MURDER IN MIND
MICHAEL PLOTS HIS REVENGE on Tommy Shelby
Peaky Blinders
Sunday, 9pm, BBC1
MICHAEL GRAY WAS devastated when his mother was murdered by the IRA following the climax of season five of Peaky Blinders, but he put the blame for Polly’s death squarely at Tommy Shelby’s door.
His anger with the Peaky Blinders boss for not protecting Polly, or taking revenge on those who killed her, turned into a burning desire for vengeance when Tommy betrayed him to the US police at the start of this year’s final season.
As he languished in jail, Michael hatched a plan with infamous Chicago mobster Jack Nelson – uncle of his wife Gina – to kill Tommy, unaware that the crime boss had just a year to live…
FIERCE RIVALRY
‘The tension between Tommy and Michael has been building over the years,’ says Finn Cole, who plays Michael. ‘And it gets pretty explosive as time goes on. I’ve always felt like Michael is a younger version of Tommy. He has new ideas and I think Tommy’s intimidated by that a bit.’
Michael may believe Tommy’s business methods belong in the past, but Tommy has information that could prove to be his young rival’s undoing. After learning of Gina’s affair with fascist politician Oswald Mosley last week, he now has leverage over Michael’s wife…
‘Michael believes he and Gina are the future,’ says Cole. ‘She’s smart and she has great connections, but what we start to see in this season is how intelligent she is and how she can manipulate people around her.’
With the end of the show looming, Cole, 26, is looking forward to plenty more fireworks before the finale. And he reckons the show wouldn’t have been so successful without the influence of the late Helen Mccrory, who played Polly. ‘Helen had a massive impact on my life,’ he explains. ‘I look back on those early days when I joined the show and I was this baby-faced teenager. She always looked after me and I’m massively grateful for that.’