Credit to the BBC for commissioning and then sticking by their 1920’s based very British gangster series ‘The Peaky Blinders’
Imagine sitting at the commissioning meeting and the producers having to begin their pitch by explaining how they came by the title. – How it comes from the name of the Birmingham gang that acquired a reputation for using a razor blade hidden In the ‘peak’ of their caps, and how, in vicious street fights. They would use the blade to slash opponents.
You might expect that in these politically correct times, at this point most commissioning execs, would make a polite excuse and withdraw. but wisely they stuck by the producers, and here we are with season two just finished and an eager audience crying out for a date for the next instalment.
When you think of the BBC’s drama output, a 1920’s Birmingham street gang isn’t a natural fit. But such us the quality of the storyline and it’s originality, it attracted a Stellar cast. The star of Jurasic Park Sam Neil, and a pair of Batman villains Ciilian Murphy and Tom Hardy give the series it’s Hollywood edge. Neil in particular brings real menace to his role as Major Campbell the shadowy police officer.
But it’s Murphy as the Machiavellian Tommy Shelby who holds the series together. Set against the backdrop of the end of the First World War and the beginnings of the troubles in Ireland. It’s Shelby who fights to hold his family and it’s ‘businesses’ together. Scarred by the war but emboldened by his survival of it. The story revolves around Tommy’s plans for the future and every gangsters dream, to make their business ‘legit’
As the Shelby empire has grown so has Tommy’s ambition. Plans to expand the family empire into London gave the script writers the opportunity to introduce some new characters. And none bigger badder or madder, than ‘Alfie Solomon’ played by Hardy. He was an inspired choice. An over the top performance that added another level of violence to an already blood soaked storyline.
Gangs seperated along racial and ethnic divides where a theme of the series the Catholic IRA, The Shelby Gypsy connections and the Italians and the Jews who ran London.
Against this melting pot of crime, a corrupt police service paid lip service to the highest bidders. Whilst Neil’s Major Cambell was as viscious and violent as any of the criminals, his intentions had its own corrupt authenticity. But in the end even he divided his loyalties along sectarian lines, with his aligance to the Protestant Red hand of Ulster.
The series had the murder count of any of its Hollywood counterparts The Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire, but upped the graphic death rate in this series.
The producers haven’t pandered to an international audience and all the characters adopt accents particular to their heritage. From the broad ‘black country’ accent of the Shelby clan. To Major Campbell’s broad Northern Irish brogue.
It’s been a sumptuous production that deserves all its applause. But with the characters all established now, the problem for the writers is how they take the series forward for a third instalment. The cast as much in demand for the big screen as their work on the Blinders, and assembling a cast of this quality could be problematic.
Like so many series that end leaving us wanting more, We’ve become accustomed to rushed new episodes to meet demand. Producers fall into the ‘casualty’ scenario the BBC medical drama where episodes become formulaic and predictable. What was fresh and original had becomes stale and uninspired.
A Series like ‘The Peaky Blinders’ has introduced us to a whole new genre of british gangster. We have until now associated that era with American Criminals such as Al Capone. In Thomas Shelby we have our own gangster number one.
The writers now have to pull off the trick of keeping the originality of the series and the freshness of the story lines, no easy task, but we live in hope and await the difficult third series with baited breathe.
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