Tag: Cillian Murphy

Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Reviews

Helen McCrory’s absence leaves a chasm as Peaky Blinders draws to a close

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McCrory will be missed terribly. So will Peaky Blinders.

By Ed Cumming | Independent | February 27, 2022

It’s the end of one of the most distinctive, inventive and entertaining series in recent British history

After a decade, 30 episodes, countless grisly beatings and murders, some exact accents and some dodgy ones, endless Nick Cave, plenty of snazzy tailoring and some of the most severe haircuts on TV, the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders (BBC One) is upon us. Creator Steven Knight has plans for a film, but as far as the small-screen is concerned, this is the finale. It’s the end of one the most distinctive, inventive and entertaining dramas in recent British history, as you may have gleaned from the blanket trailers over the past few months. The entrenched BBC can’t be expected to soft-pedal a rare thing: an international hit that enjoys genuinely popular appeal as well as critical acclaim.

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Categories Peaky Blinders Reviews

‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 6 Premiere Recap: Aunt Polly’s Fate Revealed As Show Bids Farewell To Helen McCrory

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Season 6 Premiere Episode is Dedicated to Helen McCrory

By Nancy Tartaglione | Deadline | February

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about the Season 6 premiere of Peaky Blinders.

Surprising as it sounds, it has been 889 days since BBC One aired the Season 5 finale of period gangster saga Peaky Blinders. With anticipation at a fever pitch, the first episode of the sixth and final season debuted tonight local time in the UK, providing a first glimpse of how things may tie up for the Shelby family — and importantly paying tribute to star Helen McCrory who passed away last year following a battle with cancer. The premiere episode is dedicated to her.

The last time we checked in with the Shelbys, a foiled attempt to assassinate fascist politician Oswald Mosley had Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) at his wits end and pointing a gun at his own head. In the opening frames of Season 6, we learn that Tommy did not in fact commit suicide — but not for lack of trying: brother Arthur had preemptively removed the bullets from the gun.

Continue reading ‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 6 Premiere Recap: Aunt Polly’s Fate Revealed As Show Bids Farewell To Helen McCrory

Categories Broadcast Media Peaky Blinders Tributes

Cillian Murphy Remembers Helen McCrory on BBC Interview

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Murphy: “We’ve been through a lot together.”

By Helenistic | helen-mccrory.com | February 26, 2022

Cillian Murphy talks about Peaky Blinders and his close pal Helen McCrory in the following interview with the BBC.

Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Reviews

Peaky Blinders Season 6: Helen McCrory Tribute is a Triumph

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The BBC crime drama returns in style for its sixth and final season

By Abby Robinson | Radio Times | February 22, 2022

A star rating of 5 out of 5.

In a different pair of hands with less gifted performers, Peaky Blinders could quite easily have spiralled into something clownish, eliciting a near-constant stream of ‘You’ve got to be joking me?!’ from audiences. Chances are it wouldn’t have reached a sixth season and the Peaky Blinders movie certainly wouldn’t have been given the greenlight.

But Steven Knight’s conviction in this world coupled with myriad memorable performances and gloriously cinematic direction – season 5’s Anthony Byrne has once again taken the reins on the latest instalment, making him the first director to return – fuses to create TV magic.

Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media Tributes

Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy on Helen McCrory, the show’s beating heart

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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
Family ties: Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly in Peaky Blinders
ROBERT VIGLASKY/BBC
On the face of it there is no more machismo-laden, gun-slinging, smoke-smothered, balls-out blood-and-thunder television show than Peaky Blinders — back next week for its sixth and final series. The between-the-wars Birmingham gangster epic’s signature shot is a line of men in flat caps walking down a smog-smothered street in swaggering slow motion. Lo-fi garage rock music blares as the men caress their tommy guns. The image speaks: this is man’s work.

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.”

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