CREDITS THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, 1995 dir: John Mackenzie Bob Hoskins Helen Mirren Derek Thompson Paul Freeman PH Moriarty Alan Ford

"‘Nothing unusual’ he says. Eric’s been blown to smithereens, Colin’s been carved up, and I’ve got a bomb in me casino, and you say ‘nothing unusual?’”

One of the few British thrillers that can stand up against the best from the US, as gangland boss Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) is unwittingly caught up in shady deals with the IRA.

The film opens in ‘Northern Ireland’, with Shand’s right-hand man Colin (Paul Freeman) getting involved in some very shady financial dealing. In fact, the movie was shot entirely in London (with a little ‘Irish’ scenery shot in Scotland) and ‘Fagan’s’, the bar in which Colin hits on the doomed Irish lad, is Grade II listed boozer The Salisbury, Green Lanes, at the corner of St Ann’s Road, Harringay. Its slightly faded ambience can also be seen in Richard Attenborough’s biopioc Chaplin, and more recently, the pub appears under its own name as the big, bustling pub where Miranda Richardson looks for Gabriel Byrne in David Cronenberg’s Spider.

The Aegean Pools, 2 Hale Lane, Mill Hill, NW7, was the dive pool where Colin performs high dives, before heís offed by a young Pierce Brosnan, in his first screen appearance – though the murder was filmed in Ladywell Leisure Centre, Lewisham High Street (tel: 020 8690.2123; rail: Ladywell). The Aegean is nolonger open.

The Long Good Friday location: Harold Shand's mum nearly gets blown up: St Patrick’s Church, Green Bank, Wapping

St Patrick’s Church, Green Bank, off Dundee Street, running south to Wapping High Street, is the site of the Good Friday service, where Harold Shand’s mum narrowly escapes being blown up, triggering the rest of the chain of events (the church interior was used). The street runs down to the Thames near Wapping New Stairs at a stretch known as the Pool of London which, not surprisingly, was the backdrop to Basil Dearden’s semi-documentary drama Pool of London, shot around the then bomb-damaged and now largely rebuilt area. It was on the riverfront here that the ‘Lion and Unicorn’ pub was built – and blown up.

Much of the action centres around Londonís St Katherine’s Dock, just downstream from Tower Bridge, where Shand’s yacht is moored.

The Long Good Friday location: Erroll the grass gets cut up: Villa Road, Brixton

33 Villa Road, Brixton, is the house of Erroll the grass (Paul Barber, now more famous as Horse in The Full Monty), who gets cut up by Razors (PH Moriarty).

It’s, 56-60 Wigmore Street alongside Easley’s Mews, was the ‘Boulevard Restaurant’. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy your meal here more than Jeff (Derek Thompson), Harold Shand’s right-hand man, who gets spat on during his clandestine meeting with the shady Councillor Harris (Bryan Marshall).

The Long Good Friday location: Harold finds Billy: The Waterman’s Arms, Isle of Dogs

The ‘Governor General’ pub, where Harold finds Billy (Nick Stringer) – “Walk to the car, Billy, or I’ll blow your spine off!” – is the famous Thamesfront pub The Waterman's Arms, 1 Glenaffric Avenue, on the Isle of Dogs. It's a legendary boozer, famed for its live entertainment, and once owned by writer and broadcaster Dan Farson, one of the Fifties Bohemians of Soho’s Colony Room. The Isle of Dogs, if you don't know, is not an island, but an area of East London caught in a loop of the Thames. It's serviced by the Docklands Light Railway.

The Long Good Friday location: Harold Shand’s club: Villa Elephant on the River, Grosvenor Road, Pimlico

In Pimlico, opposite Dolphin Square, Italian restaurant Villa Elephant on the River, 135 Grosvenor Road supplied the interior of Harold Shand’s casino, where bomb is discovered, and the lads collect their guns.

The Mafia contacts stay at the Savoy Hotel, 1 Savoy Hill, on the Strand, where Shand is abducted during the cracking ending (that’s Brosnan again, wielding the gun).