The Long Good Friday
The 1970s are widely perceived as a difficult moment for Britain, but it was also probably the decade when Britain was the most economically equal in its entire history. This was partly a planned redistribution of wealth that began in 1945 and ended in the 1976 IMF loan. During this British version of the trente glorieuses, the mighty were put down from their seats and the humble exalted. Many of the humble, those who had done well, promptly in 1979 voted for the ghastly Mrs Thatcher. She unsentimentally terminated ‘Butskellism’s’ noble experiment. It’s almost certainly the case that if Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins), the protagonist of THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, had a vote in May 1979, he voted for her.
Shand is a London gangster with a lot of ambition and confidence, probably too much of the latter. He looks at the Docklands, the old port of London rendered obsolete by the development of roll-on-roll-off containerisation, as the place for a new gold rush of real estate development. His vision is of towers to commerce, homes and accompanying playgrounds for the affluent and the gangster’s traditional objective of turning shady operations into legitimate wealth that the Filth can’t touch. When he talks about the Common Market, when he speaks of how London is in a unique position in Europe and destined to be its capital, he clearly demonstrates a grasp of what was possible for Britain at that moment.
Unfortunately, and partly unbeknownst to him, powerful forces beyond his ken have taken an interest in his manor. The film describes a few days in the life of Shand, as we watch his dreams unravel in a tragedy that merits the word Shakespearean.
The film is something of a skeleton key to understanding the Thatcherite Settlement. Shand has all that vital entrepreneurial energy she admired. His vision did come to pass, at least for a time. But in the global scheme of things, he’s a small-timer. He recognises this, and it’s his plan to bring in some American money, via Mafia man Charlie (Eddie Constantine), just as the British financial elite sought similarly to attract foreign investment to Britain for high-return projects. Like a lot of us raised on the ‘build a better mousetrap’ ideology of capitalism, Shand doesn’t realise that elite financial projects are something of a club. You can be admitted, but you have to allow the club’s existing members to wet their beaks. Further, if they don’t like the cut of your jib, they’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse – sell them your idea and forget about joining their club. They will destroy you altogether otherwise – and take what they first offer to buy.
Shand’s increasingly desperate twists and turns as he attempts to keep his project together against a rival organisation’s interests in London’s local government – another great subject for a film – enable Hoskins to put on a magnificent performance. He genuinely was one of the greatest film and television actors of my lifetime. His performance is complemented by just about everyone in the cast, notably Helen Mirren as his girlfriend Victoria. Of course, it helps if the script is as excellent as Barrie Keefe’s is here. It has magical dialogue (‘You don’t go crucifying someone outside a church on a Good Friday!’) and subtly critiques Shand’s incomprehension of any force that isn’t motivated by financial gain. It is arguably the same mistake that was made about Thatcher. You can negotiate with people who are motivated by idealism rather than money, but you cannot defeat them. If you kill one, there’s another thinking the same thoughts to take his or her place.
Filmed on location around London – don’t look too closely at the church, as the exterior is a different denomination from the interior – the film captures the mise-en-scène of a city at a moment of entry into a global network of ‘cosmopolitan cities’ which became more like each other than they were of the countries where they are located. It has the two qualities crucial to great art – being rooted in its time and place, but also transcending these conditions to address eternal verities.
© 2026 Paul Brewer
Shand is a London gangster with a lot of ambition and confidence, probably too much of the latter. He looks at the Docklands, the old port of London rendered obsolete by the development of roll-on-roll-off containerisation, as the place for a new gold rush of real estate development. His vision is of towers to commerce, homes and accompanying playgrounds for the affluent and the gangster’s traditional objective of turning shady operations into legitimate wealth that the Filth can’t touch. When he talks about the Common Market, when he speaks of how London is in a unique position in Europe and destined to be its capital, he clearly demonstrates a grasp of what was possible for Britain at that moment.
Unfortunately, and partly unbeknownst to him, powerful forces beyond his ken have taken an interest in his manor. The film describes a few days in the life of Shand, as we watch his dreams unravel in a tragedy that merits the word Shakespearean.
The film is something of a skeleton key to understanding the Thatcherite Settlement. Shand has all that vital entrepreneurial energy she admired. His vision did come to pass, at least for a time. But in the global scheme of things, he’s a small-timer. He recognises this, and it’s his plan to bring in some American money, via Mafia man Charlie (Eddie Constantine), just as the British financial elite sought similarly to attract foreign investment to Britain for high-return projects. Like a lot of us raised on the ‘build a better mousetrap’ ideology of capitalism, Shand doesn’t realise that elite financial projects are something of a club. You can be admitted, but you have to allow the club’s existing members to wet their beaks. Further, if they don’t like the cut of your jib, they’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse – sell them your idea and forget about joining their club. They will destroy you altogether otherwise – and take what they first offer to buy.
Shand’s increasingly desperate twists and turns as he attempts to keep his project together against a rival organisation’s interests in London’s local government – another great subject for a film – enable Hoskins to put on a magnificent performance. He genuinely was one of the greatest film and television actors of my lifetime. His performance is complemented by just about everyone in the cast, notably Helen Mirren as his girlfriend Victoria. Of course, it helps if the script is as excellent as Barrie Keefe’s is here. It has magical dialogue (‘You don’t go crucifying someone outside a church on a Good Friday!’) and subtly critiques Shand’s incomprehension of any force that isn’t motivated by financial gain. It is arguably the same mistake that was made about Thatcher. You can negotiate with people who are motivated by idealism rather than money, but you cannot defeat them. If you kill one, there’s another thinking the same thoughts to take his or her place.
Filmed on location around London – don’t look too closely at the church, as the exterior is a different denomination from the interior – the film captures the mise-en-scène of a city at a moment of entry into a global network of ‘cosmopolitan cities’ which became more like each other than they were of the countries where they are located. It has the two qualities crucial to great art – being rooted in its time and place, but also transcending these conditions to address eternal verities.
© 2026 Paul Brewer
Mini Review: This captures the time and place of its setting in a way few films accomplish, and is led by Hoskins' superb performance (although he gets a lot of help from the script).
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