The Long Firm

I would like to disagree with any previous comments on The Long Firm. I think this is an outstanding drama. The BBC should invest more money into dramas of this quality instead of spending money on D.I.Y shows and 'reality' TV shows.

Mark Strong's portrayal of Harry Starks reminded me Ronnie Kray, Reggie Kray, Charlie Richardson all rolled into one. He was excellent as the 'Torture Boss'. He was menacing and unpredictable but also you sort of saw him as a anti-hero if you like.

The program has taken large chunks of dialog from the book and had extra scenes and stuff written around it. All though I originally thought the show was excellent but after reading the book the book is out of this world a solid 10/10. I would recommend this book to everyone.

I am hoping the following two books in the sequence 'He Kills Coppers' and 'True Crime' get made into series.

I caught this on itvX.

Upon watching this excellent show I was reminded of the film Sin City. What we get here are four crime stories narrated from differing perspectives and their relationship with the arch criminal Harry Starks.

The acting by Mark Strong is fantastic. The production values are superb and all four stories are engrossing. I could have watched a lot more, so went on to buy the book trilogy once I completed the show.

This show has immense rewatchable value and could really benefit from a Blu Ray remaster but I guess the show was shot on video instead of film.

I highly recommend four hours of your time with this show.

BBC2's The Long Firm, starring "Our friends In the North" actor Mark Strong, was full of suspense, humour and tension. Lena Headey, Derek Jacobi and Joe Absolom provide a strong supporting cast, but it is Strong in the role of 60s Mob boss Harry Starks which steals the show. Harry is an East-End, working-class, homosexual, Jewish mobster, who is striving for acceptance in London. Based on Jake Arnott's book of the same name the dramatisation has been true to the original version and leading cast members met up with Arnott several times on set to discus their characters and the story. This is obvious because it's brilliant. Definitely worth watching. A well-acted, well-scripted, well-directed production.

Fantastic!

An authentic image of a gangster and a beautifully conveyed story. Brilliant acting; especially Mark Strong's emotional and moving character. A delicate balance of drama, thrill and violence. It's the plot that kept me watching till 3 O'clock in the morning. The four characters telling their own story in each episode is a marvelous film-noir touch. A masterpiece by novel writer, Jake Arnott, brought thrice as powerful by the conversion to visual which was done perfectly. Not a single boring moment, and not for one second does it lose it's authentic aura. A must-see series.

The Long Firm is good but unfortunately it seems to be a semi documentary based on a mixture of the Krays and the Richardsons who are just old hat now. It's a pity, but just like most rubbish British films featuring the 60s such as "Scandal", "Charlie" and "The Krays" that were really terrible films. The Long Firm it is full of stuff nicked from those turkeys and suffers badly by it's obvious likeness. I haven't read the book so I won't comment on whether the author realized his main character Harry is a ridiculous stereotype.

It has all been done before but TLF does it better. The torture scenes(The Krays and Charlie), Phil Daniels popping pills and remorsing on throwing a woman out of the car(Jack the Hat in The Krays) the nightclub scenes (Scandal) it contains too many characters like Barbara Windsor, Ronnie Knight,Johnny Ray, Joe Meek, Brian Epstien like you were reading a 60s gossip column. So who is Harry Starks based on, who knows but his Mum and aunty May have been seen before just like all the other characters.

The Long Firm screenplay could have been written by anybody who has watched The Biography Channel and seen Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and the movies mentioned previously. It is very well produced and directed and all the actors are great especially Mark Strong who excels and is destined for Hollywood.

The Long Firm is far better than any of the Brit movies mentioned previously but it could have been a lot better if hadn't been so unoriginal and predictable.