Tommy Shelby isn't a hero. Honestly, he’s barely even an anti-hero by the time the smoke clears in that final episode. Yet, we can’t stop watching. The Peaky Blinders series didn't just give us a history lesson on post-WWI Birmingham; it basically redefined how we look at the British working class on screen. It’s gritty. It’s loud. It’s smells like cheap gin and expensive cigarettes.
People always ask if the real gangs were actually like the show. Short answer? Not really. The real Peaky Blinders were mostly street thugs, not international opium smugglers with tailored three-piece suits. But creator Steven Knight wasn’t making a documentary. He was making a myth. He took the stories his uncles told him—stories of men who looked like giants because they were the only ones in the neighborhood with money—and turned them into a sprawling epic.
What the Peaky Blinders series gets right about the trauma of war
You can't talk about Tommy Shelby without talking about the tunnels. The show starts in 1919, right after the Great War. These men came back broken. In the very first scene of the Peaky Blinders series, we see Tommy using "the powder" to cope with the sensory overload of civilian life. He’s a tunneler. He spent years underground listening for the sound of German picks through the clay.
That silence? It’s terrifying for him.
The pacing of the show reflects this internal chaos. Sometimes a scene will drag on with agonizing tension—just a cigarette burning down in a dark room—and then suddenly, it explodes into a blur of Nick Cave’s "Red Right Hand" and slow-motion violence. It’s jarring. It’s supposed to be. The show argues that the Shelby family didn't choose crime because they were evil; they chose it because, after the Somme, nothing in the "normal" world felt real or high-stakes enough to matter.
The real history vs. the Knight version
History buffs often point out that the peak of the actual Peaky Blinders gang was actually in the 1890s. By 1919, they were mostly gone, replaced by the Birmingham Boys led by Billy Kimber.
🔗 Read more: Evil Kermit: Why We Still Can’t Stop Listening to our Inner Saboteur
In the show, Kimber is a secondary villain Tommy outsmarts. In reality, Kimber was a massive figure in the racing world. Knight deliberately shifted the timeline because the 1920s offered a better backdrop for the political upheaval he wanted to explore. We’re talking about the rise of Communism, the IRA's early days, and the looming shadow of Fascism.
The Cillian Murphy effect and the power of the silhouette
Let’s be real for a second. If anyone else played Thomas Shelby, would the Peaky Blinders series have lasted six seasons and a planned movie? Probably not. Cillian Murphy does this thing with his eyes—this "thousand-yard stare"—that makes you believe he’s thinking ten moves ahead of everyone else.
He rarely raises his voice.
He never eats.
Seriously, have you noticed? Across the entire Peaky Blinders series, Tommy Shelby is almost never seen eating a meal. He drinks. He smokes. He negotiates. But he doesn’t nourish himself. It’s a deliberate choice by Murphy and the directors to show a man who has completely transcended basic human needs in his pursuit of "power."
And then there’s the wardrobe. The "uniform" of the Shelbys became a global fashion trend. The heavy wool overcoats, the detachable collars, and, of course, the newsboy caps. It was a way for these men to claim space. In a world where they were seen as "scum" by the upper classes, looking like a million bucks was their greatest act of rebellion.
The women who actually ran the business
While the men were off getting shot or drinking themselves into a stupor, the women held the fort. Helen McCrory as Aunt Polly was the soul of the show.
💡 You might also like: Emily Piggford Movies and TV Shows: Why You Recognize That Face
Losing McCrory was a devastating blow to the production and the fans. Her performance as Elizabeth "Polly" Gray provided the necessary friction to Tommy’s ambition. She was the treasurer. She was the mystic. She understood that "the business" would eventually eat them all alive. The dynamic between her and Tommy wasn't just nephew and aunt; they were two sides of the same coin. When she told him "there is God, and there are the Peaky Blinders," she wasn't joking. She knew they had created their own religion based on blood and loyalty.
Political chess and the move to the South
As the Peaky Blinders series progressed, the scope moved from the muddy streets of Small Heath to the halls of Parliament. This is where some fans felt the show got a bit "too big," but it was the only logical path. Tommy couldn't stay a bookie forever. He had to face the ultimate monsters: the politicians.
Sam Claflin’s portrayal of Oswald Mosley in the later seasons is genuinely skin-crawling. It moves the show away from "gangster fun" and into a very dark reflection of 1930s Britain. The tension in Season 5 and 6 isn't just about who gets killed; it's about the soul of the country. Tommy, a man who has done terrible things, suddenly finds himself as the only person capable of stopping something even worse.
It’s a messy, complicated moral landscape.
- The IRA involvement: Always a background hum of tension.
- The Russian connection: Season 3's confusing but brilliant descent into international espionage.
- The American Mob: Adrien Brody’s Luca Changretta brought a Godfather-esque flair that divided fans but upped the stakes.
Why the ending felt like a beginning
The finale of the Peaky Blinders series didn't give us the "Scarface" ending many expected. Tommy didn't go out in a hail of bullets. Instead, he ended up in a field, stripped of his wealth, his house, and his family, standing next to a white horse.
📖 Related: Elaine Cassidy Movies and TV Shows: Why This Irish Icon Is Still Everywhere
It was a return to his roots.
The revelation about his "illness" being a ruse by Mosley and the Doctor was a classic Shelby twist. It proved that Tommy’s greatest enemy wasn't his health or his rivals—it was his own mind and the ghosts of the people he’d lost. When he decides not to pull the trigger on the man who tricked him, we see a version of Tommy we’ve never seen before: someone who is finally, truly "at peace" with the dark.
Actionable ways to experience the Peaky world today
If you’re finishing the show and feeling that void, you don't have to just rewatch it for the tenth time. There are ways to dig deeper into the actual history and the craft behind the series.
- Visit the Black Country Living Museum: This is where a huge chunk of the show was filmed. You can walk the streets that stood in for Small Heath. It’s a weirdly surreal experience to stand where the Shelbys "walked."
- Read "The Real Peaky Blinders" by Carl Chinn: If you want to separate the myth from the reality, this is the book. Chinn is a Birmingham historian who actually had ancestors in the gang. He breaks down the real social conditions of the Victorian slums.
- Listen to the soundtrack properly: The music isn't just background noise. From PJ Harvey to IDLES and Joy Division, the anachronistic soundtrack is a character itself. There are official playlists that track the evolution of the show’s mood through the lyrics.
- Watch "The Making of Peaky Blinders": Look for behind-the-scenes features on the cinematography. The way they use "Dutch angles" and specific lighting setups (lots of oranges and deep blues) is a masterclass in visual storytelling.
The story isn't over. We know a movie is in the works, and the rumors about the cast are already spinning. But even without a film, the Peaky Blinders series stands as a landmark of television. It proved that you can take a local, specific story about a midlands gang and make it feel like a Greek tragedy that resonates in every corner of the world. Just remember: don't mess with the Peaky Blinders. Especially not on a Tuesday.