History Series / PeakyBlinders

After the final season had been released in Februrary 2022, Knight revealed that in in lieu of a seventh season, the production team is instead working on a ''Peaky Blinders'' film, which is going offer a more definite conclusion to the story of the Shelbys. Though there is no production date as of this writing, Knight have stated that the film is planned for a 2024 release.

After the final season had been released in Februrary 2022, Knight revealed that in in lieu of a full seventh season, the production team is instead working on a ''Peaky Blinders'' film, which is going offer a more definite conclusion to the story of the Shelbys. Though there is no production date as of this writing, Knight have stated that the film is planned for a 2024 release.

* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Polly's clearly not afraid to use corporal punishment on the boys. She tells John that her boot's harder than any excuse he has for his childish behaviour, and Tommy says the only reason she ''doesn't'' hit him with the fireplace poker is because she knows he's right about Freddie and Ada.

* RatedMForManly: Not that the women are excluded in any way.

* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: There are lots of montages and slow-motion sequences of the Shelbys partying or {{Power Walk}}ing down the street while badass blues-rock blares on the soundtrack.

* PowerWalk: We get at least one of these an episode from various members of the Peaky Blinders, usually walking down a street in slow motion while blues rock blares on the soundtrack. Episode 3.04 even has an all-female version.

* InitiationCeremony: Tommy makes Finn blind the man who [[spoiler: 'killed' Arthur. While the blinding was a part of a ruse, it still shows that Finn is now a full blown Peaky Blinder.]]

** The Billy Boys lure out Tommy to a field wherre they have buried mines. Tommy narrowly avoids stepping on one and has to carefully retrace his steps to get out of the field. He also barely prevents his son from entering the field. He then clears the minefield by triggering the mines with fire from a submachine gun.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In one scene of episode 5.06, Anna Calvi's song Wish - released in 2018 - is the background music. [[spoiler:Alfie Solomons]] gets up and turns the grammarphone in his room off, and the music stops.

* MassiveMultiplayerScam: In the GrandFinale, Tommy is informed by his longtime doctor Holford that he has a [[TerminallyIllCriminal brain tumor]] and only a year to live. After a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the family enemies, Tommy clears up his affairs and heads to a cabin to kill himself. But a vision of his late daughter and a glimpse at a newspaper have Tommy confronting Holford on how not only was he best friends with Tommy's enemy Oswald but the doctor who gave the second opinion "confirming" Tomy's tumor was the maid of honor at Oswald's wedding. Tommy realizes he's perfectly fine and this whole thing was cooked up to trick him into killing himself and is ready to fight back.

* BadassBaritone: Arthur has an extremely deep, gravely voice in spite of his lean physique. Thomas Shelby and Alfie Solomons also speak in lower registers than their actors typically use as a way of invoking the trope.

->''Take a little walk\\

in a dusty black coat with a red right hand''

** Gina Grey seems to be this. Her relatives in New York and Detroit are implied to be connected to the mob.

** We knew Campbell was a sick fuck when it comes to taking women by force (as evidenced by his rape of the prostitute in 1.06), but he takes a special level in awful in 2.05 when he [[spoiler: rapes Polly very specifically to not only humiliate her and make her beg for her son's release, but to get back at Tommy for "taking" Grace from him]].
** SinisterMinister Father Hughes is a child molester--and therefore set up as probably the most evil enemy the Shelbys have yet faced, in contrast with mere gangsters like Kimber or the Changrettas.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Helen McRory, who plays Polly, died between the fifth and sixth series. [[spoiler: This resulted in the IRA killing Polly as well as Aberama and Barney, with them claiming it was to 'kick away [Tommy's] crutch' as he was allegedly getting too ahead of himself. Hasn't hurt the bad blood between Tommy and Michael, either]].

** In the scene where Tommy [[spoiler: fakes Danny's death]], he quotes the Christina Rossetti poem "In the Bleak Midwinter". It returns as one of the hymns at Tommy's wedding in 3.01.

