Birmingham's real Peaky Blinders - BBC News BBC News By Michael Bradley BBC News, West Midlands 12 September 2013 Read more about sharing. Close share panel Image caption Records of the gang members and their crimes are preserved in Sparkhill's West Midlands Police Museum The dank, slum streets are ruled by gangs made up of hundreds of youths armed with knives, razor blades and hammers. Murders are rife. Robberies, thefts and riots are a daily occurrence at the hands of young gang members who hold the entire city in a fearful, bloody grip. Police do their best to control the daily nightmare but are vastly outnumbered. Welcome to Birmingham 1919. Now - nearly a century later - a six-part drama series explores the lives of the members of the city's most notorious gang from a century ago - the Peaky Blinders. Their chilling nickname was derived from the razor blades carefully stitched into the front of their caps which could be used to blind their victims. But who were the gangs that inspired the BBC Two series, and why were they formed?

'Sloggers and brawlers' From as early as the 1870s, inner-city Birmingham streets were filled with overcrowded slums and extreme poverty - and the lure of crime was a pull for some. It soon led to an eruption of gangs and violence across the city. Image caption The original Peaky Blinders - some of whom are pictured here - are to be portrayed in BBC2's new six-part series Battles to "own" areas such as Small Heath and Cheapside broke out. These saw hundreds of youths fighting - sometimes to the death - in mass brawls that lasted for hours. The most prominent - and ruthless - of these early gangs were known as the Sloggers, or the Cheapside Slogging Gang. For 30 years they ruled the city's streets with protection rackets and violence. Led by John Adrian, and his trusted lieutenant James Grinrod, they began their reign of terror in about 1870. Their weapon of choice was a heavy-buckled belt used to pummel male and female victims of all ages into submission.

Image caption The Garrison Lane slums were home to Henry Lightfoot; one of the first to be referred to as a "Peaky Blinder" An 1872 Birmingham Mail report records a typical example of the Sloggers' antics. It states how "400 roughs brought indiscriminate violence to the Cheapside area, attacking and stealing". "A small body of police were sent to deal with the Slogging Gang," the report continues. "Officers made three arrests, including two very poor youths of no fixed home." Notorious Sloggers included Aston's Simpson Brothers and George "Cloggy" Williams, whose notoriety grew quickly after the 1897 killing of PC George Snipe . Many rival gangs formed, and one in particular soon became the most fearful force on the city's streets. The Peaky Blinders as a gang were as deliberately stylish as they were violent. 'Blinders and blindness' Historian David Cross, of the West Midlands Police Museum in Sparkhill, is curator of the country's largest collection of prisoner photographs. The collection contains court papers which document the exploits of the city's bygone gangs.

"If you think of your grandfather's cap in those days, then it would have had a very hard peak," said Mr Cross. "They used their hats with razor blades sewn in to rob people. That's what a Peaky Blinder was. "When they hit someone or headbutted someone on the nose while wearing one, it would cause their victim temporary blindness." Image caption The Peaky Blinders members included Stephen McHickie, Tom Gilbert, Harry Fowler and Ernest Bayles Image caption Many of the violent gang members were children, such as 12-year-old Charles Lambourne Image caption Details of the Peaky Blinders' crimes are preserved in the West Midlands Police Museum Victims were chosen indiscriminately, regardless of whether they were male or female, young or old, rich or poor, according to Mr Cross. "They would target anybody who looked vulnerable, or who did not look strong or fit," he said. "Anything that could be taken, they would take it." Their carefully stylised image was an attempt to bring a touch of class to their actions, Mr Cross said, as well as making them stand out from their rivals.

Peaky Blinders would wear a silk scarf tied around their necks, bell-bottom trousers and a flat, bladed cap tilted to one side. Image caption The new six-part BBC2 drama series charts the lives of some of the most notorious Peaky Blinders Children, in the same desperate situation as adults, were also recruited regularly into the ranks. Prominent members included 13-year-old David Taylor, jailed for carrying a gun, and 12-year-old Charles Lambourne. Older gang members ruled the roost, such as Stephen McHickie, Harry Fowler and Tom Gilbert. Members were loyal - and local legends. It was often impossible to tell how many fighters in a gang were actually Peaky Blinders, and how many were claiming to be simply for the status it gave them. As families began to move out of the city centre in the early 20th Century, the rule of the gangs started to decline. As areas such as Small Heath grew, so did the physical distance between the rivals. Most of the once-feared names of the gang members are now forgotten, but their reputations are cemented in Birmingham's folklore.

Peaky Blinders is on BBC Two at 2100 BST and will be available on the iPlayer after. Peaky Blinders 2, BBC2, with Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Sam Neill, Tom Hardy PREVIEW - CrimeTimePreview CrimeTimePreview You are here: Home / Peaky Blinders 2, BBC2, with Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Sam Neill, Tom Hardy PREVIEW Peaky Blinders 2, BBC2, with Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, Sam Neill, Tom Hardy PREVIEW Flash mob – Arthur, Tommy and Joe paint London town red. Pics: BBC Rating: ★★★★ BBC2: starts Thursday, 2 October, 9pm Story: As the 1920s begin to roar, business is booming for Birmingham’s Peaky Blinders gang. Shelby starts to expand his legal and illegal operations, with sights set on the race tracks of the South. The only problem is, the London Jewish and Italian gangs are in his way… PEAKY BLINDERS has muscled in on new turf in British television.

The Beeb and ITV have rarely ever ventured into the full-blown gangster drama. Boom town – the new series gets an explosive start BSkyB gave it a go with a couple of nasty series based on Martina Cole’s novels (Tom Hardy was particularly good in 2009’s The Take), but the mainstream broadcasters have generally stuck with heist jobs (Widows, Inside Men), cop series (The Sweeney, New Tricks, Lewis, Scott & Bailey etc etc), cosies (Poirot, Father Brown), serial killers (The Widower, The Fall) and whodunits (Broadchurch, Murder on the Home Front). When they have featured gangsters, such as in C4’s The Fear in 2012, starring Peter Mullan, it’s all a bit small scale. There have been some classic Brit gangster movies, of course – Brighton Rock, The Long Good Friday, Get Carter, Sexy Beast for starters – but TV has largely steered clear. England’s little-known gangster past Why is that?

