The Long Firm [DVD] [2004]

A sensational performance from Mark Strong as gangster Harry Starks dominates this excellent adaptation of Jake Arnotts superb novel. Radiating a simmering menace underneath a convivial urbane exterior Starks is prone to outbreaks of explosive violence or more unexpectedly moments of empathy and vulnerability. It says a lot for Strongs portrayal that he's utterly convincing in either mode or that he makes this unpleasant character compelling and seduces you into caring what happens to him.
Told over four episodes, each one concentrates on a different character that is drawn into Starks inner circle. There's Teddy Thursby, a Tory M.P and a closet homosexual trapped in a sham marriage who is seduced by the easy access Starks social circles give him to pliant young men. (Starks too is homosexual) He in turn offers Starks the chance to mix in more elevated company and polish the rough edges of his working class exterior. It soon becomes clear who is most be-holden to who in this unlikely alliance and Thursbys dawning realisation that the man he is so implicated with is in fact capable of extreme savagery is fascinating. He is also beautifully portrayed by Derek Jacobi and you can almost smell the sweaty clammy terror emanating from him as Starks tempestuous personality unfolds like a spider's maw.
The second is centred on Jack the Hat played with nervy skittish glee by Phil Daniels, a small time crook and Drug dealer and casual acquaintance of Starks who through an escalating series of events ends up paying a very high price for the company he has chosen to keep and the type of life he has chosen. In the book this character meets his demise at the hands of the Krays but that element is exempted from this adaptation robbing it to some extent of the powerful impact it had in the book.
The third story revolving around good time girl turned "Choreographer" Ruby Ryder is the weakest of the three but is still compelling thanks to Bob Costigans salacious turn as bent copper George Mooney who's scheming and double crossing ends up putting Starks in prison.
Which introduces us to Lenny; a criminologist who takes a class in prison which Starks attends and becomes fascinated by his desire to learn and educate himself but quickly is intimidated by his ruthless reptilian logic. When Starks escapes his "Friendship" with the criminal leads him to an act that he could never have envisaged and the realisation that there is nothing as weak as a man who is willing to be led.
This is a riveting drama and at times a seriously powerful one. The temptation to lighten Starks character up thus making him more appealing must have been a seductive one in terms of the attempts to win ratings but thankfully the producers resisted doing a "Buster" on Harry Starks. But Mark Strongs performance radiates the sort of black velvet charisma a person like Starks would need to have to thrive and it,s his presence that lends The Long Firm the emphatic stamp of authority it needs to be as magnetically convincing as it is.
Awards should follow, especially for Mark Strong.....and if they don't, well then someone should get the poker and brazier out.

Firstly this review is not in any way a criticism of the quality of this excellent drama.

However, this is also dvd review and it's worth pointing out to prospective buyers that this has the worst quality video transfer I have ever seen, to the extent that if you have a large screen it is unwatchable for large segments.

The bbc should do better, and this drama deserves better - you would be better off waiting for it to reappear on tv and taping it onto a VHS than buying this dvd - it really is that bad.

After 15 years in bookselling and after reading hundreds of crime novels, I thought there was nothing in British Crime Fiction that could impress me like Ted Lewis' Jack Carter books. Then I received a free advance copy of Jake Arnott's first novel 'The Long Firm' in the post and broke a golden rule - most proofs are dull, commercial books that no serious reader (i.e. people who go beyond bestsellers) considers - and I read the thing.
And it was excellent - gritty, realistic, well-written, superb characters including a suberbly realised and unique Antihero, Harry Starks.
When I heard the BBC were going to adapt 'The Long Firm' for TV I got the fear -they were bound to screw it up, but boy was I wrong: Mark Strong's portrayal of Harry Starks is brilliant and the adaptation is superb, different enough from the book to keep it interesting while faithful enough to please a hardened purist like me.
So igf you finf regular British Tv crime fare a bore and fancy something that is as interesting as Anthony Frewin's 'London Blues' and almost as well plotted as 'Get Carter', 'The Long Firm' is for you. Television at its best on DVD: we need a .lot more original stuff like this on our screens.