Peaky Blinders | |
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Genre | |
Created by | Steven Knight |
Written by |
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Directed by |
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Starring | Full list |
Opening theme | "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 6 |
No. of episodes | 36 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Production location | Birmingham |
Running time | 55–83 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | |
Release | 12 September 2013 – 3 April 2022 |
Related | |
The Immortal Man |
Peaky Blinders is a British period crime drama television series created by Steven Knight. Set in Birmingham, it follows the exploits of the Peaky Blinders crime gang in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional gang is loosely based on a real urban youth gang who were active in the city from the 1880s to the 1920s.
It features an ensemble cast led by Cillian Murphy, starring as Tommy Shelby, Helen McCrory as Elizabeth "Polly" Gray, Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby, Sophie Rundle as Ada Shelby, and Joe Cole as John Shelby, the gang's senior members. Sam Neill, Annabelle Wallis, Iddo Goldberg, Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Finn Cole, Natasha O'Keeffe, Paddy Considine, Adrien Brody, Aidan Gillen, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sam Claflin, Amber Anderson, James Frecheville, and Stephen Graham also appeared in at least one episode of the series. The programme began on 12 September 2013, broadcast on BBC Two until the fourth series (with repeats on BBC Four), then moved to BBC One for the fifth and sixth series.
Netflix, under a deal with Weinstein Company and Endemol, acquired the rights to release the show in the United States and around the world. In January 2021, it was announced that the sixth series would be the final series. The last series was broadcast in 2022. A feature-length film titled The Immortal Man , which is set a few years after the end of the series, began filming in September 2024 and will be distributed by Netflix.
Peaky Blinders is a crime drama centred on a family of mixed Irish Traveller and Romani origins based in Birmingham, England, starting in 1919, several months after the end of the First World War. It centres on the Peaky Blinders street gang and their ambitious, cunning crime boss Tommy Shelby. The gang comes to the attention of Major Chester Campbell, a detective chief inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary sent by Winston Churchill from Belfast, where he had been sent to clean up the city of the Irish Republican Army flying columns, the Communist Party of Great Britain, street gangs, and common criminals. [1] [2] Winston Churchill (played by Andy Nyman in series 1 and Richard McCabe in series 2) charges him with suppressing disorder and uprising in Birmingham and recovering a stolen cache of arms and ammunition meant to be shipped to Libya. [3] [4] The first 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 has the Peaky Blinders expand their criminal organisation in the "South and North while maintaining a stronghold in their Birmingham heartland". [5] It begins in 1921 and ends with a climax at Epsom racecourse on 31 May 1922, Derby Day. [6]
The third series takes place in 1924, following Tommy and the gang as they enter an even more dangerous world by expanding once again, this time internationally. The third series also features Father John Hughes (Paddy Considine), who is involved in an anti-communist organization; Ruben Oliver (Alexander Siddig), a painter whom Polly enlists to paint her portrait; Russian Grand Duchess Tatiana Petrovna (Gaite Jansen); and Linda Shelby (Kate Phillips), the new wife of Arthur.
The fourth series begins on Christmas Eve 1925, with the Peaky Blinders getting word that the New York Mafia, led by Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody), is coming to avenge the murder of his father, committed the previous series and ends following the general strike of May 1926, with Tommy using communist leader Jessie Eden for information and being elected as a Member of Parliament in 1927.
The fifth series runs two years later, from 29 October 1929 (Black Tuesday) to 7 December 1929, the morning after a rally led by Sir Oswald Mosley.
The sixth series begins on 5 December 1933, as prohibition is repealed in the United States. The Nazi Party has obtained power in Germany, leading to a growth in membership of Mosley's British Union of Fascists. Tommy must not only deal with Mosley but also with plots from the Irish Mob as well as the Anti-Treaty IRA.