While Britain has never had the wild illegality of Prohibition or the industrial scale Gomorrah to see how enormously international the Neapolitan crime empire is), there have been major crime groups here that have somehow never sparked a major TV drama. Charlotte Riley is the aristocrat May Carleton criminality of the Mafia or the Camorra (read Roberto Saviano’s terrifying Oddly enough, one of the few UK television series to get into gang culture was also set in Peaky Blinders‘ rarely portrayed hometown of Birmingham. The BBC’s Gangsters, starring Maurice Colbourne and Saeed Jaffrey, ran for two series from 1976 and featured the city’s multi-cultural criminal community, along with strong violence and bold storytelling. But even so, there’s never been a series made here that has leant as heavily on the American gangster tradition as Peaky Blinders does. Creator Steven Knight has drawn on the stories he’d heard as a lad about Birmingham’s post-First World War gangs with razors in the peaks of their flat caps – and conjured up England’s little known gangster past. Tommy Shelby’s face-off with London’s gangs This second series has really found its feet, too.

The action steps into the 1920s as Tommy Shelby Tension between Aunt Polly and Tommy plans to boldly break into the lucrative illegal race-track gambling in the South, currently run by London’s vicious Jewish and Italian gangs. It’s a brash gamble that Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) and younger brother John Shelby (Joe Cole) are concerned about. With everything going so well in Brum, why stick their neck out? In fact, problems are mounting for Tommy in his hometown, with Irish terrorists causing him a lot of grief and Sam Neill’s virtually psychotic Chief Inspector Campbell back gunning for him. All of which makes Tommy’s Southern move particularly risky. Brum is grittier than Downton Abbey So many British TV dramas milk a soppy faux past to give the action a vintage feel. Father Brown, WPC 56, Murder on the Home Front, Downton Abbey – all have a period gloss because TV honchos obviously think viewers are seduced by sham history. Peaky Blinders, in contrast, has soot under its fingernails. Steve Knight takes the history seriously and has pored over old editions of the Birmingham Evening Mail and books about the era to research his story.

It is an absorbing portrait of that time, much as Boardwalk Empire, currently in its last series on Sky Atlantic, is also a fascinating window on Prohibition. The black streets of industrial Birmingham with their blast furnaces and the throb of machinery on the soundtrack create a suitably hellish vision of the city. Big shot – Tom Hardy as gang boss Alfie Solomons Tom Hardy as gang leader Alfie Solomons Cillian Murphy is again on good form as the emotionally dead soldier turned gang leader. The sets and the cast are bigger and the raucous soundtrack – everything from Nick Cave to Johnny Cash – is pounding as in series one. The opener finishes with a particularly brutal finale that poses a powder keg of dramatic possibilities for the ensuing episodes. And with Tom Hardy – superb in Knight’s fine claustrophobic movie Locke and whose casting is a coup for a BBC drama – about to arrive in episode two as gangster Alfie Solomons, Peaky Blinders should become cult viewing this time round.

Cast: Cillian Murphy Thomas Shelby, Sam Neill Chester Campbell, Helen McCrory Aunt Polly, Paul Anderson Arthur Shelby, Joe Cole John Shelby, Charlotte Riley May Carleton, Tom Hardy Alfie Solomons, Noah Taylor Sabini Check out these links… Like Loading... Related Join our Friends email list * indicates required CRIME AUTHOR INTERVIEWS Welcome to CrimeTimePreview‘s series of interviews with authors about their TV and reading habits. • PETER ROBINSON is the author of the Inspector Banks novels – the fourth series of which has just started on ITV (see the post below). A multi-award-winning novelist, he was born in Yorkshire and now divides his time between Toronto and Richmond, North Yorkshire. We brought him in for questioning, and here he makes a full and frank confession of his criminal viewing and reading habits… • ADRIAN McKINTY is one of the most acclaimed new crime writers from across the Irish Sea, routinely mentioned alongside Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly.

His series of edgy thrillers about Catholic detective Sean Duffy and the character’s exploits while working in the none-too-comfortable surroundings of the RUC during the Troubles, and later MI5, are developing a big following and have been hugely praised by reviewers. These include The Cold Cold Ground, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone and Gun Street Girl. Here, he reveals his favourite TV shows, characters and authors… • WE’VE dragged one of Britain’s major crime practitioners in for questioning. Multi-award-winning IAN RANKIN is the creator of Edinburgh detective inspector John Rebus, the tenacious but chippy hero of bestsellers such as Black and Blue, Fleshmarket Close and Resurrection Men. The character was turned into a series by STV with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott portraying him. ITV filmed Rankin’s standalone novel Doors Open in 2012. After retiring Rebus in Exit Music, he introduced his readers to Malcolm Fox in The Complaints, before bringing Rebus back in 2012’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave. • Manchester-based crime writer CATH STAINCLIFFE is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities.

She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin. • Hauled in for questioning is British crime writer and Guardian reviewer LAURA WILSON , who is currently working on her 10th novel. Laura, whose books include the DI Stratton series among other mysteries set in the recent past, talks about her TV and reading habits, from Cagney & Lacey to Agatha Christie… • ZOE SHARP wrote her first novel when she was 15. It was not until 2001, however, after she had tried her hand at jobs ranging from van driver to newspaper ad sales to motoring correspondent, that she finally publisher her breakout Charlie Fox novel Killer Instinct. Fox, the self-defence instructor with a shady military background, has proved hugely popular with readers through nine novels and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV.

We brought Zoë in for questioning to see who she would like to see playing Charlie on screen, and what TV shows tick the right boxes for her… • CrimeTimePreview apprehended SIMON KERNICK , one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers to grill him about his viewing proclivities. He arrived on the crime scene with his acclaimed novel The Business of Dying, a terrific story about a corrupt cop who moonlights as a hitman. His authentic thrillers are basedon research with members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Organised Crime Agency. He has just finished writing his latest book, which will be called Siege. • SOPHIE HANNAH, whose novel The Point of Rescue was recently turned into the drama Case Sensitive by ITV1, is the author of internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. CrimeTimePreview recently brought her in to be questioned about her addiction to Class A plotting on television… • Scottish author TONY BLACK , creator of Gus Dury in stories such as Gutted and Long Time Dead.

