Series HEADLINERS By columnist JenniferMayWest


HEADLINER: PEAKYBLINDERS HERITAGE:BRITAIN SERIES SOFAR: 1-4


WRITER& CREATOR: STEVENKNIGHT


CAST:CillianMurphy,Helen McCrory, SamNeill, Paul Anderson


If you haven’t gotten the news by now– stand to attention, because this is yourwakeup call: Peaky Blinders is amasterful piece of urban outlawpie so delicious, that it’s causing inner conflicts everywhere. What could be the reasonwe respect aman asmad and bad asMr Thomas Shelby?Maybe it’s the haircut? If nothing else, the rise in 1920s


mixedmodern crops onmenmay have caught your attention.Or perhaps it’s the increasedwant for boys to clad themselves like Newsboyswith those caps – or could it be the razor sharp intellect ofMr Shelby&Co? Eitherway, themakeup is somagnificent, that it’s setting trends fromthe crown, down: They’reHead-liners for that alone. Beginning in backstreets of


Birminghamin the heat of theWorld War I aftermath, it’s 1919 – a year as grey and polluted as theminds of the masses. The economic crisis and social divide call for a newsort of assembly: Enter Thomas Shelby to the tune ofNickCave taller than the whole town on his four-legged throne. Kicking the dust fromit’s hooves, this prize stallion is as dark as theMaster it carries – only, he’s not all


36 JUNE 2018 THECHELTONIAN


bad. The imagery is just one aspect of the “epic” that this series exudes. The Shelby ambitions run as deep


roots through a time of great strife; this is only the first ofmany ‘mares in the Shelby family album. The ascent of this poverty-stricken clan commanded by awar hero is almost poetic; you’re half expecting the “true story” strap to appear.But in the


case of the Shelby’s, there’s no such luck of the Irish in their climb to powerwhenChief InspectorMajor ChesterCampbell is sent by Churchill toweed out the Irish RepublicanArmy (IRA) and any clean up seeds left behind.With a business already booming through the races, Shelby happens upon another opportunity to put his family on the


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