* SpookySeance: Subverted in 2.01. The expectation is that the seance Polly attends will be unnerving, with the Romani woman channelling [[spoiler: Polly's daughter]]. We never actually see the seance--the scene is more focused on Polly revealing that she's dreaming of [[spoiler: her daughter]] and then running out of the house in tears after an unknown reveal.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Campbell wasn't exactly a nice person in season one but he still had gentle moments, mostly with Grace. By the second season, he's barely concealing his vicious and ruthless nature.
** Michael keeps taking one per season. In season two, he starts off as a curious and slightly naive kid new to the world of organized crime. In season three, he's a green, but competent [[TheConsigliere consigliere]] to Tommy, but he's becoming more impulsive and angry, eventually killing Father Hughes for his crimes. In season four, he's an AddledAddict, haunted by his near-death experiences and lashing out at everyone. In season five, he's become TheStarscream to Tommy, actively plotting a hostile takeover of the business.

** Luca Changretta, to the point where he's almost the HeroOfAnotherStory.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Tommy Shelby and Freddie Thorne.

** From 4.06, [[spoiler: Arthur is seriously injured by the Italians, Luca Changretta comes to finish off the family, Tommy is revealed to have made deals with Al Capone, as Arthur arrives and kills Luca. Later on, Tommy kills Alfie for letting his men in the ring. After a brief skip, Lizzie is revealed to be married to Tommy with a daughter, and Tommy is now the MP.]]

* WordSaladTitle: ''Peaky Blinders''. The gang members blind people using razor blades concealed in their peaked caps.

The show has aired five seasons on both BBC and Creator/{{Netflix}}. WordOfGod from creator Stephen Knight is that he plans to take the Shelbys right up to the beginning of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. After the show temporarily went on haitus due to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, it was announced in January 2021 that production had restarted on the Sixth Season and that it will be the last season of the show, though Knight also revealed in the same update that "the story will continue in another form".

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The series ends with Tommy essentially tying up loose ends, squaring debts, and investing the Blinders' fortune to make sure what remains of the Shelby family have enough to live comfortably, before preparing to kill himself to keep from dying a slow, painful death at the hands of cancer. However, just before he pulls the trigger, he has an epiphany and realizes that his diagnosis was ''faked'' at the behest of Mosby, who he promptly tracks down and prepares to kill. Ultimately, however, he realizes it's time to let go and spares Mosby, before [[WalkingTheEarth disappearing to parts unknown]].]]

** In Season 5, there's an unknown fourth party, which foils [[spoiler:Mosley's assassination attempt]].

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Both the Peaky Blinders and the police force run on this.
* AsYouKnow: Does Tommy really need reminding that a lot of the pubs in the area pay them protection money?

* MagnificentBastard: Tommy Shelby, the show's most constant villain, even if he is also its protagonist.

*** May be a case of CriticalResearchFailure because in series 4, they appear to have fixed the problem and Johnny Dogs is now speaking Romanes (the Romany language).

** Tommy ''fails'' at one of these for the first time in season five. He assumes [[spoiler:that Oswald Mosely will trust him enough to attend the fascist rally, and that Alfie's men will provide enough chaos to cover the assassination. He also assumes that Aberama and Arthur will be able to provide cover for Barney. A third party takes out Barney and Aberama — Arthur barely escaping with his life — and Mosely remains alive.]]

* BeneathNotice: Features heavily in season 5. [[spoiler:Micky the Garrison barman hears everything the Peaky Blinders discuss in the Garrison, and passes it on to others — those others being closely connected to Oswald Mosely and Jimmy McCavern, if not the two themselves. This causes the deaths of Bonnie Gold and Ben Younger, and sets up an ambush by the Titanic.]] [[spoiler:However, they eventually figure out it's him and kill him for it.]]

* BullyingTheDragon: Mosely and the fascists keep on antagonizing Tommy, even though they need him for their political schemes. They seem hell-bent on testing how far they can take things before Tommy reverts to the street gangster he started out as.

** Many, many CallBacks in season five, including the reappearance of [[spoiler: Grace as Tommy's hallucinatory Angel of Death]], Winston Churchill discussing the threat of Mosely and hilariously misremembering Campbell, Arthur reiterating what Senior always said about dealing with Chinese razor gangs, and [[spoiler:Alfie Solomons turning up in an abandoned mansion in Margate]].