• Belfast crime writer SAM MILLAR , author of books such as The Redemption and the award-winning memoir On the Brinks. • Crime novelist PAULINE ROWSON , author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into CrimeTimePreview headquarters for questioning. • Texan crime novelist BILL CRIDER , author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery novels, talks about his favourite television and authors. • Award-winning British novelist ANN CLEEVES is a serial crime writer, with her collections including amateur sleuths George & Molly, Inspector Ramsay, the soon-to-be-televised Vera Stanhope and the recent Shetland Island Quartet (now a BBC1 series with Douglas Henshall). CrimeTimePreview pulls her in for questioning about her TV habits… • We brought thriller writer MATT HILTON into headquarters for questioning about his TV and reading activities. • ALINE TEMPLETON is the author of the series of novels about DI Marjory Fleming, set in Scotland. Her stand-alone mysteries include Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound and Shades of Death. She lives in Edinburgh.

She was brought into CrimeTimePreview HQ for questioning about her TV viewing habits… • Award-winning crime author STEPHEN BOOTH has written 11 mysteries involving the detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry with a distinctive, sometimes menacing Peak District setting. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years before publishing the first Cooper/Fry novel, Black Dog, in 2000. CrimeTimePreview quizzed him about his criminal viewing activities… Share this: Peaky Blinders - Visit Birmingham Visit Birmingham Print this page PDF of this page Email this page Share: Peaky Blinders is an epic gangster drama set in the lawless streets of post-war Birmingham on the cusp of the 1920s. Watch our exclusive interview with Peaky Blinders' creator Steven Knight, who tells Visit Birmingham about how his family’s city roots inspired the new BBC2 drama. Click here for a full transcript of our chat. Britain in 1919 is a tumultuous mix of despair and hedonism, a nation cleaned out by the extravagances of the Great War. Returning soldiers, newly-minted revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival in an industrial landscape gripped by economic upheaval.

Thomas Shelby and his family run the most feared and powerful local gang, the Peaky Blinders. Named for their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, they make money from illegal betting, protection and the black market. But Tommy’s ambitions go beyond running the streets, and when a crate of guns goes missing from an arms factory, he recognises an opportunity to move up in the world. Crime pays, but business pays better. As rival gangs, Communist revolutionaries and IRA Fenians descend on Small Heath in pursuit of the weapons; Winston Churchill dispatches a ruthless police chief from Belfast to impose order on an increasingly lawless city and recover the guns. Peaky Blinders is a dazzling picture of England taken directly from the pages of our secret history. They will now burst into life in a vibrant evocation of a hedonistic age. The Shelbys will be a family to be reckoned with.

Peaky Blinders stars Cillian Murphy (The Dark Knight Rises, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, 28 Days Later), Sam Neill (The Tudors, The Piano, Jurassic Park), Helen McCrory (The Special Relationship, Harry Potter), Paul Anderson (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Sweeney), Anabelle Wallis (The Tudors, W.E) and Sophie Rundle (Great Expectations, Merlin) ; On Peaky Blinders – Musings gcgosling On Peaky Blinders As we eagerly await the third series of Peaky Blinders, returning to BBC2 in May, it’s a good time to take a look back over what historians who study its period and its themes have made of the hit drama series. Questions of authenticity are bound to come up when thinking about any historical drama, with names, dates and places all queried, alongisde the accuracy of the accents. In this vein, the Birmingham historian Carl Chinn did some digging and made what might appear a damning discovery: “there were no peaky blinders in Birmingham in the 1920s and 1930s”. The gang did exist, but press reports date them earlier.

One “murderous assault” in 1890 followed the mocking of a teetotaller for drinking ginger beer in the Rainbow on Adderley Street in Digbeth ( which is still a pub today ). He was left hospitalised for three weeks with a fractured skull. A letter to the local paper claimed it to be the work of the “Small Heath Peaky Blinders”. Another incident in 1895 saw two men sentenced to prison and hard labour for beating the two constables who were called to the long-gone Stag and Pheasant (on the corner Bromsgrove Street and Pershore Street), to evict 20 to 30 Peaky Blinders. However, there were no such reports as late as the 1920s. What remained was only their “unsavoury reputation”. Reports of their fights also suggest the fiction has parted from fact. Carl Chinn notes that reports of their fights referred to “metal-tipped boots, stones, belt buckles and sometimes knives”. They also fought with “life preservers – a short, weighted club like a small truncheon or cosh”.

But not with razor-blades sown into the peaks of their caps, something that would have been cumbersome and time-consuming in a fight. Instead, he suggests, the name derived from the simple fact they were known for sporting these flat caps with stiff peaks, in place of the billycock style of bowler hat that was more popular with working-class men until the late-1880s. Similarly, crime historian Heather Shore worked through the fact and fiction – rejecting pedantry while acknowledging that the series collects historical episodes from various times and places. While the ‘Racehorse Wars’ around the illegal betting scene and the figure of Billy Kimber would have been found in 1920s Birmingham, we must look a little later to Sheffield and then Glasgow to find a figure like Sam Neill’s Chief Constable, leading the charge against the city’s gangs. More generally, the ‘gangster’ culture the show presents is more something to associate with the 1930s than the 1920s – a cultural import from America most notably after the 1929 St Valentine’s Day Massacre. The gang culture of this time was more one of hooliganism.

She is unsurprised by this, however, since “tropes and stereotypes honed through decades of intertwined culture and the ‘factual’ reporting of organised crime have retrospectively shaped the way we understand historical ‘gang’ culture”. But how much do these inaccuracies or misappropriations matter? Certainly they matter little for the programme as a drama. But do they undermine the ability of the programme to represent something truthful about British life in the 1920s? To my mind, the show’s characteristic bleakness was contrasted well when the second series saw the Shelby boys move on London, with its more glamorous clubs and jazz scene. If this was a production in the style of Andrew Davies (the screen-writer who brought us Pride and Prejudice , not the historian who brought us Gangs of Manchester ), the very first episode might have begun with the night-life of the Roaring Twenties, and panned across town to the dirtier, harder lives of our protagonists. Despite being chronologically and geographically warped, it would have set up the usual dichotomy: the shock reveal that it wasn’t all Bright Young Things.

