STAYING IN ‘It’s a lovely play on words’
VIEW TO A KILL
Henry Northmore talks to the cast and crew behind gritty new period drama Peaky Blinders
P eaky Blinders is not what you’d expect from a BBC period drama. It’s a dark and bloody tale of Irish immigrant gangs in Birmingham during 1919. Cillian Murphy takes the lead as Tommy Shelby, who returns from World War I to take control of the organisation, and Sam Neill stars as CI Campbell, the man charged with bringing order to Birmingham’s streets. It made its public premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in June where we caught up with writer / creator Steven Knight, director Otto Bathurst and actors Paul Anderson and Charlie Creed-Miles. Where does the term ‘Peaky Blinders’ come from? Paul Anderson: They had razorblades sewn into the peaks of their caps and their trademark attack was a slash across the eyes. And as a result some people would get blinded, so it’s a lovely play on words. It’s a relatively untapped period. Where did you i rst learn of the Peaky Blinders?
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It’s an Steven Knight: These stories were told to me by my dad and he knew these people when he was nine years old so the whole thing has been written and shot in a way that suggests being seen through the eyes of a child. As far as my dad was concerned these guys were Wild West heroes, mythical, so there’s a heightened reality. Charlie Creed-Miles: interesting backdrop with the men coming back from France. They’d been i ghting in the trenches, wading through mud, watching their mates getting blown to smithereens. These men came back different people. Having seen so much violence probably prepared them for that line of work. It looks very cinematic – was that intentional? Otto Bathurst: I have an almost pathological hatred of English period telly the way it normally gets made. I don’t understand why we go into reverential mode. I don’t see why even though it’s set in 1919 it should be any different to another gangster i lm being shot in 2013, so
make it as big and epic and glamorous as you can make it. Could you tell us more about the characters you play? PA: Arthur Shelby’s a very dysfunctional, unhappy man and yet at the same time quite content with the way his life is, running the Peaky Blinders, the business if you like. They had a reputation which was enough for him until Tommy, my younger brother, turns up and decides to take charge and demotes me to second in command simply because I don’t have the drive, the ambition. Arthur would never think of taking on Bill Kimber. CCM: Billy Kimber is basically the Don Corleone of 1920s Birmingham. He pretty much ran the major racecourses in the Midlands and some in London. He was an incredibly powerful guy, he had a massive gang who were well armed and well equipped and strutted around in bowler hats. Again those ranks were i lled with guys coming back from the Somme, these were