How to drag costume drama out of the doldrums
‘How the f--- did a Birmingham racketeer get his hands on a personal letter from King George?” So spluttered the monarch’s private secretary Arthur Bigge (a moustached Donald Sumpter) as period gangster saga Peaky
Blinders (BBC Two) blazed back onto our screens for its fourth series.
With this spot of royal blackmail, Birmingham crime kingpin Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy, all angular cheekbones and icy eyes) duly obtained official pardons for his nearest and dearest – and while he was at it, demanded inclusion in the New Year’s Honours List. He might as well push his luck.
Estranged from his family since strategically shopping them to the police in last year’s climactic cliffhanger, Tommy was soon decorated with an OBE, living a life of “sex, freedom and whisky sours” – which, disappointingly, wasn’t as much fun as it sounded.
In December 1925, the clan all received spine-chilling Christmas cards: “black hand” death threats from the New York mafia, led by vengeful Luca Changretta (Oscar winner Adrien Brody). On the brink of annihilation, the Shelbys reunited to fight for survival. In one blood-soaked scrap, Tommy twigged that a sous chef was an assassin in disguise, so killed him with a meat hook.
Creator Steven Knight, who was also behind Tom Hardy’s Taboo, has established a signature style: he drags costume drama out of country houses and into inner cities, then douses it in ye olde sex and violence. He then adds star names, films it with cinematic swagger and acquires cult following.
We saw the now-familiar stylised slow-motion shots of sharp-suited mobsters striding through grimy factories as smoke belched and sparks flew. It resembled Reservoir Dogs with tweed waistcoats. The pounding, bluesy, indie-rock soundtrack boasted Nick Cave, Savages and local Wolverhampton three-piece Yak.
Ample testosterone sloshed around but strong female characters kept things the right side of macho. Pill-popping matriarch Aunt Pol (the magnificent Helen Mccrory) was mid-meltdown, Tommy’s steely sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) came back from Boston and there were signs of an expanded role for fiery gypsy Esme (Aimee-ffion Edwards). With the General Strike looming, Tommy also locked horns with real-life union leader Jessie Eden (Charlie Murphy).
Packed with powerful set-pieces, this episode began with heads in nooses and ended in a hail of bullets. It might have been titled “Once Upon a Time in the West Midlands”. A terrifically paced return which tingled with excitement. Peaky Blinders gets better with each passing series.
The Secret Life of the Zoo (Channel 4) began its fourth series with a birth-themed episode. Filmed with hidden cameras at Chester Zoo to capture the private lives of animals, this was essentially One Born Every Minute: Wildlife Edition. It made for compelling and cockle-warming viewing.
Eastern black rhino Kitani was due to give birth, swelling the ranks of her endangered species. However, she was traumatised from losing three previous calves, so it was a worrying time. Would Kitani deliver a healthy calf and have the maternal instincts to raise it? After a few false starts, the answer was thankfully yes.
At the end other end of the size scale, parasitic jewel wasp Ripley was seeking a suitable cockroach to host her larva. She laid her egg on him and paralysed him with venom, effectively turning him into a zombie, then chewed off his antennae and buried him alive so her offspring could eat its way out of him. It was like something from Alien, presumably hence the jewel wasp’s name.
Elsewhere, the mysterious tenrecs from Madagascar – as described by their keeper Peter, “imagine a bumblebee mated with a hedgehog, with a bit of Clanger thrown in” – were refusing to mate. Even a spot of mateswapping couldn’t spice things up.
Red river hog Mali had given birth to twin piglets but tearaway father Confetti was a potential threat to his own babies. Like many lads-turneddads, though, he proved far soppier than predicted.
I soon found myself as emotionally invested as the devoted zookeepers. The fact that much-loved actress Olivia Colman was on narration duties only made this gently joyful documentary all the more uplifting. It might have been no Blue Planet II but The Secret Life of the Zoo was equally enchanting in its own, more modest way.
Peaky Blinders
The Secret Life of the Zoo