Helen McCrory
Actress, Mum and Philanthropist

Tag: Polly Gray

Categories Interviews Peaky Blinders Print Media

Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory: ‘Aunt Polly is more dangerous than ever’

Posted On Written By helenistic No Comments on Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory: ‘Aunt Polly is more dangerous than ever’

Helen McCrory thinks this year’s series could be her character’s best yet

by Sean Marland |

Helen McCrory thinks this year’s series could be her character’s best yet… Don’t read until you’ve watched the first episode as contains spoilers!

Bullets flew and blood splattered as Peaky Blinders made an action-packed return to our screens tonight on BBC2. With the Shelby family fighting for their lives as the mafia closes in, the carnage seems unlikely to let up any time soon and Helen McCrory thinks this year’s fourth series is the best yet!

“I couldn’t believe it when Shelby family were all arrested at the end of the last series,” says Helen, who plays Peaky Blinders matriarch Aunt Polly. “I didn’t know where we were going to go next, but Steven Knight is such a great writer and he managed to get himself out of a really tight corner. When those scripts arrive I tear them open because I can’t wait to see what’s coming next and this series really is a step up.”

Categories Interviews Peaky Blinders Print Media

A Quick Q&A with Aunt Polly of Peaky Blinders

Posted On Written By Gingersnap4Helen No Comments on A Quick Q&A with Aunt Polly of Peaky Blinders

Helen McCrory Tells What to Expect in the New Season Three

by Staff | Channel 24 | October 19, 2016

Cape Town – The hit show Peaky Blinders returns for a third season on BBC First (DStv 119).

Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy) is drawn into a maze of global intrigue in the electrifying new season of Steven Knight’s acclaimed family saga.

Approached by a secret organization on his own wedding day, Tommy finds himself at the center of an international arms deal that could change the course of history.

His legal and illegal businesses have made him rich beyond his dreams. .He now inhabits a Roaring Twenties world of beautiful people and sumptuous mansions, and he has found love at last. But Tommy’s relatives have become increasingly difficult to handle, and threaten to blow the Shelby family apart.

Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) is Tommy’s second-in-command, the person he most trusts with the secrets and ambitions of the family business. But the return of her son Michael to the fold has made Polly uneasy about the company’s illegal enterprises. When she befriends a member of the upper classes, Polly imagines different possibilities for her future, and begins to ask herself questions that could strike at the very heart of the Peaky Blinders.

McCrory sat down for a quick Q&A about her characters and what to expect in the new season.

Where did we leave off with Polly in series two and how do we find her in series three?

We left Polly in series two having been reunited with the son that had been taken from her when he was young. She understandably feels hugely guilty about her past and wants to defend him with everything she has.  Campbell, played by Sam Neill, sees this weakness in her and uses it to humiliate her, compromising herself in order to save her son. Polly is further humiliated by the fact that her son and everyone else knows what she has done and so she does what Peaky Blinders do and she kills Campbell.

Continue reading A Quick Q&A with Aunt Polly of Peaky Blinders

Categories Peaky Blinders Print Media

Helen McCrory: David Cameron, leave our BBC alone, before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street

Posted On Written By helenistic No Comments on Helen McCrory: David Cameron, leave our BBC alone, before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street

The award-winning actor argues that she has ‘never heard anybody whine’ about paying the licence fee

by Jess Denham | May 9, 2016 | The Independent

Helen McCrory plays Aunt Polly in popular BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders while her husband, actor Damian Lewis, starred in Wolf Hall
Helen McCrory plays Aunt Polly in popular BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders while her husband, actor Damian Lewis, starred in Wolf Hall
 (BBC)

Helen McCrory has promised to set the Peaky Blinders on David Cameron if the government does not “leave the BBC alone”.

The award-winning actor plays the fearsome Aunt Polly in the BBC2 gangster drama, which returned for its long-awaited third series last Thursday.

Speaking to The Independent at the show’s press event in April, McCrory argued that she has “never heard anybody whine” about paying the £145.50 licence fee, which Culture Secretary John Whittingdale memorably branded “worse than a poll tax” in 2014.

“I know that our money has fallen from when Peaky Blinders started because of what is happening at the moment,” she said. “I think that the government policy at the moment of thinking that the country cares about the licence fee, frankly, when you look at what’s happening in Brussels is the least on our f**king minds.”

McCrory, 47, drew attention to acclaimed recent series such as Poldark, Banished and Wolf Hall, which she claims form an argument in themselves for protecting the BBC. “[The list of great BBC shows] goes on and on and on and that is because the BBC commissions TV with ambition,” she said. “Can you please write to David Cameron and ask him to leave our BBC alone before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street?”

Sunday night’s Bafta TV Awards were dominated by calls for the protection of the BBC, with Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminky using his winner’s speech to speak out in its defence.

“Our BBC is the envy of the world and we should stand up and fight for it,” he said, earning a standing ovation. “If we don’t, blink and it will be gone. There will be no more Wolf Halls, just a broadcasting landscape where the only determinate of whether something gets made is whether it’s like to line the pockets of its shareholders. It’s time for us to stand up and say ‘no’ to this dangerous nonsense.”

Categories Interviews Peaky Blinders Print Media

BBC Media Centre: Interview with Helen McCrory – Peaky Blinders Series 3

Posted On Written By helenistic No Comments on BBC Media Centre: Interview with Helen McCrory – Peaky Blinders Series 3

Helen McCrory plays Aunt Polly Gray

Polly watches the family and can see who is coping in this new world and who is not. The situation becomes very much sink or swim, with Polly definitely swimming.

— Helen McCrory

Where did we leave off with Polly in series two and how do we find her in series three?
We left Polly in series two having been reunited with the son that had been taken from her when he was young. She understandably feels hugely guilty about her past and wants to defend him with everything she has. Campbell (played by Sam Neill) sees this weakness in her and uses it to humiliate her, and she compromises herself in order to save her son. Polly is further humiliated by the fact that her son and everyone else knows what she has done and so she does what Peaky Blinders do, and she kills Campbell.

How does Polly reconcile her actions in series two with her conscience?
At the beginning of the third series you find a woman that, as a Catholic, is damned as a murderer. This series explores what happens to Polly’s soul and her mind as she carries the knowledge that she has killed a man. It is interesting to see how she battles with her conscience while still being part of this world that continues to be involved in killing.

Continue reading BBC Media Centre: Interview with Helen McCrory – Peaky Blinders Series 3