st on Sunday evenings the series was repeated on primetime BBC1. The second broadcasts attracted 30 million viewers over the five episodes. Talking to a Stranger (1966) by John Hopkins centers around the lives of a dysfunctional family. It deals with social issues such as family relationships, pregnancy and old age. Talking to a Stranger was very original in its day, as in each episode it showed the view of another family member. To show this the camera uses close-up shots for emphasis on facial expressions and the camera gives the audience the privilege look, where no-one else can see the characters view except for the camera/audience.Our Friends in the North (1996) by Peter Flannery is an evocative nine-part drama series, which follows the lives of four friends from the early 60s to the mid 90s. The characters are placed in a social and political context that allows an exploration of how Britain has changed during this period. Our Friends in the North also uses cultural references, for example they show The Beatles and Harold Wilson, which adds elements of realism to the text by using real people. Furthermore, Our Friends in the North uses real social/political problems like the 1984 mines strike. Other social/political issues that are employed in Our Friends in the North are police corruption, porn industry, drugs and alcoholism. All these TV dramas used issues that could be considered as personal problems such as single parenthood, marital breakdown, unemployment, and placed them into a political framework, thus turning the personal into the political, allowing the viewers to identify with the characters problems. At present, there is criticism that TV drama is playing safe with an even narrower of subjects, some of them being police, hospitals and detectives. However now there are soaps instead of TV dramas that deal with social issues like Eastenders, Coronation Street and Brookside. Dramas like Eastenders have a diverse...
