‘Peaky Blinders’ - a new Birmingham crime family saga starring Irish actors Cillian Murphy & ‘Love/Hate’s Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, set in the 1920s - begins this Thurs 12th Sep on BBC Two.
Murphy, best known for roles in ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ and ‘Batman Begins, plays Thomas Shelby, leader of the Birmingham gang the Peaky Blinders, so-called for the razor blades sewn into their caps.
IFTN first reported on Murphy's casting in an article in August last year.
Vaughan-Lawlor, meanwhile, will feature as an IRA man - in an ironic twist given Nidge’s difficulties with the IRA in season three of ‘Love/Hate’.
Both actors have previously won IFTA awards for Best Actor, for ‘Breakfast on Pluto’ and ‘Love/Hate’ respectively - with ‘Peaky Blinders’ marking their first major roles on UK TV.
Murphy revealed that he prepared for the role by spending time with Romany gypsies and that the show explores how some British soldiers who returned from WWI turned to crime when they couldn’t readjust to civilised society.
The six-part series is scripted by BAFTA-winning screenwriter Steven Knight (‘Eastern Promises’, ‘Dirty Pretty Things’) and features among its cast members Sam Neill (‘Jurassic Park’), Paul Anderson (‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’) and Helen McCrory (‘Skyfall’).
The programme is produced by Tiger Aspect Productions, who just wrapped filming on ‘Ripper Street’ season two in Dublin, and UK-based Caryn Mandabach Productions.
The trailer for ‘Peaky Blinders’ can be viewed below:
