BBC Two crime TV series ‘Peaky Blinders’ has been confirmed for a second series with Cillian Murphy returning in the lead role as Thomas Shelby. Helen McCrory (‘Harry Potter’), who played Aunt Polly, will also reprise her role while new characters and cast are yet to be announced.
The return of the actors was confirmed by the producers of the show, who include Greg Brenman (‘Billy Elliot’), Brian Kaczynski (‘Dear Frankie’) and Oscar nominee Steven Knight (‘Eastern Promises’, ‘Dirty Pretty Things’), who also created and wrote the show.
The announcement followed the actors’ wins at the recent Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels in Biarritz, which took place last Saturday in France. At the Festival, Murphy won the Best Actor award and McCrory won for Best Actress. The TV series also won for Best Original Soundtrack, with music composed by Emmy nominee Martin Phipps.
The series is set in 1920s Birmingham and follows the activities of gangster Thomas Shelby, played by Murphy in his first major TV role. Murphy has said about his character in the show, “For me, you just try and imbue some sort of honesty in the characters, some sort of truthfulness and humanity.”
The BBC says that season two, due to air in 2014, will “see the Shelby family expand their empire South and North while maintaining a stronghold in their Birmingham heartland… Tommy's attempts to make the business legitimate will be undermined by sinister forces, and his ascent into the decadent high society of Twenties England will be helped by his gangster credentials.”
Cillian Murphy has also been confirmed to star in Jason Lew’s debut feature film ‘The Free World’ with co-star Bryce Dallas Howard (‘the Help’, ‘The Village’). Other films Murphy has in the pipeline include ‘Aloft’ and ‘Transcendence’.
The second series of ‘Peaky Blinders’ will begin filming next month, and will be shown on BBC Two in their Autumn schedule this year.
For a trailer to the series see here, and for a series clip see here.
