The Long Firm (2004) (TV)

Director:

Bille Eltringham

Writers:

Jake Arnott (novel)
Joe Penhall (adaptation)

Release Date:

7 July 2004 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Harry Starks runs 60s Soho... but he wants so much more.

Plot:

The lives of characters who live, love and suffer through their association with the charismatic charms of gangster Harry Starks.

Plot Keywords:

Gangster | Gambling | Rags To Riches | Tough Guy | Racket

Awards:

5 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Mark Strong	...	Harry Starks
Derek Jacobi	...	Lord Edward 'Teddy' Thursby
Judy Parfitt	...	Lady Ruth Thursby
George Costigan	...	DI George Mooney
Neil Conrich	...	Manny Gould
Geoff Bell	...	Jock McClusky
Damien Thomas	...	Tom Driberg
Robert Boulter	...	Craig
Israel Aduramo	...	John Ogungbe
George Harris	...	Doctor Chukwurah
Shaughan Seymour	...	George Budgen
Andrew McKay	...	Harry's Pretty Boy
Yule Masiteng	...	Dignitary in Nigeria
Dexter Nwanya	...	Nigerian Soldier
Lena Headey	...	Ruby Ryder

Runtime:

236 min (4 parts) | Brazil:220 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:MA | Singapore:M18 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Charlotte Road, Shoreditch, London, England, UK

Company:

BBC Drama Group

Trivia:

Lena Headey replaced Frances O'Connor

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Harry and Teddy go to Nigeria (in 1964), we see cars driving on the right-hand side of the road. Nigeria drove on the left until 1972.

Quotes:

Lord Teddy Thursby: What kind of a scumbag do you think I am?
Harry Starks: A LYING ONE!

Movie Connections:

Followed by He Kills Coppers (2008) (TV)

Strong stuff

One of those enigmas that the industry occasionally throws up is why is Mark Strong such a genuinely impressive actor on television yet so astonishingly bland whenever he appears in a movie? He's certainly at his very best in The Long Firm. The BBC series got lost in the tail-end of the avalanche of post-Guy Ritchie British Mockney gangster movies, but this four-part TV drama is in a class of its own. Each seen through a different character's eyes (Derek Jacobi's gay politician, Lena Headey's b-movie actress and Phil Daniels' drug dealer), the first three episodes are superb in their evocation of the late 50s and 60s and the milieu underachieving third-league homosexual ("I'm not gay, I'm a homosexual") Jewish East London gangster Harry Starks (Strong, living up to his name) and his delusions of respectability and love of Judy Garland and Dorothy Squires. The final episode is less successful, largely because it is filtered through Shaun Dingwall's shallow and too comically stereotyped sociology professor who learns his own mediocrity through Harry's intellectual outgrowing of him - the scenes with Strong are excellent, but when the focus is on Dingwall it's too much a soft satire of 70s. Yet even that lapse of judgement can't detract from the overall quality of the series – this is the real deal and deserves to be far better known.