Tout sold footie tickets to film director and became star I WAS A SNEAKY BLINDER

PEAKY Blinders hardman Paul Anderson kicked off his acting career by flogging tickets outside football grounds.

Paul was on the wrong side of the law selling a ticket to a film director when he landed his big movie break.

He now has a global fan base for his portrayal of crazed Arthur Shelby, the feared enforcer in Peaky Blinders.

Series four of the gritty BBC2 drama is on Wednesdays and the Shelby firm is in hot water after a killing by Arthur led to a New York mafia vendetta.

Turmoil

Viewers saw Arthur kill two Sicilian hitmen with a lump hammer and a pistol after they came after him.

Paul, 39, revealed he loved being a ticket tout although his ambitions lay elsewhere.

He said: “I earned a lot of money out of it but that was all I got out of it. Artistically, there was nothing in that for me.

“I always wanted to be a frontman in a band. Not a footballer. Not an actor. Certainly not a policeman or a fireman. I wanted to be a lead singer. Nothing else.”

But when Paul sold tickets to film director Nick Love for the Chelsea v Barcelona game his life was to change for ever.

Nick thought Paul was perfect for the part of thug Bex in The Firm, a 2009 film about football hooligans.

Paul said: “I happened to be outside and I was handling the odd ticket or two and sort of exchanging them for money.

“He was with a bunch of friends and I sold them tickets.” The star said the moviemaker found his touting “exotic” and later offered him a role in the film. Now Paul, who has also starred i n Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows a nd The Revenant, is flooded with fan mail from dedicated fans who love Arthur. He said: “People do like him, actually. I’m really sur- prised. Lots of people like the show, and I get that, but lots of people say, ‘ We love ove Arthur,’ – and I guess that t I do understand why.

“The thing I love about him and why I like playing him is he’s not just one-dimensional.

“He’s tough and he can be violent and brutal but he’s not just that.

“He’s got this inner turmoil, this ‘I don’t want to do this but I’m doing it because it’s my life and it’s the way things are.’”