The Long Good Friday is a 1980 British gangster film[2] directed by John Mackenzie from a screenplay by Barrie Keeffe.

Starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, the film, set in London, weaves together events and concerns of the late 1970s, including mid-level political and police corruption and IRA fund-raising.

Shand's world is suddenly destabilised by a series of bomb attacks on his property and murders of his associates, including his old friend Colin.

He and his henchmen try to uncover the attackers' identities by threatening corrupt police officers, informers, and other criminals, whilst simultaneously trying not to worry their American visitors, who they fear will abandon Shand if they think he is not in full control.

Shand realises the IRA have concluded that he sold them out to the security forces and pocketed the missing cash, and are targeting his organisation in revenge.

Believing his enemies are dead and the problem solved, Shand travels to the Savoy Hotel to triumphantly inform Charlie and his assistant Tony, only to find the Americans preparing to leave, having been spooked by the carnage.

[6] Under the title The Paddy Factor,[7] Keeffe wrote the original story for Hanson when the latter worked for Euston Films,[5] a subsidiary of Thames Television.

[6] The film was commissioned by Charles Denton, at the time both programme controller of ATV and managing director of Black Lion.

In 1981, it was reported that Hoskins was suing both Black Lion and Calendar Films to prevent their planned release of a US TV version in which his voice would be dubbed by English Midlands actor David Daker.

The website's critical consensus reads "Bob Hoskins commands a deviously sinister performance in The Long Good Friday—a gangster flick with ferocious intelligence, tight plotting, and razor-edged thrills.

"[11] The final scene was referenced in the films Michael Clayton (2007) and The Gentlemen (2019) as well as in the ending of the TV series Brian Pern (2017).