Synopsis

Talk Talk's "My Foolish Friend" video places the band in the industrial landscape around Halifax and Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Its documentary-like images focus on mills, roads, terraces, and other working-class surroundings rather than a conventional performance setting. Alongside the town's bleak urban textures, the video follows a father and son whose relationship reflects the song's concerns with influence, disappointment, and the fear of repeating another person's life. The closing images rise above the landscape at Wainhouse Tower.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed in 1983 in and around Halifax, with locations including Hebden Bridge, Lee Mill Road, Rose Grove, and Wainhouse Tower.

• Its emphasis on mills, dense terraces, industrial roads, and local landmarks gives the clip a distinctly Northern English setting, matching the song's darker and more mature tone.

• "My Foolish Friend" was a non-album single and reached No. 57 on the UK Singles Chart, spending four weeks in the listings during March and April 1983.

• Rhett Davies produced the recording. His connection with Roxy Music placed the single within a more sophisticated art-pop lineage than Talk Talk's earlier synth-pop material.

• Simon Brenner left Talk Talk after the single was released. He was not officially replaced, although Tim Friese-Greene soon became an important studio collaborator and keyboard player.

• The song did not appear on one of Talk Talk's original studio albums. It was first included on a full-length release with the 1990 compilation "Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk".

• The clip remains notable as an early example of Talk Talk moving away from straightforward New Romantic presentation toward more atmospheric, location-based imagery.