Peaky Blinders is a British crime drama television series created by Steven Knight, that premiered on BBC Two on 12 September 2013. The series is primarily set in Birmingham, England, and follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family in the aftermath of World War I. The fictional gang is loosely based on the Peaky Blinders, a real 19th century urban youth gang who were active in the city from the 1890s to the early twentieth century. Cillian Murphy stars as Tommy Shelby, the gang's leader, with Helen McCrory and Paul Anderson playing Tommy's aunt and older brother respectively, who serve as the second-most senior members of the gang.

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.^[1] After the conclusion of series four, he confirmed that it would take another three seasons (seven in total) to complete the story up to that point.^[2] Series five premiered on BBC One on 25 August 2019 and finished on 22 September 2019.

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 centres 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.^[3][4] 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.^[5][6][7] 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 sees the Shelby family expand their criminal organisation in the "South and North while maintaining a stronghold in their Birmingham heartland."^[8] It begins in 1921 and ends with a climax at Epsom racecourse on 31 May 1922 – Derby Day.^[9]

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:

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.

Series Five begins on Tuesday, October 29, 1929 (Black Tuesday) and ends on December 7th, 1929, the morning after a rally led by Sir Oswald Mosley.

Peaky Blinders was created by Steven Knight, directed by Otto Bathurst, and produced by Katie Swinden. The writers are listed as Steven Knight, David Leland, Stephen Russell and Toby Finlay.^[16]

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.^[17] The series was filmed in Birmingham, Bradford, Dudley, Leeds, Liverpool and Port Sunlight.^[18] Railway sequences were filmed between Keighley and Damems, using carriages from the Ingrow Museum of Rail Travel (owned by Vintage Carriages Trust)^[19] and carriages owned by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Trust.^[20] Many of the scenes for the show were shot at the Black Country Living Museum.^[21]

Sam Neill enlisted the help of Northern Irish actors James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson to help him perfect a Northern Irish accent for the role of C.I. Campbell. In the end, he had to tone down the accent since the series is being marketed in the United States.^[22]

Controversially, the production did not hire linguists to assist in the show, leading to the gypsies frequently speaking broken Romanian (as opposed to Romani).^[23]

A second series was commissioned shortly after the broadcast of the first and aired in the autumn of 2014.^[8] 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.^[24][25]

Shortly after the final episode of the second series, the show announced via its official Twitter account that it had been renewed for a third series.^[26] On 5 October 2015, the official Peaky Blinders Twitter account announced that filming had begun for series 3.^[27] Filming wrapped on 22 January 2016, after 78 days of shooting.^[28][29]

During the initial broadcast of series 3, the BBC renewed Peaky Blinders for series 4 and 5, each of which comprises six episodes.^[30] Filming for series 4 started in March 2017 and premiered on 15 November 2017 on BBC Two.^[31] Creator and writer Steven Knight authored series 4 and will return to write every episode of series 5. Cillian Murphy has also confirmed his return for both series; the rest of the main cast are expected to return as well, and it was announced that Charlotte Riley was returning as May Carleton. Adrien Brody and Aidan Gillen were cast as new characters.^[32] On 13 October 2017, it was confirmed that the show will not include The Weinstein Company or its logo in its credits from the fourth series onward, even though the company was formerly involved in the US distribution of the series.^[33]

On 22 August 2018, the BBC confirmed that series 5 would be broadcast on BBC One.^[34][35] 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.^[36]

On 5 May 2018, Steven Knight told Birmingham Press Club that "we are definitely doing [series] six and we will probably do seven".^[37]

Peaky Blinders has received praise for its writing, acting, visuals, and stylish cinematography. 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 Daily Telegraph gave the series a 4/5 rating, 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 for the second series have 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 also favourably compared the show 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 these dramas, 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 3). It was later confirmed that David Bowie's music would be featured, and Leonard Cohen had also written a new song for series 3.^[49][50][51]

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.^[52] Series 3 was made available 31 May 2016.^[53] Due to licensing restrictions, however, most of the show's original soundtrack is not available on the Netflix-distributed version of the series.^[54] In 2018, it was announced Peaky Blinders would be moved from its original broadcast channel, BBC Two, to BBC One.^[55]