Instead, by waiting until the second series to show this side of the period, Peaky Blinders offers us a suffocating, all-encompassing and hard world. One of uncertainty and anxiety that reflects some of the most striking work of recent historians on Britain as a ‘shell-shocked’ nation . For Jessica Meyer , historian of the First World War, it was these long and dark shadows of the war that caught her attention, coming to the fore in the climax of the first series and then being a recurring theme in the second. She was struck by references, perhaps unintentional, to Seigfried Sassoon casting his medal into the Mersey, to Wilfred Owen’s Strange Meeting, and even to Alan Seeger’s less well-known I Have a Rendezvous with Death. This echoes the warning of political historian Steven Fielding that politicians, seeking to challenge young people’s negative views of the First World War in favour of a flag-waving centenary, should be less concerned with Blackadder and more with Peaky Blinders. The resonance of war poetry rather than military history reminded Meyer “there are emotional as well as historic truths to be acknowledged”.

Evan Smith has compared how the issues of the day – from damaged men and their families to the outsider status of the Irish, as well as the place of women, crime and radical politics in a time of change – have been portrayed in Peaky Blinders and across the pond in Boardwalk Empire. And the way they’re handled in Peaky Blinders, as Matt Houbrook has commented, provocatively captures something of the “emotional dynamics” of everyday working-class life, and the broader dislocation of the time. What impressed him was the way the series evoked the era. So, the usual fussing about historical accuracy aside, historians have found a great deal of historical truth in the first two seasons of Peaky Blinders. Even if they were less taken with the news that the series had inspired a new “completely immersive” bar and restaurant, with fine-dining accompanied by cocktails, jazz and gambling. I guess you’d need to decide whether you were headed upstairs with the Bright Young Things or downstairs with the working-class patrons before choosing what to wear from the ‘dress-up box’.

Although claiming to be based on the true life characters and the TV show, The Tick Tack Club was not opened in Birmingham’s Small Heath area, but in a secret location under London Bridge. Something of a spin-off, the premise is Billy Kimber moving south and setting up a new gang – The Elephant Boys – in order to take on the north London gangs’ control of the capital’s racecourse betting. From Matt Houlbrook it earned the hashtag #badhistory for its “very many levels of missing the point”, while fellow historian Mark Williams suggested the evening might end “in an alcohol-fuelled bloodbath powered by criminal indignation and ironic comment on 1920s social change”. Quite. Novelty spin-off events aside, Peaky Blinders has made a thoughtful and relevant fictionalised contribution to how we make sense of Britain between the wars. And we’re likely to have plenty more to discuss, with the show’s writer, Stephen Knight , saying he’d like to end the final series with the first air raid siren of World War Two.

Birmingham TV drama Peaky Blinders to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival - Birmingham Mail What's On Birmingham TV drama Peaky Blinders to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival BBC2 series set in crime-ridden streets of post-war Birmingham stars Cillian Murphy as gang leader and Sam Neill as police chief out to stop him Share Actors Joe Cole, Cillian Murphy and Paul Anderson filming Peaky Blinders at the Black Country Living Museum. Photo: Robert Viglasky Share Get What's On updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email Upcoming BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders is to premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Set in 1919 in the poor, crime-ridden neighbourhoods of post-war Birmingham, the series began filming in Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool in September 2012. The gangster drama was created by Steven Knight - writer of the films Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises and Hummingbird - and will air in autumn 2013. The first two episodes of the six-part series will premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Tuesday, June 25.

Members of the cast will be in attendance, along with Steven Knight and director Otto Bathurst (Black Mirror, Criminal Justice). Cillian Murphy plays Thomas Shelby, leader of the most feared and powerful local gang, the Peaky Blinders. Named for their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, they make money from illegal betting, protection and the black market. But when a crate of guns goes missing from an arms factory, their battle-hardened leader recognises an opportunity to move up in the world. As rival gangs, Communist revolutionaries and IRA Fenians descend on Small Heath in pursuit of the weapons, Winston Churchill despatches a ruthless police chief from Belfast (Sam Neill) to impose order on an increasingly lawless city and recover the guns. The series also stars Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, Charlie Creed-Miles, Iddo Goldberg, Annabelle Wallis, Joe Cole, Sophie Rundle, and poet Benjamin Zephaniah. A publicist for the drama said: "This is set to bring a fresh new cinematic world to the small screen. "Peaky Blinders is a dazzling picture of England taken directly from the pages of our secret history.

They will now burst into life in a vibrant evocation of a hedonistic age. The Shelbys will be a family to be reckoned with." Like us on Facebook Birmingham Archives - CrimeTimePreview CrimeTimePreview Flash mob – Arthur, Tommy and Joe paint London town red. Pics: BBC Rating: ★★★★ BBC2: starts Thursday, 2 October, 9pm Story: As the 1920s begin to roar, business is booming for Birmingham’s Peaky Blinders gang. Shelby starts to expand his legal and illegal operations, with sights set on the race tracks of the South. The only problem is, the London Jewish and Italian gangs are in his way… PEAKY BLINDERS has muscled in on new turf in British television. The Beeb and ITV have rarely ever ventured into the full-blown gangster drama.

Boom town – the new series gets an explosive start BSkyB gave it a go with a couple of nasty series based on Martina Cole’s novels (Tom Hardy was particularly good in 2009’s The Take), but the mainstream broadcasters have generally stuck with heist jobs (Widows, Inside Men), cop series (The Sweeney, New Tricks, Lewis, Scott & Bailey etc etc), cosies (Poirot, Father Brown), serial killers (The Widower, The Fall) and whodunits (Broadchurch, Murder on the Home Front). When they have featured gangsters, such as in C4’s The Fear in 2012, starring Peter Mullan, it’s all a bit small scale. There have been some classic Brit gangster movies, of course – Brighton Rock, The Long Good Friday, Get Carter, Sexy Beast for starters – but TV has largely steered clear. England’s little-known gangster past Why is that? While Britain has never had the wild illegality of Prohibition or the industrial scale Gomorrah to see how enormously international the Neapolitan crime empire is), there have been major crime groups here that have somehow never sparked a major TV drama.

