Its iconic status has much to do with the locations in which the film is shot, St Katherine Docks, Savoy Hotel, Isle of Dogs, Heathrow Airport, and Paddington Tube Station which are the perfect background to the crime syndicate the mid-level police and political corruption in London and the fund-raising of the IRA. The reality of the settings matches the reality of these real issues in England in 1980. And when you watch it after 40-odd years it becomes a nostalgic journey. I remember the pre-Thatcher London very well and like the Ealing comedies of the late 40s and 50s have become social history and were a brilliant course you could take with the Open University, so too will The Long Good Friday.