Peaky Blinders

Series titles over a black background


       Peaky Blinders is a British crime drama television series primarily set in Birmingham, England in the aftermath of World War I. The series, which was created by Steven Knight and produced by Caryn Mandabach Productions, Screen Yorkshire and Tiger Aspect Productions, follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family. Screen Yorkshire provided funding for the production through the Yorkshire Content Fund. It was the first production to receive funding from the Yorkshire Content Fund, which in turn made certain the majority of the show was filmed in Yorkshire as part of the deal.

       Cillian Murphy plays Tommy Shelby, the gang's leader, and Sam Neill as Chester Campbell is a commissioned detective from Belfast who is tasked with suppressing the gang.The series creators have reused the name of Peaky Blinders, a 19th century urban youth gang who were active in the city from the 1890s and were believed to sew razor blades into their caps.

       The first series aired on BBC Two on 13 September 2013 and ran for six episodes. The second series premiered on 2 October 2014. The third series premiered on 5 May 2016. On 26 May 2016, the BBC announced they had ordered a fourth and fifth series of the show.The fourth series premiered on 15 November 2017; after the series finale broadcast on 20 December 2017, it was announced that the fifth series will be broadcast in 2019.

       In May 2018, after their Drama Series win at the BAFTA TV Awards, Knight confirmed his "ambition of making it a story of a family between two wars, and by ending it with the first air raid siren in Birmingham", which was 25 June 1940.He also confirmed that it would take another three series (seven in total) to complete the story up to that point.

Overview
       Peaky Blinders is a gangster family epic set in Birmingham, England in 1919, several months after the end of the First World War in November 1918. The story centers on the Peaky Blinders gang and their ambitious and highly cunning boss Tommy Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy). The gang comes to the attention of Chief Inspector Major Chester Campbell (played by Sam Neill), a detective in the Royal Irish Constabulary sent over by Winston Churchill from Belfast, where he had been sent to "clean up" the city of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), Communists, gangs and common criminals.Winston Churchill (played by Andy Nyman in Series 1 and Richard McCabe in Series 2) charged him with suppressing disorder and uprising in Birmingham and recovering a stolen cache of arms meant to be shipped to Libya.The series concludes on 3 December 1919 – "Black Star Day", the event where the Peaky Blinders plan to take over Billy Kimber's betting pitches at the Worcester Races.

       The second series sees the Shelby family expand their criminal organisation in the "South and North while maintaining a stronghold in their Birmingham heartland."It begins in 1921 and ends with a climax at Epsom racecourse on 31 May 1922 – Derby Day .

       Series three starts and ends in 1924 as it follows Tommy and his family enter an even more dangerous world as they once again expand, this time, internationally. Internet-based film and TV news company Screen Rant said:

“

The series revolves around the notion of social classes and empires, and how they rise and fall with a startling sort of predictability. As the show suggests, over time, empires become too big, too corrupt, and too complicated to sustain themselves and eventually, they collapse. …[T]he series expresses its fears of expansion by teaching Tommy a powerful lesson about the other sharks skulking around in criminal waters – especially when those criminals are the ones involved in governmental plots with massive geopolitical implications. Essentially, Peaky Blinders embarked on a fish out of water story by moving outside its own comfort zone and taking the risk of expanding too much and too quickly. There are times when that risk appears to have paid off[.]

”

       Series Three also features Paddy Considine as Father John Hughes; Alexander Siddig as Ruben Oliver, a painter whom Polly enlists to paint her portrait; Gaite Jansen as Russian Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna; and Kate Phillips as Linda Shelby, wife of Arthur.

       Series Four begins on Christmas Eve 1925 and ends following the general strike of May 1926