Charlotte Riley is the aristocrat May Carleton criminality of the Mafia or the Camorra (read Roberto Saviano’s terrifying Oddly enough, one of the few UK television series to get into gang culture was also set in Peaky Blinders‘ rarely portrayed hometown of Birmingham. The BBC’s Gangsters, starring Maurice Colbourne and Saeed Jaffrey, ran for two series from 1976 and featured the city’s multi-cultural criminal community, along with strong violence and bold storytelling. But even so, there’s never been a series made here that has leant as heavily on the American gangster tradition as Peaky Blinders does. Creator Steven Knight has drawn on the stories he’d heard as a lad about Birmingham’s post-First World War gangs with razors in the peaks of their flat caps – and conjured up England’s little known gangster past. Tommy Shelby’s face-off with London’s gangs This second series has really found its feet, too. The action steps into the 1920s as Tommy Shelby Tension between Aunt Polly and Tommy plans to boldly break into the lucrative illegal race-track gambling in the South, currently run by London’s vicious Jewish and Italian gangs.

It’s a brash gamble that Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) and younger brother John Shelby (Joe Cole) are concerned about. With everything going so well in Brum, why stick their neck out? In fact, problems are mounting for Tommy in his hometown, with Irish terrorists causing him a lot of grief and Sam Neill’s virtually psychotic Chief Inspector Campbell back gunning for him. All of which makes Tommy’s Southern move particularly risky. Brum is grittier than Downton Abbey So many British TV dramas milk a soppy faux past to give the action a vintage feel. Father Brown, WPC 56, Murder on the Home Front, Downton Abbey – all have a period gloss because TV honchos obviously think viewers are seduced by sham history. Peaky Blinders, in contrast, has soot under its fingernails. Steve Knight takes the history seriously and has pored over old editions of the Birmingham Evening Mail and books about the era to research his story. It is an absorbing portrait of that time, much as Boardwalk Empire, currently in its last series on Sky Atlantic, is also a fascinating window on Prohibition.

The black streets of industrial Birmingham with their blast furnaces and the throb of machinery on the soundtrack create a suitably hellish vision of the city. Big shot – Tom Hardy as gang boss Alfie Solomons Tom Hardy as gang leader Alfie Solomons Cillian Murphy is again on good form as the emotionally dead soldier turned gang leader. The sets and the cast are bigger and the raucous soundtrack – everything from Nick Cave to Johnny Cash – is pounding as in series one. The opener finishes with a particularly brutal finale that poses a powder keg of dramatic possibilities for the ensuing episodes. And with Tom Hardy – superb in Knight’s fine claustrophobic movie Locke and whose casting is a coup for a BBC drama – about to arrive in episode two as gangster Alfie Solomons, Peaky Blinders should become cult viewing this time round. Cast: Cillian Murphy Thomas Shelby, Sam Neill Chester Campbell, Helen McCrory Aunt Polly, Paul Anderson Arthur Shelby, Joe Cole John Shelby, Charlotte Riley May Carleton, Tom Hardy Alfie Solomons, Noah Taylor Sabini Check out these links… Like this: Like Loading... Mob-handed – Thomas Shelby and the Peaky Blinders.

Pics BBC BBC2, 2013- ‘You don’t parley when you’re on the back foot. We’ll strike a blow first.’ –Tommy Shelby Cillian Murphy, Sam Neill, Helen McCrory, Annabelle Wallis, Iddo Goldberg, Paul Anderson, Sophie Rundle, Andy Nyman, Benjamin Zephaniah Identikit: A gangster family clan in post-First World War Birmingham, England, are led by Tommy Shelby in a bid to expand their empire. 2013 saw three exceptional crime dramas produced by UK television – Broadchurch, The Fall and Peaky Blinders. Like the first two, the success of this epic story is down to it being the inspired project of one writer with what seems to be little buggering about from know-nothings in management. Chris Chibnall and Allan Cubitt were the masterminds behind Broadchurch and The Fall respectively, while Steve Knight based Peaky Blinders on knowledge of his hometown, Birmingham, and family tales he had heard about the Peaky Blinders, gangsters of the 1920s famed for the razors hidden in the peaks of their flat caps.

‘It’s based on real events,’ he says. ‘My parents, particularly my dad, had these tantalising memories of from when he was nine- or 10-years-old of these people. They were incredibly well-dressed, they were incredibly powerful, they had a lot of money in an area where no one had money and… they were gangsters.’ From these recollections emerges a series that is a world away from most UK crime series, with their detective/sidekicks, serial killers and cosy settings. This is gangster tale heavily influenced by American productions from Once Upon a Time In America to Boardwalk Empire, down to the rock soundtrack (Nick Cave, the White Stripes, etc), the slo-mo sequences and the Roaring Twenties styles. Thomas Shelby is a decorated combatant from the trenches, Barmaid with a secret – Grace who has returned home damaged by his war experiences. He assumes control of the family’s crime empire of illegal bookmaking and protection, bypassing his elder brother Arthur and family matriarch Aunt Polly, who ran things during the war.

After Tommy takes charge of machine-guns stolen from the local BSA factory, the city is targeted by the government – and Winston Churchill – who fear the weapons may be used in an uprising, such is the level of post-war unrest. The brutal Chief Inspector Campbell (a menacing performance by Sam Neill) is summoned from Belfast to find the guns at all costs. The rivalries (particularly with gambling crime boss Billy Kimber), the lust (Tommy is lured by Irish spy Grace Burgess) and the family tensions (Tommy’s sister becomes pregnant by his one-time best friend) are played out well against the unforgettable recreation of industrial Birmingham, with its foundaries and soot and street braziers. The accents wobble, but Cillian Murphy is charismatic as Tommy, Helen McCrory has authority as Polly and Annabelle Wallis is intriguing as the beautiful but steely Grace. The cinematography is luscious, offering a vision of the period that isn’t twee window-dressing, but which instead reveals a genuine fascination for the political turmoil and social mores of a Birmingham largely forgotten (how refreshing to see Britain’s second biggest city in the spotlight). This is ambitious drama-making that is seen too seldom on play-it-safe British TV.