Series | Episodes | Originally aired | Average UK viewers (millions) | |||
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First aired | Last aired | Network | ||||
1 | 6 | 12 September 2013 | 17 October 2013 | BBC Two | 2.38 | |
2 | 6 | 2 October 2014 | 6 November 2014 | 2.18 | ||
3 | 6 | 5 May 2016 | 9 June 2016 | 2.38 | ||
4 | 6 | 15 November 2017 | 20 December 2017 | 3.35 | ||
5 | 6 | 25 August 2019 | 22 September 2019 | BBC One | 5.87 | |
6 | 6 | 27 February 2022 | 3 April 2022 | 5.42 |
Peaky Blinders was created and written by Steven Knight. Screen Yorkshire provided funding for the production through the Yorkshire Content Fund, ensuring that the majority of the show was filmed in Yorkshire as part of the deal. [7] Linguists were not hired in the production to assist in the show, leading to the Romani Gypsies in the earlier series frequently speaking broken Romanian (as opposed to Romani). [8]
The first series was filmed in Birmingham, Bradford, Dudley, Leeds, Liverpool, and Port Sunlight. [9] Railway sequences were filmed between Keighley and Damems, using carriages from the Ingrow Museum of Rail Travel (owned by Vintage Carriages Trust), [10] and carriages owned by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Trust. [11] Many of the scenes for the show were filmed at the Black Country Living Museum. [12] Steven Knight, Stephen Russell and Toby Finlay all had writing credits on the series. [13]
Ulster-born, New Zealand-raised Sam Neill enlisted the help of Northern Irish actors James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson to help him recover his lost Northern Irish accent for the role of C.I. Campbell. In the end, he had to tone down the accent since the series was marketed in the United States. [14]
A second series was commissioned shortly after the broadcast of the first and aired in October and November 2014. [5] On 11 January 2014, auditions were held in Digbeth area of Birmingham (near where parts of the series are set) for white and mixed race teenage male extras, resulting in lengthy queues. [15] [16]
Shortly after the final episode of the second series, the show announced via its Twitter account that it had been renewed for a third series. [17] On 5 October 2015, the official Peaky Blinders Twitter account announced that filming had begun for series 3. [18] Filming completed on 22 January 2016, after 78 days of shooting. [19] [20]
During the initial broadcast of series 3, the BBC renewed Peaky Blinders for series 4 and 5, each of which comprises six episodes. [21] Filming for series 4 started in March 2017 and premiered on 15 November 2017 on BBC Two. [22] Both The Weinstein Company and its logo in its credits weren't included, even though the company was formerly involved in the US distribution of the series. [23]
The BBC commissioned a fifth series in mid-2016. On 22 August 2018, it was confirmed that series 5 would be broadcast on BBC One. [24] [25] Having already premiered to a select audience at Birmingham Town Hall on 18 July 2019, the series began airing on BBC One on 25 August 2019. [26]
On 5 May 2018, Steven Knight told Birmingham Press Club that "we are definitely doing [series] six". [27] Production on the series was due to begin in March 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [28] During 2020, rumours emerged linking comedian Rowan Atkinson to the show for the role of Adolf Hitler in series 6, but the producers denied the involvement saying that the news is "completely false". [29]
On 18 January 2021, it was announced that series six, which had just begun filming, would be the final television series of Peaky Blinders; though Knight revealed "the story will continue in another form". [30] Helen McCrory, who played the character of Polly Gray, died in April 2021, thus unable to film any scenes for the series. [28] Series six premiered on 27 February 2022. [31] [32]
Following the announcement that the sixth series would be the last, Knight clarified that, following the year-long production hiatus in 2020, it had been decided to produce a feature-length movie in place of a seventh television series, with other connected television series potentially following. [33] [34] Peaky Blinders won the Returning Drama award at the 2022 National Television Awards ceremony, with Knight subsequently confirming during his acceptance speech that that film would begin production in mid-spring 2023, but would later be delayed. [35] In June 2024, the Peaky Blinder's film was confirmed by Netflix with Cillian Murphy reprising his role as Thomas Shelby. [36] Production began in September 2024 under the title The Immortal Man. [37]
