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Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.

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Screenshot: The Long Good Friday

The Long Good Friday

BBC Radio 4 - Screenshot, The Long Good Friday

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode celebrate the British gangster film.

Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode focus on a British gangster classic, The Long Good Friday.

The Long Good Friday elevated the British gangster film to a level not seen for a decade since Get Carter, and sees London gangster Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) and his girlfriend Victoria (Helen Mirren) embroiled in a scheme to redevelop parts of London’s Docklands with finance from a New York mafia boss. 

The film features some prophetic scenes in which Harold espouses a new future for London, a London at the centre of Europe, with opportunity to create incredible wealth - a wealth he would most likely have made had the IRA not started interfering in his affairs.

In this episode of Screenshot, Mark Kermode speaks to Dame Helen Mirren about the changes she made to the script and to her character's role, and also about how her uncle’s connections to the London underworld helped her in the part. Mark also talks to tour guide Rob Smith, who leads a tour of the film’s locations around London’s Docklands.

Exploring the world of the British gangster film further, Ellen E Jones meets author Kim Newman who talks us through the changing nature of these films from the 1930s to the present day, and Louis Mellis who, alongside David Scinto, wrote a triptych of British gangster films including 2000’s Sexy Beast.

Lynda La Plante, creator of the seminal British gangster crime drama Widows, drops in with a Viewing Note in which she makes an offer you can’t refuse.

Producer: Tom Whalley
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4

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