Trivia / The Long Good Friday

• Actor-Inspired Element: Victoria was originally a working class girl from the East End. Helen Mirren suggested that she be posh and upper-middle class.
• Cast the Expert: Real London gangsters were onset as either technical advisers, or extras.
• Channel Hop: The film was originally produced by Lew Grade and was to be an ITC Entertainment production, but he pulled the plug when he realized that the plot involved the IRA. It was then bought by George Harrison and released through Hand Made Films.
• Deleted Scene: In the scene where Harold Shand & Razors enter the town hall building to confront councillor Harris, an additional scene was filmed when both characters enter Harris' office. In the deleted scene, Razors pins Harris against the wall, brandishing a previously concealed shotgun whilst Harold looks on. This deleted scene is included in the published script, but the filmed footage has never been included in any authorised released version of the film and is believed lost. In the foreword to the published script, scriptwriter Barrie Keeffe bitterly regrets this scene being deleted by the producers for length reasons as he claimed it was his favourite scene of the entire movie.
• Hypothetical Casting: Harold Shand was described by screenwriter Barrie Keeffe as "the kind of part written for James Cagney if he were a Cockney".
• Inspiration for the Work: Living in a Greenwich flat at the time, Barrie Keeffe could see the derelict Docklands from his window, and his ideas entwined following a chance meeting with an Irish Republican in a pub. Gangsters against terrorism soon became a going concern.
  • Harold Shand's vision about how the Isle of Dogs could make Britain proud again was based on rumblings about the redevelopment of the Docklands that Keeffe heard from council officials.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Harold Shand was meant to embody Margaret Thatcher's attitudes about business. In real life, Bob Hoskins was fanatically anti-Thatcher.
• Life Imitates Art: Harold's plans for the London docks prophetically predicted the creation of Canary Wharf. London would indeed host the Olympics in the area (but in 2012 rather than 1988) with allegations of organised crime figures being involved in some of the property deals.
• The Other Marty: Anthony Franciosa was originally cast as the Mafia boss Charlie but left after three days filming, claiming to be annoyed with the script alterations.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: The movie was filmed and completed in 1979, but due to various issues did not see theatrical release until 1982. It very nearly didn't get a theatrical release at all. The original plan was to re-cut it for television, which at the time would have meant cutting out all the violence and swearing. Thankfully, a campaign by various critics and film-lovers eventually got it the recognition it deserved.
• Star-Making Role: For Bob Hoskins. Prior to this movie he was a relative unknown with very few film roles apart from his supporting performance in Zulu Dawn and a major role in the TV serial Pennies from Heaven.
• Stillborn Franchise:
  • A sequel was announced in 1983. The opening scene was to be the final scene in this movie, with Harold Shand's abduction by the I.R.A. hitmen in the limousine, and is then rescued from his captors. The project came to nothing.
  • Barrie Keeffe wrote a sequel, Black Easter Monday, set twenty years after the events of the first film. It opened with Shand escaping from the IRA after the car was pulled over by police. Hoskins would retire to Jamaica, then return to stop the East End being taken over by the Yardies. However, the film was never made.
• Technology Marches On: Harold's line "You'd need a million dollar COMPUTER to understand this!" somehow sounds unintentionally funny now (as if he thinks computers can do anything). Also it conjures up humorous mental images of big clunky computers from this era.
• Throw It In!:
  • Pierce Brosnan's part was supposed to be completely silent but he improvised one word of dialogue - "Hi".
  • The celebrated line: "There's a lot of dignity in that... going out like a raspberry ripple", was improvised by Bob Hoskins. The original line by Barrie Keeffe was 'going out like a choc ice', but everyone agreed Hoskins' version was better.
  • Helen Mirren ad-libbed the line "Saved by the bell" during the lift scene.
• Wag the Director: A positive example. Victoria was originally a stereotypical gangster's moll, but Helen Mirren didn't want to play that sort of role, and insisted on her being made into a more complex character. She credits Bob Hoskins' full support on making sure her changes were kept in.
• Working Title: The original title was The Paddy Factor but this was changed after fears that it would give away too much of the film's plot. After suggesting Harold's Kingdom, Havoc and Citadel Of Blood, The Long Good Friday was chosen, due to its similarities to Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye and the Easter setting.
• Write What You Know: Writer Barrie Keeffe drew on his experiences as a cub reporter for London's Stratford Express paper in the 1960s, when the Kray twins ruled the East End. He met a few criminals who ended up in small roles in the film. Two scenes in the film come directly from his life: a widow lifting her veil and spitting in his face, and the story of a man being nailed to the warehouse floor. "I interviewed that man in hospital," Keeffe remembers now, "and said 'What exactly happened?' He said, "Don't you understand English, son? It was a Do It Yourself accident went wrong!'"

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