Peaky Blinders has achieved a level of fandom and cultural prominence that few TV shows can only dream of. The peaked flat-caps, the undercut hairstyle, and the heavy overcoats have all gained new eminence within the fan community of Peaky Blinders and also with youth culture too.
It’s been a long wait for the sixth and final season of the show, having been delayed heavily due to the pandemic. The sixth season of the hit BBC show will finally premiere in 2022, and fans are eagerly awaiting how things pan out for the Shelby clan. While fans of the series think they know the show inside and out, there are many curiosities about Peaky Blinders that even the most hard-core devotee may be unaware of.
Real-Life Inspiration
While many characters and events from Peaky Blinders are absolutely based on real-world historical truths, the Shelby clan, and their effect on the real-world politics of the time, is entirely a work of fiction from show creator Steven Knight.
That said, a real gang by the name of the Peaky Blinders did operate in Birmingham in the 1920s. Born out of the slums of Industrial Britain, the Peaky Blinders operated in Britain until around the 1930s, when they were largely displaced by the Italian-English Sabini gang. The conflict between the two is fictionalized in the second season of Peaky Blinders, with a very different outcome for the Shelby clan in comparison to their real-life counterparts.
Cillian Murphy Hates The Peaky Blinders Haircut
One of the most infamous traits of the Peaky Blinders characters in the show is their trademark haircut. Sported by the main male of the Shelby clan over the course of the show, the haircut has become synonymous with the show and its fan culture.
However, one person who is not a fan of the haircut is Thomas Shelby himself, Cillian Murphy. Despite sporting the haircut in five seasons of the hit TV show thus far, Murphy has stated in numerous different interviews that he is not a fan of the haircut at all, and fails to see the obsession with it. Failing to understand the fascination with the cut, Murphy (in an interview with Metro) has rightly pointed out that the reason this haircut was so common among the working classes of Britain during the time period was due to the prevalence of lice, and nothing to do with style or image.
Filmed In Birmingham?
Although the show is set in Birmingham, and that setting is very central to the characters and the story as it plays out, the actual filming of the show largely took place in the North and North West of England (in areas such as Liverpool and Manchester).
According to producers of the show, the reason not to film in Birmingham was due to the fact that the historical city depicted in the series simply doesn’t exist anymore (via Screen Yorkshire). The producers settled on filming the series in the northern region, largely because the area has maintained more of that industrial and period feel characteristic of post-WWI England.
The Show Removed The Weinstein Company Logo From Episodes And Credits
American fans of the BBC series may have noticed the Weinstein Company logo as part of the show’s credits during its initial three seasons. Despite not being involved in the production of the show, the Weinstein Company distributed the show in the United States, and therefore its logo made up part of the show’s credits; technically classified as a production card.
However, in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the show sought to remove any affiliation with the Weinstein Company (via Deadline). Beginning with the fourth season, the Weinstein Company logo was nowhere to be seen and has been retroactively removed from the credits of the first three seasons in the U.S.
If The Show Was American Made, Cillian Murphy Wouldn’t Have Starred
Of all the reasons Peaky Blinders has become a worldwide smash hit, it’s hard to argue against the fact that leading man Cillian Murphy is a big part of that success. However, in a different universe, the Irish actor may not have starred in the show at all.
In an interview with Birmingham Live, Murphy stated that if the show was an American production, he would have refused to do it. Murphy highlighted the rigid nature of American television production, the long contracts that actors are forced to sign, and the length of time actors are obliged to commit to, as reasons he would have turned down the show. “There you have to sign up for at least 12 episodes a year," he had said. "You don’t have time to do other things…I couldn’t live with the prohibitive nature of other shows, I couldn’t do that.”
It Had Famous Fans Of The Series, Like David Bowie
Peaky Blinders can boast a host of famous names as fans of the series, including Chris Hemsworth, Snoop Dogg, and Brad Pitt. One particularly ionate fan of the series was the late great David Bowie. Bowie was such a huge fan of the series that he gave permission for tracks from his, at that time, unreleased final album, Blackstar, to be used in the show's third season.
Bowie would ultimately die before he would get to see his poignant track “Lazarus” appear in the third series of the show. Cillian Murphy also revealed, in an interview with Birmingham Live, that he gifted the late Bowie his flat cap from the first series.
The Show Has Led To A Boom In Certain Names
Another major sign of the effect Peaky Blinders has had on popular culture is reflected in the popularity of certain names. Since the show has been on the air, there has been several fans who have named their newborns after their favorite characters. Just like Game of Thrones led to a sharp increase in names like Arya and Khaleesi, so too has Peaky Blinders led to a resurgence of certain names.
According to the UK Deed Poll Office, in 2018, the name Arthur jumped to the top ten names for boys for the first time since the 1920s (which is when the first season of Peaky Blinders is set). Similarly, the name Ada has surged into the top 100 girls’ names for the first time in almost a century. The recent surge in the popularity of these names can be directly attributed to the series.
Sam Neill Had To Re-Learn His Accent Of Birth
Sam Neill, who stars as Inspector Campbell in the first two seasons of the show, had a difficult time with the Belfast accent his character uses, despite the fact that he was born pretty close by.
Although Neill is a New Zealander, he was actually born in Omagh, Northern Ireland and moved to New Zealand when he was quite young. Regardless of this, Neill struggled with his accent of birth in preparation for the show. As he stated in an interview with the BBC, he enlisted the help of fellow Irish actors Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt to help him get his Irish brogue just right.