Throughout its run, Peaky Blinders received widespread critical acclaim. David Renshaw of The Guardian summarised the series as a "riveting, fast-paced tale of post-first world war Birmingham gangsters", praising Murphy as the "ever-so-cool Tommy Shelby" and the rest of the cast for their "powerful performances". [38] Sarah Compton of The Telegraph gave the series four out of five, praising the show for its originality and "taking all of our expectations and confounding them". [39] Alex Fletcher from Digital Spy believes that "Peaky Blinders has started as sharp as a dart", [40] while Den of Geek called the series "the most intelligent, stylish and engrossing BBC drama in ages". [41] Cult TV Times critic Hugh David said the show "warrants the billing" by "managing to tick several ratings boxes –period drama, gangster epic, film star leads –yet go against the grain of those in the most interesting of ways". [42]
The show has been particularly celebrated for its stylish cinematography and charismatic performances, as well as for casting an eye over a part of England and English history rarely explored on television. [43] Historians have been divided over whether bringing characters and events from other decades into a 1920s story undermines claims to historical accuracy, or whether working-class life in the period is nevertheless depicted in a truthful and resonant way. [44] Reviews of the second series remained positive, with Ellen E. Jones of The Independent commenting that "Peaky Blinders can now boast several more big-name actors to supplement the sterling work of Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory and Sam Neill", referring to second series additions Tom Hardy and Noah Taylor. [45]
Several critics have compared the show favourably to the American series Boardwalk Empire , [46] [47] which shares the same themes and historical context. Show writer Steven Knight stated in an early interview: "Do you know – and I'm not just saying this – but I've never watched them. I've never seen The Wire , I've never seen Boardwalk Empire, I've never seen any of them." When asked if he deliberately avoided watching those shows, he responded: "It's sort of deliberate in that I don't really want to be looking at other people's work because it does affect what you do inevitably." [48] On 2 March 2016, Knight told the Crime Scene Quarterly "I've had unsolicited communication from Michael Mann, the film director, from Dennis Lehane, Snoop Dogg –he's such a fan. And the late David Bowie was a huge fan –more of that to come" (strongly hinting Bowie's involvement on series three). It was later confirmed that Bowie's music would be featured, and Leonard Cohen had also written a new song for series three. [49] [50] [51]
On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on seven reviews. [52] On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 93% approval rating based on 14 reviews, with an average critic rating of eight out of ten. The website's critical consensus reads, "Peaky Blinders' sixth series gracefully addresses the untimely passing of star Helen McCrory while setting the stage for a fitting climax to this epic saga of likable scalawags." [53]
Series four introduced the character Jessie Eden, based on the real-life British communist and trade union leader. [54] Although the reception was mixed, [55] some people who had known Jessie Eden personally took offence to the way she was depicted. [56] Graham Stevenson, a trade union leader and writer on British communism, a personal friend of Jessie Eden and the writer of her biography, was a harsh critic of the show, stating:
I knew Eden, and as a callow 22-year-old, I didn't ask the 70-year-old Jessie about her relationships, let alone sex life. But I doubt her private life was as complicated or dramatic as her eponymous character's. Nor can I see any young woman during the 1920s gratuitously going into a gents' toilets, as Eden is shown doing, for any reason at all other than life or death. The social values of the programme are ahistorical. It is surely the conceit that Tommy Shelby, the gangster villain-hero of the series, could ever convince a woman like Eden to be wined and dined, let alone be seduced, that finally reveals the true motives of the creators of the programme. [57]
