but so realistic that I challenge you not to cry in despair for our young.US citizens may find the accents a bit hard to cope with, heck even some Londoner's will struggle, but it is well worth persevering. Moving, gritty, realistic OFITN is a must-see.

This is truly one of the finest series to come out of Britain. It took writer Flannery 15 years to get the series made, and when it was eventually produced the UK channel BBC2 spent their entire drama budget for the year on it. However, it was a fine investment.The lives of four friends from Newcastle are followed from 1964 to 1995, against a backdrop of massive social and political change. It says much for the quality of the writing and the performances of the principal actors that you find yourself getting heavily involved with the characters' lives and caring a great deal for them. The leads have gone on to further successes, but this series catches them all early in their careers, and on astonishing form.It was, in hindsight, a good thing that it took so long to get the show made. Flannery's original play ended in 1980, but the elongated production process enabled him to write more and more about the characters' fortunes, and take them another 15 years into the future. The most changed character was Geordie, who served in the army in Rhodesia in the original play, but finds himself instead in swinging London in a strip club in the finished series.Do yourself a favour. Pick up the DVD set, and savour 14 hours of top television. It will make you think, it will move you, and we will never see its like again.

When this drama first hit our screens in '96, there was a certain cynicism about lengthy serials set in contemporary times, and whether it could hold a nation's attention. Casting was wide and varied - the four leads, who grow up together, grow apart, and grow together again - were played with class by Gina MacKee, Chris Eccleston, Daniel Craig and Mark Strong. Others in support included David Bradley, Peter Vaughan, Malcolm McDowell, David Schofield, Daniel Casey, and many more. Each episode moved the story along through its thirty-year span, while we watched each character reach their highs and lows until the last episode which left them all reunited.Two things in particular stand out - the episode about the miners' strike, which was brilliantly done; and the closing credits over which Oasis' 'Don't Look Back in Anger' was played. I can't think of a better tune to close this excellent serial. One of the BBC's best.

Profoundly depressing, yet comforting and uplifting at the same time.A bunch of teenagers pour scorn on their parents' resignation to their fate - and set out to change the world - and 30 years later they've become their parents. But they still have each other, and somehow you're left feeling that this is the most important thing of all.I've always liked the British "Northern Drama" - and this is a fine example of the genre.