Cillian Murphy on Peaky Blinders: 'There's a blurring of lines between me and Tommy'

"From the moment Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby first sauntered through a Birmingham slum on horseback in 2013, ash pouring down to the strains of Nick Cave's doom-and-gloom sermon "Red Right Hand", it was obvious that Peaky Blinders was different. A post-First World War gangster drama set in a working-class area of Brum, backlit by factory flames and driven by a brooding, anachronistic soundtrack, it felt impossibly cool, stitching itself into the cultural zeitgeist like a razor blade in the peak of a flat cap."

"Six series later, having garnered more than six million viewers in its prime, it's striding into cinemas and onto Netflix with a long-awaited film, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, set in 1940, with Tommy grieving his daughter alone in a remote country pile."

"Tim Roth - who joins alumni such as Tom Hardy, Adrien Brody and Anya Taylor-Joy - agreed to The Immortal Man after Murphy himself texted, asking him to take on the role of John Beckett, treasurer of the British Union of Fascists. "I was a bit nervous about telling him I hadn't seen it," he says. "But he laughed - which is typical Cillian.""

Peaky Blinders debuted in 2013 as a distinctive post-First World War gangster drama set in Birmingham's working-class neighborhoods, distinguished by its brooding aesthetic, anachronistic soundtrack, and Cillian Murphy's commanding performance as Tommy Shelby. The series became a cultural phenomenon, attracting six million viewers at its peak and spawning merchandise, themed establishments, and celebrity fans including Snoop Dogg and David Bowie. The franchise now extends to cinema with Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a film set in 1940 featuring new cast members Tim Roth and Rebecca Ferguson. Notably, both newcomers had minimal familiarity with the series before joining the project, with Roth recruited directly by Murphy and Ferguson having watched only one season of the six-season run.

Read at The Independent