It promises to be a Blinder
Four series in, and members of the Peaky Blinders gang are estranged, battling their own personal demons and about to face their biggest threat yet. GEORGIA HUMPHREYS finds out more from the stellar cast of the period gangster drama
PEAKY BLINDERS has earned itself a cult following since hitting BBC2 four years ago. So much so that the show’s star, Cillian Murphy, has seen pictures of fans with giant tattoos of his character Tommy Shelby (yes, really).
In the past three series of the gangster epic, set in post-First World War Birmingham, we’ve seen Tommy move up in the world as the brains behind the most feared and powerful gang in the area, the Peaky Blinders.
Run by him and his family, they make money from illegal betting, protection and the black market – while also making plenty of enemies along the way.
Ahead of the show’s return, Cillian and co-stars Helen McCrory and newcomer Adrien Brody tell us about the danger awaiting the Shelby family this time round.
CILLIAN MURPHY
CILLIAN returns for another striking performance as flat cap-wearing, chain-smoking gang boss Tommy.
Series three ended with viewers wondering what Tommy was playing at by turning four members of his family – his Aunt Polly, brothers Arthur and John, and cousin Michael – in to the police.
He’s always been the linchpin but now it’s business first and family second – or so it seems, as he remains unforgiven and estranged from the rest of the Shelby gang.
“I don’t know if he is willing to walk, I think he’s really trying not to think about it, and he’s just getting on with it,” reveals 41-year-old Cillian, who starred in Second World War drama Dunkirk earlier this year.
“He’s a really, really, really complicated man emotionally, he doesn’t deal with stuff ... He loses his wife in series three and I think that any progress that he’d made emotionally through being married and through her, he’s gone back.”
Tommy redeems himself in some of his relatives’ eyes early on in series four by coming to the rescue of incarcerated family members, but Irish actor Cillian hints that the Shelby relationships are still “complicated and messed up”.
Tensions rise when Tommy receives a letter on Christmas Eve with a Black-Hand – a mark of a warning from the Mafia – and the family’s only option could be to reunite in Small Heath (the slum where Tommy grew up).
“The idea was to put them under the greatest threat that they’ve ever been (under) really,” explains Cillian.
The source of the threat is mobster Luca Changretta, played by Adrien Brody, who is seeking revenge over an assassination in series three.
Of Adrien, Cillian says: “He just has incredible energy, which we’ll get to see as the show progresses; obviously it’s going to be a showdown at some point.”
HELEN McCRORY
SKYFALL and Harry Potter star Helen plays matriarch Aunt Polly, who fiercely ran the Peaky Blinders while the men were in the trenches of the First World War, and long ago made peace with the family’s criminal activities.
But following nephew Tommy’s betrayal – which led to her imprisonment – Polly is a broken woman, and has to ask herself if she can forgive him for the sake of her family’s future. Especially because early on in the first episode, we see Polly face the terror of being led to the gallows – a scene that Helen, who has also worked extensively on stage, found challenging to film.
“It’s very disturbing,” the 49-yearold actress elaborates, “because we are all mortal, and we’re not a culture that really talks about it.”
The experience is a real turning