A second season is in the pipeline for 2014. Theme music: Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Classic episode: The story comes nicely to the boil in episode three, when Tommy’s wartime trauma is revealed (he was deployed in tunnelling under the Germans), and despite his cold exterior he seems to be warming to the woman sent to spy on him, Grace. Watercooler fact: New Zealander Sam Neill is particularly convincing with the difficult Ulster accent because he was actually born in Northern Ireland. Like this: Like Loading... The gang’s all here – the Peaky Blinders. Pics: BBC Rating: ★★★★½ BBC2: starts Thursday, 12 September, 9pm Story: Birmingham, 1919. Thomas Shelby is a war veteran, and head of feared gang, the Peaky Blinders, who make money from illegal betting, protection and the black market. However, when Tommy comes into possession of a crate of guns from the local arms factory, the government is alarmed and the stakes for the gang are raised dangerously high.

BRITISH GANGSTER mythology usually focuses on loudmouth Londoners in sharp suits, with a bit of Newcastle and Brighton thrown in, as caught in films such as The Krays, The Long Good Friday, Brighton Rock and Get Carter. For 30 years, ITV’s Taggart chipped in for Scotland. But Birmingham? Perhaps the curse of Crossroads lingers, but Brum is the least fashionable city on UK telly. Peaky Blinders dares to go there, portraying a violent period for the second city. New sheriff in town – Campbell It’s a new gangster chapter, and it’s a bit of a shock to see a Brit series with strong undertones ofAmerican classics such as Once Upon a Time in America, Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire. Cillian Murphy is gang leader Tommy Like the HBO series, Peaky Blinders is set immediately after the First World War, when many men – including our anti-hero Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) – are still suffering from the trauma of conflict.

The difference for Shelby is that he is a leading force in the Peaky Blinders, so-called because Campbell ‘interrogates’ Arthur Shelby they keep razors in their flat-cap peaks, and in the post-war turmoil, Tommy wants to increase his gang’s power. The recreation of the city as an industrial cauldron is terrific, with smoke and ash, and foundries illuminating the hectic streets. The fashions, the slo-mo entrance of ruthless Belfast copper Chief Inspector Campbell (Sam Neill), and the raucous electric blues soundtrack all give this six-parter a distinctly American feel. But the drama’s real power comes from the fact this is a personal project for writer and creator Steven Knight, a Birmingham native whose own family history inspired the story. Inspired by real family figures ‘It’s based on real events,’ says Steven, who also wrote the movies Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Tommy Shelby plays a dangerous game Promises. ‘My parents, particularly my dad, had these tantalising memories of from when he was nine or 10 years old of these people.

They were incredibly well dressed, they were incredibly powerful, they had a lot of money in an area where no one had money and… they were gangsters!’ As a child his mother was a bookies’ runner, carrying illegal bets to self-styled bookmakers. ‘And in one area of Birmingham it was organised and run by my Dad’s uncles – who were the Peaky Blinders.’ The opening episode starts with an almost surreal street scene in which Tommy performs a stunt with a Chinese woman, believed to be a witch, during which he blows red smoke into a horse’s face. This horse is going to run a race and the magic smoke is a scam to make the locals think it will make the Barmaid with a secret – Grace horse run faster and so is worth backing. Robbery gone wrong But Tommy is also involved in a robbery in which the stakes are far higher. The planned theft of motorcycles from the BSA plant goes awry when Tommy’s drunken gang accidentally steal machine guns instead. At a time when the streets are full of Irish Republican sympathisers, socialists and disgruntled unemployed former soldiers, Winston Churchill and the government fear that the munitions will be used in an uprising.

Aunt Polly warns Tommy to dump the guns Brutal Belfast copper Campbell is dispatched to Birmingham with his own band of Untouchables, specials who will circumvent the bent local force and ruthlessly root out whoever has the guns. Sam Neill as the righteous, psychotic Campbell Neill, with a good Ulster accent (the New Zealander was actually born in Omagh), is the show’s equivalent to Boardwalk Empire‘s Van Alden, a fire-breathing, puritanical zealot come to clean Birmingham. His methods are illegal and brutal. There is one corny scene in which beautiful Grace (Annabelle Wallis), sporting a hairstyle straight out Arthur after meeting Campbell of 2013, sings her way to a barmaid’s job in a pub where the punters enjoy spitting and fighting as much as drinking. But there are not many other duff notes. The performances are strong. Cillian Murphy has plenty of charisma as Tommy, and Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly, the gang’s matriarch, is very believable. Peaky Blinders packs a punch.

It is a distinctive new drama for British TV, full of conflict and feistiness, while taking us down a murky and rarely glimpsed alley of England’s criminal past. Cast: Cillian Murphy Tommy Shelby, Sam Neill C.I. Campbell, Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly Gray, Annabelle Wallis Grace Burgess, Iddo Goldberg Freddie Thorne, Paul Anderson Arthur Shelby, Sophie Rundle Ada Shelby, Andy Nyman Winston Churchill, Tommy Flanagan Arthur Senior, David Dawson Roberts Like this: Like Loading... Join our Friends email list * indicates required CRIME AUTHOR INTERVIEWS Welcome to CrimeTimePreview‘s series of interviews with authors about their TV and reading habits. • PETER ROBINSON is the author of the Inspector Banks novels – the fourth series of which has just started on ITV (see the post below). A multi-award-winning novelist, he was born in Yorkshire and now divides his time between Toronto and Richmond, North Yorkshire.

We brought him in for questioning, and here he makes a full and frank confession of his criminal viewing and reading habits… • ADRIAN McKINTY is one of the most acclaimed new crime writers from across the Irish Sea, routinely mentioned alongside Ken Bruen, Declan Hughes and John Connolly. His series of edgy thrillers about Catholic detective Sean Duffy and the character’s exploits while working in the none-too-comfortable surroundings of the RUC during the Troubles, and later MI5, are developing a big following and have been hugely praised by reviewers. These include The Cold Cold Ground, In the Morning I’ll Be Gone and Gun Street Girl. Here, he reveals his favourite TV shows, characters and authors… • WE’VE dragged one of Britain’s major crime practitioners in for questioning. Multi-award-winning IAN RANKIN is the creator of Edinburgh detective inspector John Rebus, the tenacious but chippy hero of bestsellers such as Black and Blue, Fleshmarket Close and Resurrection Men. The character was turned into a series by STV with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott portraying him. ITV filmed Rankin’s standalone novel Doors Open in 2012.