** Oswald Mosely turns out to be at or surpassing Tommy's level in season five. Every time Tommy seems to one-up Mosely, he's swatted right back down by Mosely being a bigger bastard with more allies.

** In season five, Tommy tries to outmanoeuvre Oswald Mosley and the fascists while the Chinese contract the Peaky Blinders to move seven tons of heroin across England. In the middle are the Billy Boys from Glasgow and their leader [=Jimmy McCavern=], who has ties to Mosely, but are plotting to wipe out the Peakys and steal the heroin. In the season finale, Tommy discovers that there seems to be a mysterious fourth faction that is thwarting his plans.

** Oswald Mosely. Urbane, convivial, charming, beautiful manners - until he drops the act and starts talking about racial purity and blackmail.

** [[spoiler: When Tommy goes to meet Alfie Solomons - not dead after all - in 5.06, and reveals he is going to have Oswald Mosely shot, Alfie hopes he does a better job on Mosely than he did on Alfie himself. Tommy does not.]]

** Lampshaded by Tommy after he tries to deal with Mosely and the fascists by gathering evidence and informing the proper authorities. All it accomplishes is that a good man is murdered and a young boy is killed as collateral. Tommy resolves to finish the matter through good old-fashioned violence and assassination.

** Tommy starts giving them in the House of Commons in season five. They're effective enough to bring him to the attention of both budding-fascist Oswald Mosely and Winston Churchill.

* BadassInANiceSuit: All three Shelby brothers dress ''very'' nicely. However, they stick to their roots and continue wearing razor-bladed flat caps with their suits instead of more formal bowlers. A sign that Tommy's gone completely legit in season 4? He wears a bowler, with no flat cap in sight. Further sign that he's going back to his razor-gang roots in season 5? The flat cap is back.

* BodyHorror: Alfie Solomons' [[spoiler:cancer leaves him pretty scarred]]. Even before he explains what's going on in the finale, you can tell something is wrong.

* ButtMonkey: Poor thirteen-year-old Finn Shelby, who just wants to be as cool as his big brothers. He constantly gets shoved around and told to "go stick [his] head in a bucket".

* FiveManBand:
** In Season One:
### TheBigBad: Tommy, who runs the Peaky Blinders.
### TheDragon: Arthur, who believes he's top dog, but Tommy phases out of the leadership.
### TheEvilGenius: Aunt Polly, who dispenses advice and comes up with a good number of strategies.
### TheBrute: John, who is hotheaded and likes to issue threats.
### TheDarkChick: Ada, who hates being a Shelby, but is pretty good at it.
### Plus TagalongKid Finn, who takes a limited part in the gang despite being all of 11.
** In Season Two:
### TheBigBad: Tommy, to even greater heights as his empire expands.
### TheDragon: Polly, who Tommy openly states will take over if he should be injured/dead.
### TheEvilGenius: John's aspiring to this role, questioning Tommy's decisions.
### TheBrute: Arthur's descended to this, becoming Tommy's "mad dog".
### TheDarkChick: Esme, who may have a little [[TheStarscream Starscream]] in her, as Polly suspects.
### Plus a TagalongKid--still Finn, though he's 13 and graduated to being a full-fledged member of the gang, with his own razor cap.
** In Season Three and Four:
### TheBigBad: Tommy, getting into governmental politics and associating with men such as the Economic League and exiled aristocracy.
### TheDragon: Polly, continuing to run things in Tommy's absence/incapacitation and being the sole person in on many of his plans.
### TheEvilGenius: Michael, the "legitimate" face of the business, who doesn't involve himself in the outright crime, but wants to.
### TheBrute: John and Arthur, lampshaded by John's rant about always taking orders from Tommy without being allowed to question them.
### TheDarkChick: Ada, who seems to be working in a "legitimate" position similar to Michael's, but still part of the family business.

** In 6.06, [[spoiler: It is revealed that Finn knows very little of the Romani language, which is an odd time to reveal this fact and even odder given that Ruby was picking it up from the Lee children. Sure enough, later on in the episode he tries to shoot Isaiah to protect Billy Grade, fails due to two deliberately unloaded chambers in the gun, and is expelled from the Peaky Blinders.]]

