Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’m the Peaky Blinders baby ...but I judge their accents
Brum-born actor on new series
PEAKY Blinders actor Harry Kirton has told how he saves his fellow cast members from speaky blunders – by correcting their accents.
Harry, the youngest on the show at 19, is the only one who was actually born in Birmingham, where the cult drama is set.
And he says although he frequently pesters his more experienced colleagues for acting tips, when it comes to the Midlands twang he is the one dishing out advice.
Harry – 18-year-old Finn Shelby in the BBC2 show – said: “People come to me asking if they’re saying it right. I say, ‘No, sorry’.”
“Helen McCrory, who plays Polly Gray, does it sometimes, even though she doesn’t need any tips whatsoever.
“She’ll say, ‘Harry, legit, does that sound okay?’ Sometimes she’ll just ask me to speak some lines then she’ll be, ‘Right, I’ve got it’.”
The gangster-based series returns this week with Finn now old enough to join the action. Harry said: “Now Finn’s 18 he gets more violent. He isn’t protected any more.
“It was fun to film. Those scenes, I can’t help but enjoy. It’s hard to not be involved in violence as a Shelby. It’s constant.”
Harry, who won the role at 15, returns alongside Cillian Murphy in series four of the hit drama, set in 1920s Birmingham.
He says he has “grown up” on the show. He said: “It’s been a learning curve. This year I’ve really taken on this role.
“Before, it was like two lives – schoolwork and other things pulling me in one direction and acting the other.”
But he said co-stars such as Cillian, Joe Cole and Paul Anderson have taken him under their wing. Harry said: “The others really helped me.
“They have pages and pages of knowledge in their heads so they can just be like, boom… knowledge page. ‘Here you go Harry have that, you can think about that’.
I’m sure they get fed up with my questions – but I have to learn
HARRY KIRTON
ON HOW HE QUIZZES CAST FOR TIPS
LEARN
“I’m always asking them questions, having conversations with them. I’m sure they get quite fed up but I’m like, ‘Sorry, I have to learn’.”
Harry, who recently moved to London, admitted: “I’m definitely a Brummie boy but London suits me. Me and London are friends. London gets me.
“But I’m more attached to Peaky because I’m a Brummie.
“It’s nice there’s history about my home city that I get to be part of.”
Peaky Blinders, BBC2, Wednesday, 9pm