The Long Firm

Background

"When I first read the book, before it was published back in 1998, I knew immediately that it would make a fantastic and unique serial," explains producer, Liza Marshall.

 

"Adapting it for television, rather than film, meant that we had time to really explore not just the character of our anti-hero, Harry Starks, but also those of our narrators.

 

"We made the decision early on to retain their individual voices and each episode has a distinct voice over.

 

"Each character sees a different side of Harry; and the four parts add up to a complex portrait of one man.

 

"We wanted the audience to feel as if they were really in amongst the world of Sixties London.

 

"We wanted it to be stylish, but not stylised; to feel real and compelling.

 

"It was important that we didn't fall into the trap of 'aren't gangsters cool?'; that would have been the very opposite of what Jake wrote."

 

Writer Joe Penhall adds: "Anyone could see from a mile off that the book would make a damn good screenplay.

 

"I loved the book and Jake's [Arnott] style. He is a writer of great passion and scope; able to write about such populist things as showbiz, crime and the city, but with tremendous depth; he never tires of unearthing juicy strains of information.

 

"There are very few British writers that can combine that populism with intellectual rigour."

 

Author Jake Arnott comments: "Right from the start I established that I was going to be on the sidelines cheering the project on really, because I had a lot of confidence in the people looking after my material.

 

"It was acquired in at the time when there were a lot of films out there covering the subject matter that I cover in the book but in a very different way, a way in which I wasn't particularly happy with.

 

"From my first meeting with the producer, Liza Marshall, she didn't want to do it like that either.

 

"There's a change in the order, we lose the opening voice in the book. I think it was quite a judicious cut, because the first section of my book sets everything up.

 

"But what works with the drama is that we go straight into the Teddy Thursby section. It is not the Sixties underworld milieu that people might expect.

 

"Suddenly we're somewhere seedy, and then we're in the House of Lords. Corruption and villainy takes place in every section of society and that was a crucial part of the novel.

 

"I remember meeting Joe for the first time. He talked about his experience at the Royal Court and the obsession a lot people have with underworld figures and how slightly ridiculous it is that it still goes on.

 

"Joe understood that it was about that obsession rather than just the glamour.

 

"So often films are just about glamour and there's no investigation into why people are drawn to these types of people, and why these people come across in such a powerful way.

 

"Quentin Tarantino is quite funny, very entertaining and has an amazing sense of style, but if you're just copying - gangster enters stage left, looking menacing, holding a gun and looking fantastically glamorous - then you're not actually saying anything.

 

"Joe also did not want to fall into that trap. He is a very good writer and dramatist."

 

Marshall explains: "We tried very hard not to over design the show; always a temptation with the Sixties, and with gangsters.

 

"We wanted it to feel authentic – we do after all have 'real' people on the fringes of the drama: Judy Garland, Joe Meek, Dorothy Squires and Tom Driberg.

 

"And the music we use is also key; I was lucky to have a very early meeting with Universal/Decca who agreed to open up their back catalogue to us, and I think we have a very original soundtrack; some classics, but also some lesser known gems that really help with the period flavour.

 

"The Long Firm may be period drama but it's certainly not heritage TV."

 

Arnott enthuses: "The really good think about the adaptation is that it works as a TV drama serial in its own right.

 

"It would have been terrible if it had been a wonderful faithful rendering of the book which then fell flat: it's a different medium and you've got to trust the people involved."

THE LONG FIRM