Page 24 Daily Mail, Saturday, August 17, 2019
H
URRAH for all
those who love a
bit of eye-gouging,
a tight throttle,
a garrotting ortwo, a good stabbing and a
crisply cut three-piece suit.
Because Peaky Blinders, the
relentlessly violent and gory BBC
gangster drama that follows the
lives, times and dodgy cohorts of
the Shelby family in Birmingham,
returns next weekend.
Judging by the reactions of fans
who have already watched the
trailer for the fifth series, it’s likely
to be a bigger hit than ever.
Written by Steven Knight (who
co-created Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire?), and starring eve-
ryone from Cillian Murphy and
Helen McCrory to Tom Hardy and
Charlotte Riley, the BAFTA-winner
has gone from a slow-burner to a
huge hit, attracting up to four
million viewers per episode.
And, as JANE FRYER discovers,
from Shelby-themed weddings, to
music festivals and spin-off gins,
Peaky madness is going global.
THE SERIES SO FAR . . .
THoMAS SHelBy (Murphy),
leader of the Peaky Blinders, is
the ruthless, but admirable and
intelligent, star of this orgy of
Twenties Midlands viciousness.
As creator Knight puts it: ‘Tommy
is one of those who came back from
[World War I] horrifically damaged,
who were spat back into society
without any counselling.
‘And many brought their weapons
home with them. There were a lot of
guns around at the time. Tommy
has a huge disdain for authority —
everything he was told is a lie.’
over four series, we have seen
Tommy battle with an Italian
mafioso and a crusading police
department — while finding time
to make pacts with the IRA, a gang
of gypsies and even Churchill.
The new series begins after the
1929 stock market crash, with
Shelby newly installed as labour
MP for Birmingham South.
HOW IT TOOK OFF
SeT in Small Heath, Birmingham,
the show is filmed in Toxteth,
liverpool (and also in the Black
Country living Museum) and
features a mainly British cast.
Thanks to a distribution
deal with Netflix (and the
addition of Tom Hardy
in series two), the series
soon gathered fans in the
States and worldwide.
A TRUE STORY?
KNIgHT based the series
on the gang that may or may
not have terrorised Birmingham
in 1919, when it was the world’s
biggest industrial city. He was
inspired by stories told to him
by his father about his gangster
uncles. Though the Peaky Blinders
are so-called for the razor blades
hidden in the peaks of their
flat caps, in real life Tommy and
Co are more likely to have relied
on steel-tipped boots, belt buckles,
knives and their bare hands.
Still, it’s the show’s attempts to
grapple with real historical events
that keeps it grounded.
The rise of trades unions; the
IRA’s violent campaign; Russian
aristocrats fleeing the communist
revolution... Peaky Blinders is a
history lesson on steroids.REAL LADIES’ MAN
WHeN he’s not smashing some-
one over the head with a glass
or unleashing hell with a lewis
machine gun, our Tommy still
finds the time to pursue a more
than healthy love life.
In the first series, we watched
him fall head over heels for
sultry blonde Irish barmaid grace
Burgess, played by Annabelle
Wallis. They eventually marry
and have a son, Charles.
After grace is shot in series three,
Tommy finds solace with a Russian
grand duchess and a wealthy widow.
He then resumes a romance with
former prostitute lizzie Stark
(Natasha o’Keeffe), with whom he
has a daughter, Ruby.PLENTY OF GORE
THe Blinders crew have always
been partial to the odd bloodbath
— a touch of eye-slashing and the
odd ear lopped off — but, in series
five, it goes even further.
When Helen McCrory saw the
opening scenes at a screening in
Birmingham last month, she had
to look away. ‘I think it’s disgust-
ing, gratuitous violence,’ she said.
‘It is... no, not gratuitous —
disgustingly violent. But it is and
it should be.’
Knight insists that he’s happy
with the general levels of gore,
as Peaky Blindersabides by the rule that ‘any
act of violence has [to have] a
consequence in terms of the story’,
to avoid glamorising it.HAIR-RAISING STYLE
MURPHy loathes Tommy’s
hairdo, as it takes months to
grow out. But hairdressers insist
that not since ‘The Rachel’ (thestyle popular-
ised in Friends
by the character
played by Jennifer
Aniston) has a TV role
so influenced tonsorial
trends, and say that fans of all
ages have been sporting the
‘Tommy Shelby Special’.HERBAL CIGARETTES
WHeTHeR he’s slashing someone
or making love, Shelby is often
smoking and, according to the
props team, puffs through at least
3,000 cigarettes a series. They’realways herbal
rose-flavoured,
though, as, in real
life, Murphy is a
non-smoker. McCrory
says the cast are left with bits
of ‘black’ in their nostrils.AN ACCENT LIKE OZZY
eVeN experienced cast members
struggled to master the accents.
McCrory, an actress with one of
the poshest, luvviest voices in the
business, said she only cracked her
Birmingham accent after watching
‘endless’ video clips of BlackPictures: ROBERT VIGLASKY; WAYNE TIPPETTS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; BEN BLACKALL; MATRIXPICTURES.CO.UK; SWNS.COMEVEN critics admit
the show’s slick
style is something
to behold.
Episode after
episode is
replete with
slow-motion
shots, sharp
scene cuts,
a rock music
soundtrack
and enough pyro-
technics to rival a
volcano — as well as
the sharpest outfitson TV. Men have have
been snapping up
baker boy caps and
squeezing themselves
into three-piece suits.
David Beckham (left)
and his sons have
embraced the look
and Becks’s co-owned
label, Kent & Curwen,
has a new collection
in collaboration with
the show — labelled
The Garrison Tailors,
in a nod to the Shelby
family’s pub.BECKHAM CUTS A DASH
IN PEAKY PERFECTION
The top gun in Brum: Cillian
Murphy as Tommy Shelby and
(above left) with the Peaky
Blinders gang. Above right:
Two real-life Peaky Blinders.
Inset: Annabelle Wallis as Grace