helenistic, Author at Helen McCrory

Peaky Blinders director hints Helen McCrory may appear in sixth season

On February 15, 2022February 15, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

Will Polly Gray appear in Season Six of Peaky Blinders?

Stephen Milton | February 13, 2022 | The Sunday Times

Helenistic’s Note: Here is an extract from the director’s interview with The Sunday Times in which he talks about the sixth season of The Peaky Blinders and hints that Helen may appear in this season. You can read the interview in its entirety here.

The final season of Peaky Blinders will serve as a moment of reflection after the loss of Helen McCrory, who died from cancer last year. She played Polly, the legendary matriarch of the Shelby dynasty, but the actress was forced to abandon plans to reprise her role owing to the delays in production and the deterioration of her health. Byrne reveals that McCrory will make an important appearance in the new season opener, however.

“I had footage of Helen that I didn’t use during the last season and found this really special line that sets up season six so perfectly. In the opening scene, Tommy hears Polly’s voice in his head saying, ‘There will be war and one of you will die but which one I cannot tell.’ And that sets it up between Tommy and Michael Gray [Tommy’s cousin plotting to take control of the Shelby family empire]. It was perfect, a gift.

“It’s been a surreal experience and everyone who knew Helen, and loved working with her, is still processing what has happened. She was a really wonderful person.”

Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes

Cillian Murphy: Final Season of ‘Peaky Blinders’ Is ‘Richest and Deepest’ to Date

On February 14, 2022February 14, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

“I think the whole series is really in tribute to her and to honor her”

Monica Marie Zorrilla | Variety | February 11, 2022

Cillian Murphy was named one of the greatest Irish film actors in 2020 and has been nominated for multiple international awards over a 25-year career. But in stepping into an executive producing role in recent years, the “Peaky Blinders” star and frequent Christopher Nolan collaborator is discovering another side to the craft that’s been a humbling experience.

“I had to look at my own performances in a very cold and objective way,” Murphy tells Variety. “I think it’s a valuable lesson to look at the story in its entirety, without just, like, focusing on the size of your ears.”

When Murphy became a producer on Seasons 5 and 6 of “Peaky Blinders,” he had to take on new duties such as helping the edit team after long days of working as an actor and analyzing his portrayal of Tommy Shelby, the protagonist of the ruthless BBC period crime drama.

Continue reading Cillian Murphy: Final Season of ‘Peaky Blinders’ Is ‘Richest and Deepest’ to Date

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Helen McCrory: A shining star at her peak

On February 6, 2022February 6, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

She stole the show and our hearts

By Cole Moreton | February 6, 2022 | YOU Magazine

Aunt Polly dresses to kill. Literally. In series two of Peaky Blinders, she gets all glammed up in a hat, gloves and lace choker plus hidden revolver. It’s a scene that reveals her ruthlessness as she seeks outa police chief who has raped her. Polly gets close enough to kiss him, then shoots the devil through the heart. And as he dies, Polly spits out a line that has come to define the show: ‘Don’t f*** with the Peaky Blinders.’ As the camera lingers on her wild eyes and drying tears, we see again why Helen McCrory was hailed as one of the best actors of her generation, even before she agreed to play a leading role in this brutal family drama set in the slums of Birmingham just after the First World War.

Helen turned it down at first, for fear of being asked to play a cliché. ‘My own grandparents grew up in the slums of Glasgow and were miners’ kids in Cardiff and I thought I was going to be there with a mangle saying things like: “Gotta get up early to get a wash on in the back yard.”’

Continue reading Helen McCrory: A shining star at her peak

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Peaky Power

On February 6, 2022February 6, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

The Formidable Shelby Women Remember Helen McCrory

by Cole Moreton | February 6, 2022 | YOU Magazine

The women of Peaky Blinders have assembled for our exclusive YOU cover story but, tragically, there is somebody missing. ‘I consider Helen to have been the heart of this show,’ says Sophie Rundle. In the hugely popular period drama, Sophie plays Ada, who, along with her four brothers, takes on the police, the IRA, the Mafia and the world.

peaky blinders women

She’s talking, of course, about actress Helen McCrory, who starred as the family’s matriarch Aunt Polly and who should be with us as the female cast members gather to mark the beginning of the sixth and final series, but who sadly died of cancer last April, aged just 52. ‘She died as she lived. Fearlessly,’ wrote her husband Damian Lewis, fellow actor and father to their two teenage children.

According to the Peaky Blinders story, the Irish-Romany Shelby children were abandoned by their father and brought up by their hard-talking, cheroot-smoking, gun-toting aunt, played with intensity and brilliance over five seasons by Helen.

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Editor’s Letter: My heartfelt note from a true star

On February 6, 2022February 6, 2022 By helenistic No Comments

YOU Magazine editor Jo Elvin remembers Helen

By Jo Elvin | February 6, 2022 | You Magazine

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A few years ago in a former magazine job, my biggest task every year was organising a huge, annual celebrity awards show. I’d probably look 20 years younger right now if I’d never experienced the stress of that, but I must admit, it has also gifted me with some of my funniest and most precious career-related memories.

One standout moment involves the late actress Helen McCrory. She happened to be very close friends with some pals of mine, so it wasn’t unusual for me to see her at Sunday lunch gatherings, or one particularly raucous New Year’s Eve in a pub where our dogs outnumbered the humans and enjoyable chaos ensued. But beyond a bit of small chitchat every so often, I can’t say I knew her. I didn’t even really get to talk to her the night we honoured her with a ‘film actress of the year’ award at my fancy do. (I was always too busy firefighting and keeping the whole thing organised to ever relax and enjoy the evening.)

Continue reading Editor’s Letter: My heartfelt note from a true star