* GenericEthnicCrimeGang: The Shelbies and many other members of the Peaky Blinders are Didicoys (people of mixed Romanichal ancestry). They generally downplay their heritage, unlike the Lee gang who are full Romanichals and still live in traditional caravans.

** Polly, maybe you might have considered that giving up the Bolshevik leader to Campbell in exchange for Freddie and Ada's safety wouldn't do any good if said Bolshevik leader can't actually give the police any information? You've just condemned a mostly-innocent man to death.

* TheTeetotaler: Byrne, the IRA representative in 1.05.

** Tommy in 4.06: A friend of mine once said... [[spoiler: Big fucks small. So I had to find someone bigger than you. Now, you may know there are two families in Brooklyn, who want take over your monopoly on the import of liquor into New York. But if they move against you in New York, they'll start a war between the families. But if you were to die in a vendetta with some fucking bookmaker in Birmingham, they could take over your business without a war. We also contacted a businessman in Chicago. He's also interested in moving into the liquor business in New York. His name is [[UsefulNotes/AlCapone Alphonse Capone]].[...]You see, all the blood relatives you brought with you from New York, they're all dead, Mr Changretta. And these men here, they work for money, for the highest bidder. [[CavalryBetrayal They now have new orders]].]]

* WhatTheHellHero: [[spoiler: Tommy Shelby in 2.06, where he arranges for ''ex-''prostitute Lizzie to help him isolate Field Marshal Russell at the Epsom Derby, with the clear implication that she is supposed to seduce him in order to do so--despite the fact she has no desire to return to her former trade, and the fact Tommy has explicitly asked her not to in the past; she is not impressed by his promise that this is "the last time". Despite his assurances that he will show up before anything happens, Tommy is delayed, the Field Marshal [[NearRapeExperience tries to force himself on Lizzie]] and while Tommy does eventually turn up and kill him, Lizzie is left extremely traumatised by the experience and clearly regards the whole episode as a betrayal, her only words to him after he rescues her being "Fuck off".]]

* WordSaladTitle: ''Peaky Blinders'' can come across this way to Americans who hear the title, since neither "peaky" nor "blinders" are common words for Yankees. But it does make sense in context; the gang members are called 'peaky blinders' because their caps have peaks and they blind people using razor blades concealed in their caps.

* AssassinOutclassin: Subverted in season five when Tommy sends two of his best killers to kill his enemies at an event. Both assassins are killed by unknown masked assailants and Tommy is shocked to discover that the targets were completely unaware of what was going on. Some third party interfered and outclassed his assassins. It is played straight with Arthur, who was only a lookout, but was still attacked. Arthur is luckier and kills his assassin.

* ArtisticLicenceShips:
** Season 3, episode 3 features a [[http://i.imgur.com/qpzet2Y.jpg brief shot of a Cunard Line ship docked in Liverpool]]. Likely meant to be the [[http://www.ssmaritime.com/Mauretania-1-1906.jpg RMS Mauritania]], the CGI model appears to be the hull and superstructure of the [[http://www.maritimequest.com/liners/titanic/photos/titanic_marschall_3.jpg RMS Titanic]] with the vents, forecastle, and colours of the Mauritania added.
** Said ship is moored on the wrong bank of the Mersey. There were, and are, no facilities for ocean liners on that side of the river.

* ArtisticLicenceGunSafety:
** Tommy fakes [[spoiler: Danny's]] execution by shooting him point-blank with a blank shell full of sheep brains, but even a blank cartridge at such close range would likely be fatal, as the real-life accidental death of Jon-Erik Hexum will attest.

* AnyoneCanDie: As of Series 5, [[spoiler:Billy Kimber, Freddie Thorne, Danny Owen, Chester Campbell, Grace Burgess, Father Hughes, John Shelby, Luca Changretta, Bonnie Gold, Colonel Ben Younger, Barney Thomason and Aberama Gold]] have all kicked the bucket.
** By the end of Series 6 [[spoiler:Polly Gray, Ruby Shelby, Billy Grade, Laura [=McKee=] of the IRA, and Michael Gray]] join the list