Stevenson also criticised the show for its clothing choices, incorrectly showing Churchill as Home Secretary in 1919, incorrectly depicting Eden as a mass leader during the 1926 General Strike; eventually these inaccuracies led Stevenson to stop watching the show. [58] He went on to elaborate: "Although the TV series' cinematography, music and fast-paced action is obviously attractive, especially matched to outstanding charismatic performances, it's disappointing that an expert in Tudor history was the historical adviser to the series, rather than someone with a background in trade unionism or communism." [57]
At a round table event featuring Stevenson, the poet Dave Puller, and cultural historian Paul Long, the three discussed the series and its depictions of the British working class. Long rated the series positively and praised the series as a great representation of interesting working-class protagonists. Puller had mixed feelings and was disappointed that the show chose to focus on Jessie Eden's fictional romance with Tommy, rather than her real achievements as a communist and a trade union leader. [55]
Series | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
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1 | British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Director: Fiction | Otto Bathurst | Won | [59] |
Best Original Music | Martin Phipps | Nominated | |||
Best Photography and Lighting: Fiction | George Steel | Won | |||
Best Production Design | Grant Montgomery | Nominated | |||
Best Sound: Fiction | Stuart Hilliker, Brian Milliken, Matthew Skelding, Lee Walpole | Nominated | |||
Best Special, Visual & Graphic Effects | Bluebolt (VFX), Rushes (Colourist) | Nominated | |||
Biarritz International Festival of Audovisual Programming | Best Actor in a TV Series or Serial | Cillian Murphy | Won | [60] | |
Best Actress in a TV Series or Serial | Helen McCrory | Won | |||
Best Music in a TV Series or Serial | Martin Phipps | Won | |||
Crime Thriller Awards UK | Best Supporting Actress | Helen McCrory | Nominated | ||
RTS Programme Awards | Best Drama Series | Production team | Won | [61] | |
RTS Craft & Design Awards | Best Costume Design: Drama | Stephanie Collie | Won | [62] | |
Best Make-Up Design: Drama | Loz Schiavo | Nominated | |||
Best Production Design: Drama | Grant Montgomery | Nominated | |||
Judges' Award | Production team | Won | |||
Televisual Bulldog Awards | Best Drama One-Off or Serial | Production team | 2nd Place | ||
2 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Drama Series | Production team | Nominated | [63] |
British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Make-Up and Hair | Loz Schiavo | Nominated | [64] | |
Best Photography and Lighting: Fiction | Simon Dennis | Nominated | |||
Best Production Design | Grant Montgomery | Nominated | |||
Irish Film & Television Academy | Best Leading Actor in a Drama Series | Cillian Murphy | Nominated | [65] | |
Best Costume Design | Lorna Marie Mugan | Won | |||
Best Director: Drama Series | Colm McCarthy | Nominated | |||
RTS Programme Awards | Best Drama Series | Production Team | Nominated | [66] | |
RTS Craft & Design Awards | Best Photography: Drama | Simon Dennis | Nominated | [67] | |
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards | Best TV Drama – Long Form | Steven Knight | Nominated | ||
3 | National Television Awards | Best Period Drama Series | Production team | Nominated | |
Best Drama Performance | Cillian Murphy | Nominated | |||
Irish Film and Television Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Drama Series | Cillian Murphy | Won | [68] | |
4 | National Television Awards | Outstanding Drama Series | Peaky Blinders | Won | [69] |
Best Drama Performance | Cillian Murphy | Nominated | |||
British Academy Television Awards | Best Drama Series | Production team | Won | [70] | |
British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Costume Design | Alison McCosh | Nominated | [71] | |
Best Editing: Fiction | Dan Roberts (for "The Duel") | Nominated | |||
Best Make Up & Hair Design | Loz Schiavo | Nominated | |||
Best Sound: Fiction | Forbes Noonan, Ben Norrington, Jim Goddard, Grant Bridgeman | Nominated | |||
Best Writer: Drama | Steven Knight | Nominated | |||
TV Choice Awards | Best Drama Series | Production team | Won | ||
Best Actor | Cillian Murphy | Won | |||
Best Actress | Helen McCrory | Nominated | |||
Irish Film & Television Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Television Drama | Cillian Murphy | Won | [72] | |
