The BBC crime drama returns in style for its sixth and final season
By Abby Robinson | Radio Times | February 22, 2022
Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Reviews
Peaky Blinders Season 6: Helen McCrory Tribute is a Triumph
Author: helenistic
Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes
The Women of Peaky Blinders
“In Birmingham, the women rule the roost.”
By BBC.co.uk | February 22, 2022
When Steven Knight came to populate the world of Peaky Blinders he didn’t have to invent strong, female characters.
“Having come from a working-class background, and in Birmingham, the women run the show. It was never a question of saying, ‘I’m going to deliberately put some strong women in it…’ It was more like, ‘just look out the window,’ you know, ‘look at what really is happening.’”
During the First World War, he points out, when the men were away, “women did everything.” And so when the men came back – the jumping off point for Peaky Blinders – that wasn’t going to just stop.
“The idea that you’d have this environment where the women were completely subservient?” Knight says. “Nonsense. No, it wasn’t like that. And it isn’t like that. So it’s just a question of reflecting reality.”
Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes
Peaky Blinders’ Natasha O’Keeffe speaks of ‘spiritual’ connection with late Helen McCrory
Natasha O’Keeffe opens up on how she “talked to” the late Helen McCrory on-set of the new BBC series, after she passed away
The untimely death of British actress Helen McCrory, left the nation shocked, after she lost her battle with cancer last April at the age of just 52. Fans, her loved ones and the cast of Peaky Blinders are all still grieving the terrible loss, with Natasha O’Keeffe revealing she sometimes found herself talking to her on-set of the latest series.
Helen, who played Aunt Polly in the hit BBC drama, won’t appear in the new season but creator Steven Knight, reassured fans they’ll see a tribute to the late actress.
Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes
Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight on Helen McCrory Tribute
Knight: “I think we’ve done it right”
By Abby Robinson | Radio Times | February 22, 2022
Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes
Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy on Helen McCrory, the show’s beating heart
Series creator and stars pay tribute to the woman who made it a phenomenon
Benji Wilson | February 20, 2022 | The Sunday Times
Family ties: Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders
ROBERT VIGLASKY/BBC
So when Helen McCrory was told in 2012 she was going to be playing a character called Aunt Polly in what was described to her as a period piece set in Birmingham, her answer was typically blunt. “I said, ‘No I’m not.’ I thought I’d be standing there with a mangle and a fag hanging out of my mouth wondering when the boys would come home. Little did I know.”
Yes, Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby is Peaky Blinders’ hard-as-nails poster boy. But the premise of Peaky Blinders is a story of broken men returning from the war and trying to fit into society. And that society had consisted of women while the men had been away. As Polly says to Tommy in the first episode: “This whole bloody enterprise was women’s business while you boys were away at war.”
Continue reading Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy on Helen McCrory, the show’s beating heart