10 BehindTheScenes Facts About Peaky Blinders

10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Peaky Blinders

A lot of work behind the scenes goes into making a crime drama like Peaky Blinders. Just ask star Cillian Murphy and creator Stephen Knight.

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A lot of care and effort goes into making a crime drama as distinct as Peaky Blinders, with its attention to period detail and emphasis on recreating 1920s Birmingham just as it was during its industrial height. Following the fictional Shelby family as it rises through the ranks of the British social elite means actors must perfect accents and delivery, and building an empire of profiteering, bootlegging, and horse-betting means researching stories of the real people who made their wealth in criminal enterprises.

The hustle and bustle of suavely-dressed street gangs are overshadowed only by the commotion of filming the show. Each season’s production takes place over an average of four months and involves everything from star Cillian Murphy smoking a staggering amount of cigarettes to creator Stephen Knight taking his cues from Western movies. Behind the scenes of Peaky Blinders proves almost as exciting as the show itself.

A Lot Of Time And Care Went Into Those Haircuts

Aside from their stylish clothing (including razor-blade hat brims), one of the most striking details about Peaky Blinders’ costumes and physical aesthetic of the gang is their haircuts. According to a YouTube interview with hair and makeup artist Loz Schiavo, dozens of photographs of men from the early 20th century were reviewed to select the strongest cut.

By basing the haircuts on real people, they add an element of realism and authenticity, but several of the men (including star Cillian Murphy) didn’t think they could pull it off. The haircuts have been in-demand among fans ever since the series premiered.

Cillian Murphy Smoked 1,000 Cigarettes In A Single Season

A three-piece tweed suit, a newsboy cap, a closely shaved haircut, and a dangling cigarette are all essential to fully capture the titular gang’s look and one of the best costumes on Peaky Blinders. Looking suave while smoking adds to the aura of the series, so the stars smoke like chimneys every season.

According to Esquire, it’s estimated that Cillian Murphy smoked 1,000 cigarettes one season alone. Fortunately, such cigarettes are provided by the prop department and made from herbs these days, so they don’t contain any harmful carcinogens.

Episodes Are Based On Stories From Stephen Knight’s Childhood

In an interview breaking down his most iconic characters for GQ, Cillian Murphy explains how Steve Knight, the creator and writer for Peaky Blinders delights in coming up with plots for each season. The process, according to the Irish actor, is so easy it “flows like water.”

The reason for this is because Knight came of age in Birmingham, where the blinders are based and grew up hearing stories about the roving, smartly dressed street gangs from his neighbors, parents, and grandparents. Every series plotline, no matter how outlandish, has some basis in truth.

Sam Neill Got Liam Neeson And Jason Nesbitt To Help Him With His Accent

The major antagonist of Tommy Shelby in the first two seasons of the series, Inspector Campbell is a police chief from Belfast who is famous for his thoroughly ruthless dealings with petty hoodlums and gangsters. A remorseless man of dubious morality himself, he’s played by the supremely likable Sam Neill, who uses his inherent charm to make a truly diabolical villain.

Neill hails from New Zealand, but his family descends spirit merchants dating back to Northern Ireland in 1861. As he told the BBC, he needed a believable accent from Belfast that wasn’t “too strong” so he could be understood by American audiences, so he enlisted the help of his friends Jason Nesbitt and Liam Neeson to perfect it.

Cillian Murphy Assumed Tommy Shelby Would Die

In the same interview for GQ, Cillian Murphy goes on to say that because Tommy Shelby is unafraid of death after his time in the trenches of WWI, and almost welcomes it as a release, he’s braver than his foes. In the Season 2 finale, when Tommy nearly dies, Murphy assumed it would be the end of the infamous crime boss when he read his script.

In many ways, series like Game of Thrones have made viewers almost accustomed to seeing heroes die unexpectedly. Without Tommy Shelby however, Peaky Blinders would lose a large part of what makes it must-see television, especially as Murphy’s character has become its central figure.

Peaky Blinders Was Meant To Contrast Upper-Class British Period Dramas

Appearing on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, Cillian Murphy describes Peaky Blinders as a working-class drama with something to prove because “Britain’s upper class has been so well represented.” In the pantheon of period dramas, British movies and television are often unmatched, but they do often focus on high society.

By showing what life was like for the working class in one of the biggest industrial hubs in Europe at the turn of the 20th century, viewers used to typical British period dramas get a unique perspective that hasn’t been given proper attention before. Murphy goes on to say that in America “the working class are mythologized” with lots of gangster series like Boardwalk Empire and movies by directors like Martin Scorcese.

John Shelby And Michael Gray Are Related

The Shelby family enjoy a close bond and its members are loyal to each other through thick and thin, but who knew that some of the actors in its inner circle were related in real life? As it turns out Joe Cole, who plays John Shelby on the series, also happens to be related to Finn Cole, who plays Michael Gray.

The pair starred in the movie Offender before Joe Cole got the part of John Shelby in Peaky Blinders, and his brother Finn joined him a few years later. As cousins, they two appear mistrustful of one another, especially given Michael’s ambitions, which is even more impressive considering the two actors have grown up together all their lives.

Alfie Solomons And May Carleton Are Married

Though the characters Alfie Solomons and May Carleton come from completely different backgrounds, actors Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley are married outside of the series. The pair first met in 2009 on the set of the period drama Wuthering Heights, featuring Tom Hardy in the often forgotten role of tortured antihero Heathcliff, and Riley as the focus of his obsessive love, Katherine.

Alfie and May are both characters introduced in the second season of Peaky Blinders, stealing the show as a Jewish crime boss and a racehorse owner recently widowed, and both only appear until the fourth season.

Peaky Blinders Is Based On Westerns

Speaking with History Extra, creator and head writer Stephen Knight explains that while America mythologizes working-class people and revels in stories about cowboys taming the frontier, there aren’t the same sort of revered stories in Britain, except those surrounding “knights in armor”, which too often factor in nobility and the landed gentry.

So if Peaky Blinders appears to have a Western vibe, that’s intentional, from the very opening scene when Knight decided Tommy Shelby should “ride into town” just like every lone cowboy hero in a Western movie. He was desirous for Birmingham to have the same lawlessness as the Wild West, while at the same time capturing the sense of opportunity and the enterprising spirit of its inhabitants.

Jack Rowan Was A Real Boxer

Before he played the part of boxer Bonnie Gold in the series, actor Jack Rowan was an amateur boxer himself. According to i-D, he won 18 out of 27 bought in his teens. He never expected that he’d be using the same mouth guard he used in the real ring to play a 20th-century boxer in a fictional one.

Though he didn’t have a very long character arc, the young fighter joined the blinders in 1926 and became a fan favorite along with his father, infamous assassin Aberama. Unfortunately, Bonnie was used to send a message to the Shelby’s by a rival gang, and the actor’s boxing skills were no longer necessary.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/peaky-blingers-behind-the-scenes-facts/

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