Best Supporting Actress in a Television Drama | Charlie Murphy | Won | |||
Best Director in a Television Drama | David Caffrey | Nominated | |||
Best Editing | Dermot Diskin | Nominated | |||
Best Cinematography | Cathal Watters | Nominated | |||
5 | National Television Awards | Outstanding Drama Series | Peaky Blinders | Won | [73] |
Best Drama Performance | Cillian Murphy | Won | |||
British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Make-Up & Hair Design | Loz Schiavo | Won | [74] | |
Irish Film & Television Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Television Drama | Cillian Murphy | Nominated | [75] | |
Best Director in a Television Drama | Anthony Byrne | Nominated | |||
Cinema Audio Society Awards | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Series – One Hour | Stu Wright, Nigel Heath, Brad Rees, Jimmy Robertson, Oliver Brierley, Ciaran Smith (for "Mr. Jones") | Nominated | [76] | |
6 | National Television Awards | Best Returning Drama | Peaky Blinders | Won | [77] |
Best Drama Performance | Cillian Murphy | Won | |||
RTS Craft & Design Awards | Costume Design - Drama | Alison McCosh | Won | [78] | |
Art Directors Guild Awards | Excellence in Production Design for a One-Hour Period Single-Camera Series | Nicole Northridge (for "Black Day") | Nominated | [79] | |
British Academy Television Awards | Best Actor | Cillian Murphy | Nominated | [80] | |
On 24 September 2014, it was announced that Netflix had acquired exclusive US distribution rights from the Weinstein Company and Endemol. The entirety of series 1 became available for streaming on 30 September 2014; series 2 launched in November 2014. [81] Series 3 was made available 31 May 2016. [82] Due to licensing restrictions, however, most of the show's original soundtrack is not available on the Netflix-distributed version of the series. [83] In 2018, it was announced Peaky Blinders would be moved from its original broadcast channel, BBC Two, to BBC One for its fifth and sixth series. [84]
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Peaky Blinders has had a detectable cultural impact in the UK. In 2018, the name Arthur surged into the top 10 boys names for the first time since the 1920s, and Ada jumped into the girls' top 100 for the first time in a century as well. The assumption reached by the ONS is that the popularity of these names was inspired by the characters Arthur Shelby Jr. and Ada Thorne. [85]
In August 2020, a video game based on the television series, titled Peaky Blinders: Mastermind, was developed by FuturLab and released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and for PC via Steam. [86] [87] A virtual reality game, Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom, was developed by Maze Theory and released for Meta Quest 2 and PICO 4 on March 9, 2023. [88] [89]
In September 2022, Rambert Dance presented a dance production based on the series titled Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby directed and choreographed by Benoit Swan Pouffer, written by Knight. It premiered at the Birmingham Hippodrome, before touring the UK and was filmed for the BBC.
Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor. His works encompass both stage and screen, and his accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Helen Elizabeth McCrory was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her professional stage debut in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1990. Other theatre roles include playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Rosalind in As You Like It in the West End, and Medea in the eponymous play at the Royal National Theatre.
Aimee-Ffion Edwards is a Welsh actress. She is best known for her television roles as Sketch in Skins, Esme Shelby in Peaky Blinders, Sophie in Detectorists, Abi in Loaded, and Shirley Dander in Slow Horses. Her video game voice roles include Rachel Baker in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Mio in the English dub of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Ranni the Witch in Elden Ring.
Anna Margaret Michelle Calvi is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her accolades include three Mercury Prize nominations, one Brit Award nomination, and a European Border Breakers Award. She has been noted by some critics as a virtuoso guitarist, as well as for her powerful, wide-ranging operatic contralto voice and sometimes androgynous stage appearance.