After retiring Rebus in Exit Music, he introduced his readers to Malcolm Fox in The Complaints, before bringing Rebus back in 2012’s Standing in Another Man’s Grave. • Manchester-based crime writer CATH STAINCLIFFE is interrogated below for evidence of her TV viewing and reading activities. She writes the novels based on the Scott & Bailey series, which stars Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones and is soon to return to ITV – with her latest book about the female detectives being Bleed Like Me. Cath is also the author of the Sal Kilkenny private eye stories and creator and scriptwriter of Blue Murder, which was on ITV and starred Caroline Quentin. • Hauled in for questioning is British crime writer and Guardian reviewer LAURA WILSON , who is currently working on her 10th novel. Laura, whose books include the DI Stratton series among other mysteries set in the recent past, talks about her TV and reading habits, from Cagney & Lacey to Agatha Christie… • ZOE SHARP wrote her first novel when she was 15.

It was not until 2001, however, after she had tried her hand at jobs ranging from van driver to newspaper ad sales to motoring correspondent, that she finally publisher her breakout Charlie Fox novel Killer Instinct. Fox, the self-defence instructor with a shady military background, has proved hugely popular with readers through nine novels and has been optioned by Twentieth Century Fox TV. We brought Zoë in for questioning to see who she would like to see playing Charlie on screen, and what TV shows tick the right boxes for her… • CrimeTimePreview apprehended SIMON KERNICK , one of Britain’s most exciting thriller writers to grill him about his viewing proclivities. He arrived on the crime scene with his acclaimed novel The Business of Dying, a terrific story about a corrupt cop who moonlights as a hitman. His authentic thrillers are basedon research with members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Organised Crime Agency. He has just finished writing his latest book, which will be called Siege.

• SOPHIE HANNAH, whose novel The Point of Rescue was recently turned into the drama Case Sensitive by ITV1, is the author of internationally bestselling psychological thrillers – Little Face, Hurting Distance, The Other Half Lives and A Room Swept White. CrimeTimePreview recently brought her in to be questioned about her addiction to Class A plotting on television… • Scottish author TONY BLACK , creator of Gus Dury in stories such as Gutted and Long Time Dead. • Belfast crime writer SAM MILLAR , author of books such as The Redemption and the award-winning memoir On the Brinks. • Crime novelist PAULINE ROWSON , author of the Marine series of mysteries, is pulled into CrimeTimePreview headquarters for questioning. • Texan crime novelist BILL CRIDER , author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery novels, talks about his favourite television and authors. • Award-winning British novelist ANN CLEEVES is a serial crime writer, with her collections including amateur sleuths George & Molly, Inspector Ramsay, the soon-to-be-televised Vera Stanhope and the recent Shetland Island Quartet (now a BBC1 series with Douglas Henshall).

CrimeTimePreview pulls her in for questioning about her TV habits… • We brought thriller writer MATT HILTON into headquarters for questioning about his TV and reading activities. • ALINE TEMPLETON is the author of the series of novels about DI Marjory Fleming, set in Scotland. Her stand-alone mysteries include Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound and Shades of Death. She lives in Edinburgh. She was brought into CrimeTimePreview HQ for questioning about her TV viewing habits… • Award-winning crime author STEPHEN BOOTH has written 11 mysteries involving the detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry with a distinctive, sometimes menacing Peak District setting. He was a newspaper and magazine journalist for 25 years before publishing the first Cooper/Fry novel, Black Dog, in 2000. CrimeTimePreview quizzed him about his criminal viewing activities… Share this: Peaky Blinders (TV Series 2013– ) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error Watch Now on Amazon Video A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world. Creator: As Tommy prepares to commit the most audacious crime of his career, an unexpected blow forces him to face his worst fears in a race against time. 9.7 As Derby day arrives, Tommy is faced with impossible decisions as he prepares to strike back at his enemies and take the family business to the next level. 9.6 Polly welcomes Ada and her baby back into the family as Peaky Blinders, led by Danny Whizz-Bang, also spring Freddie from jail. With the guns recovered Winston Churchill believes Grace should receive...

9.2 a list of 46 titles created 26 Jun 2012 a list of 31 titles created 28 Nov 2014 a list of 30 titles created 06 Jun 2015 a list of 47 titles created 22 Nov 2015 a list of 23 titles created 7 months ago Search for " Peaky Blinders " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 9 wins & 10 nominations. See more awards » Videos A chronicled look at the criminal exploits of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. Stars: Wagner Moura, Boyd Holbrook, Pedro Pascal Game of Thrones (TV Series 2011) Adventure | Drama | Fantasy Nine noble families fight for control over the mythical lands of Westeros. Meanwhile, a forgotten race hell-bent on destruction returns after being dormant for thousands of years.

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Stars: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride Edit Storyline A gangster family epic set in 1919 Birmingham, England and centered on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby, who means to move up in the world. 30 September 2014 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia Despite the shows claims, the Peaky Blinders were strongest in the 1890s. By the 1920s the predominant gang in Birmingham was 'The Birmingham Gang' which had its roots from the pre-war 'Brummagem Boys' gang. See more » Goofs When the characters are supposed to speak in Gypsy language they are actually talking in Romanian. See more » Quotes Grace Burgess : You think I am a whore? Tommy Shelby : Everyone's a whore, Grace. We just sell different parts of ourselves. (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews I for one am a huge fan of this compelling series. A wonderful dark industrial landscape, great soundtrack, rich characters that have real depth played by quality actors, all to the tune of a great script and an interesting time line.

