Over nine years, Peaky Blinders has transformed from a U.K. success to an international sensation.
Now it prepares to say goodbye.
For five seasons, Thomas “Tommy” Shelby has led his family through war.
Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in ‘Peaky Blinders.'.BBC
Or rather, wars.
DuringPeaky Blinders’ run, Tommy has battled gangsters, cops, gypsies, and politicians.
He’s killed countless men.
Sam Claflin as Oswald Mosley on ‘Peaky Blinders’.BBC
He’s saved a few others.And he’s done it all on an empty stomach.
“In the show, you never see him eat.
“He doesn’t have f—ing time to eat, he’s so on it!”
Sophie Rundle as Ada Shelby in ‘Peaky Blinders.'.BBC
(More on that later.)
Needless to say,Peakyisn’t slowing down.
“TV shows can plateau.
Finn Cole as Michael Gray in ‘Peaky Blinders.'.BBC
“With [season] 6, it’s definitely the case.
We were determined to make it brilliant.”
Brilliant is the bar.
‘Peaky Blinders’ season 5.BBC
It also delivered on complex characters, rich storytelling, and some of the best acting on television.
“You don’t get a lot of that.”
Or how his great-uncles were illegal bookmakers, better known as the Peaky Blinders.
Or how his father, a blacksmith, worked at scrap metal yards owned by gypsies.
Knight combined those tales from his youth and then cranked the volume up to 11.
And it seems to have struck a chord.”
Knight rooted the family in Tommy.
But mostly because he’s too fearless not to be.
“Then he thought, ‘I might as well just do everything.
I’m dead already.'”
And that, Knight explains, is Tommy.
(“The BBC doesn’t spend much money on advertising,” Murphy says.)
“It was a bit of a sleeper hit,” says Rundle.
“The fan base has really driven the success of it, which is quite an unusual thing.”
(Season 6 premieres on Netflix later this year, following its BBC One debut on Feb.
These are places where it’s not even legally shown.”
Just ask some of the non-famous fans working on Rundle’s home during our interview.
“The plumbers in my house were like, ‘What’s happening withPeaky?'”
“People want to know what Tommy Shelby is going to get up to.”
Murphy knows, but he isn’t going to tell.
The Birmingham accent is replaced with Murphy’s natural Irish lilt.
“We’ve been tracking his inability to deal with the trauma that exists,” Murphy says.
That is, once he recovers from what happened at the end of season 5.
“For the first time, people were ahead of him,” says Murphy.
“They are butting heads,” Cole says of Tommy and Michael in season 6.
“But at the same time, they’re family.”
There was a pandemic to contend with and the loss of a beloved cast member.
“It was a difficult shoot because of the protocols.
And I think we succeeded with this.”
Will he bounce back?
Will he defeat Mosley?
And will he do it all in a three-piece suit?
(We probably know the answer to that one.)
“That is inside him somewhere, and I feel that Steve has wanted to defrost that.
I would hope that there might be some redemption for him.”
A version of this story appears in the March issue ofEntertainment Weekly, on newsstands now.