Samuel Hazeldine is an English actor working in film, television and theatre. In film he has appeared in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Weekender (2010), The Raven (2012), Grimsby (2016), and The Last Duel (2021). His television roles include Prime Suspect 6 (2003), Persuasion (2007), Lightfields (2013), Peaky Blinders (2014), Resurrection (2014–2015), Knightfall (2017), Requiem (2018), The Innocents (2019), Temple (2019), Slow Horses (2022), The Sandman (2022), Rain Dogs (2023), Masters of the Air (2023), and he plays Adar in the second series of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024).
Paul Anderson is an English film and television actor who came to prominence for portraying Arthur Shelby Jr. in Peaky Blinders, Mr Anderson in the 2015 film The Revenant, and Sebastian Moran in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Sophie Rundle is an English actress. Her television roles include portraying Ada Thorne in Peaky Blinders, Ann Walker in Gentleman Jack, Vicky Budd in Bodyguard, code-breaker Lucy in The Bletchley Circle, Labia in Episodes, and Alice in Jamestown.
Tom Harper is a British film and television director, producer and writer. He is best known for his work on The Aeronauts,Wild Rose, Peaky Blinders, and the BBC TV mini-series War & Peace.
The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1920s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to working-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, racketeering, illegal bookmaking, and control of gambling. Members wore signature outfits that typically included tailored jackets, lapelled overcoats, buttoned waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, leather boots, and peaked flat caps. Contrary to the television series of the same name, it is unlikely that they had razor blades sewn into these caps, instead gaining their name from the way they wore them with the cap tilted so that the peak covered one eye.
Thomas Michael Shelby is a fictional character and the protagonist of the British period crime drama Peaky Blinders. He is played by Irish actor Cillian Murphy, who has won two Irish Film & Television Awards and two National Television Awards for his portrayal of Shelby. The character has received critical acclaim.
Charlotte Murphy is an Irish actress best known for her role as Ann Gallagher in the BBC series Happy Valley (2014–2023).
Joseph Michael Cole is an English actor. Some of his most notable roles include Luke in Skins, John Shelby in Peaky Blinders, Marzin and Beckwith in Secret in Their Eyes, Billy Moore in A Prayer Before Dawn, Frank in the Black Mirror episode "Hang the DJ", Sean Wallace in Gangs of London, and Iver Iversen in Against the Ice.
Alfred "Alfie" Solomons is a fictional character in the British period crime drama television series Peaky Blinders, created by Steven Knight and portrayed by Tom Hardy. Based on a London gangster born in the late 1890s, he is the leader of a Jewish gang based in Camden Town and was introduced in Series 2.
Finlay Lewis J. Cole is an English actor. He is known for his role as Michael Gray in the BBC series Peaky Blinders (2014–2022). He also starred as Joshua "J" Cody in TNT's Animal Kingdom (2016–2022) and played young Jakob Toretto in the film F9 (2021).
Jessie Eden was a British trade union leader and communist activist, most famous for leading between 40,000 and 50,000 households during the Birmingham rent-strike of 1939.
Arthur Shelby Jr. is a fictional character in the British television period crime drama television series Peaky Blinders, created by Steven Knight. Played by Paul Anderson, Arthur Shelby Jr. is the older brother of the protagonist Thomas Shelby. Arthur is a member of the Peaky Blinders and the deputy vice president of the Shelby Company Limited.
This Town is a 2024 British six-part television series. Written and created for BBC One by Steven Knight and directed by Paul Whittington, the series follows a group of young people in the early 1980s in Birmingham and Coventry. The cast is led by Levi Brown, Jordan Bolger, Ben Rose, and Eve Austin. The series premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 31 March 2024.
The Immortal Man is an upcoming period crime drama film directed by Tom Harper and written by Steven Knight. It is a continuation of the British television series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022), and stars Cillian Murphy, Stephen Graham, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, and Ian Peck reprising their roles, alongside Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo, and Barry Keoghan.