You an clearly see the similarities with the high quality US series and they have gone for this market and there is clearly lots here that could make it a fantastic long running series. Sadly, I am concerned that the BBC won't be able to retain the quality levels and we won't see it evolve in the way that the sopranos (yes I compare this show to the sopranos and boardwalk empire) evolved. Please push this internationally, let's keep it on our screens and see it develop. This period in UK history is rich with trauma, upheaval and change, the backdrop of industrial Birmingham is new and trumps the well trodden New York, Chicago, and London gangster scenes. For writers and producers this represents very fertile ground and allows innovative story lines to emerge. Keep peaky blinders on our screens..... The campaign starts here! 107 of 116 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Yes The TRUTH behind Peaky Blinders: No razor blades in their caps - but Brum's real gangsters were just as brutal - Birmingham Mail What's On The TRUTH behind Peaky Blinders: No razor blades in their caps - but Brum's real gangsters were just as brutal Birmingham historian Carl Chinn says city's gangs of the 1920s and the real Billy Kimber were stylish, cunning and ruthless Share Clockwise from top left, Cillian Murphy as the fictitious Tommy Shelby, the real Billy Kimber and three genuine Peaky Blinders from police photographs Share Get What's On updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email The hit TV series Peaky Blinders has placed Birmingham in the national spotlight. But how close to the truth is it? In part one of a two part series, ZOE CHAMBERLAIN talks to historian and Mail columnist Carl Chinn about the city’s real Peaky Blinders. Mesmerising and dark, the BBC series of the Peaky Blinders tells of the rise of gangster Thomas Shelby and his criminal gang.

But these fictional characters echo a truth that is just as dramatic , bloody and compelling as the weekly plot lines. Historian Carl Chinn has researched the real story behind the glamorous serie s – and admits he’s impressed by how the good the programme has done for his beloved hometown. Below: Peaky Blinders premiere at The Mailbox, Birmingham Video Loading Share this video Watch Next “With its captivating cinematography, charismatic performances, and dramatic title, the Peaky Blinders series on BBC2 seized the attention of viewers and critics alike in the autumn of 2013,” writes Carl, who began researching these notorious Birmingham gangs back in the 1980s. “Stylish yet dark, it was set in the back streets of Birmingham after the First World War and told of the rise to power of Tommy Shelby and his criminal gang of Peaky Blinders.

(L-R) Peaky Blinders Henry Fowler, Ernest Bayles and Stephen McHickie “Fashionably dressed, they were named after the weapon they used in fights: the peaks of their flat caps into which had been sewn safety razors and which were slashed across the foreheads of their opponents, causing blood to pour down into their eyes and blind them.” And yet, Carl’s research has shown it is highly unlikely these gangsters ever used razor blades in their caps and that the name probably just came from the peaked hats they chose to wear. “It’s really interesting to look back at the mythologized version of the story and the reality,” says Carl, who has written a new book called The Real Peaky Blinders. View gallery “There was no real Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders were around in the 1890s and yet the series is set in the 1920s. “As for the razor blades? They were only beginning to come in from the 1890s and were a luxury item, much too expensive for the Peaky Blinders to have used.

“And any hard man would tell you it would be very difficult to get direction and power with a razor blade sewn into the soft part of a cap. It was a romantic notion brought about in John Douglas’s novel, A Walk Down Summer Lane. “But I can understand why the series producers used the name because it’s infused with gangsterdom. “And I’m pleased the matriarchal strong women are a huge aspect of the programme. I think most working class men were raised by strong women . “ The series is gripping and beautifully shot . It has gained national attention and done a lot for Birmingham.” Carl believes references to Birmingham pubs such as the Garrison and firms like the BSA help evoke a powerful sense of place amidst the fast-moving, thrilling plot. Carl’s research shows the Peaky Blinders were followed by a large pre-war gang called the Brummagem Boys, made up of a “loose collection of pick-pockets, racecourse thieves and pests who were gaining a lot of power”. By the 1920s, when the TV series is set, a group called The Birmingham Gang emerged, many of whom had come from the Brummagem Boys. They went onto become the most feared gang in the country .

“My book is not about the series , it’s about the real people behind the story, and their story is as dramatic and compelling and bloody as the series,” he adds. Charlie Creed-Miles who is portraying Billy Kimber in hit TV series Peaky Blinders. (Photo: BBC/Tiger Aspect/Robert Viglasky) The Birmingham Gang was led by a fearsome gangster called Billy Kimber, a former Brummagem Boy who went on to become the most powerful gangster in England. In the TV series, gang leader Tommy Shelby is traumatised by the first world war but Carl doesn’t believe the war had such an impact on the likes of Billy Kimber . “Billy Kimber deserted during the war,” explains Carl. “Although he and others in the gang may have been traumatised by the war, they were mostly violent men before the war. “The fighting they did was vicious fighting.

“Kimber was a very intelligent man with a fighting ability, a magnetic personality and a shrewdness of the importance of an alliance with London.” A rare picture of the real Billy Kimber as a young man (Photo: Brian McDonald) Whilst exploring these notorious gangsters , Carl wrote to author Graham Greene to ask about the research he carried out for his famous book Brighton Rock. Carl writes: “In a letter that he wrote to me in 1988 he explained that “my novel Brighton Rock it is true deals a little with something similar to the Sabini gang, but I have forgotten now what I may have known when I wrote it. "In those days I used to go frequently to Brighton and once spent an evening with a member of a gang who introduced me to a certain amount of slang in use and took me to one of the meeting places of his fellow gangsters. But the details are beyond recall, and would be no good to you.” Carl adds: “I thought it was very kind that he took the time to write back to a young researcher.

I was quite humbled by that.” While conducting his research, he found many of the gang members' families knew little of their ancestors' shady pasts, simply because it was something that was never discussed. “A lot of gang members didn’t talk about it when they got older, they were often ashamed of what they’d done when they were younger,” he explains. Winson Green Road, Birmingham, in the early 20th Century “In writing the book, I’m not excusing this behaviour. It’s not about romanticising it because, in reality it was brutal. “A lot of national newspapers become hysterical about gang fights but it’s important to remember they were nothing like the American mafia.

Question: Which BBC2 drama series featured the Birmingham criminal gang scene of the 1920s?
Answer: Peaky Blinders