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5 Interesting Facts About Peaky Blinders

Here are some sneaky behind the scenes facts about Peaky Blinders to tickle your fancy...

By Sally McKinstryPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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Peaky Blinders is a gritty period crime drama series set in post World War One.

It follows the trials and tribulations of the Peaky Blinders gang, headed by the notorious Shelby family, and their aspirations to expand their criminal exploits in Birmingham and beyond.

Peaky Blinders has gripped audiences worldwide since its inception in 2013, and its popularity has accelerated ever since.

This binge-worthy show has a second to none cast, brilliant writers and gripping storylines that will continue to spellbind its viewers long after the final series airs.

Here are some sneaky behind the scenes facts about Peaky Blinders to tickle your fancy.

1. Smokey Blinder

Patriarch of the family Tommy Shelby is rarely seen without a cigarette in his mouth, in fact, he spends the majority of the series broodily puffing away while conjuring up his latest law-flouting scheme.

Actor Cillian Murphy is actually a non-smoker, so he opted to smoke herbal rose-scented cigarettes on set instead. The aromatic cigarettes don’t contain any tobacco or nicotine, instead, they are composed of dried herbs such as mint, lemongrass and cinnamon.

Murphy used to joke that the herbal cigarettes were part of his "five a day" allowance and he once asked the prop department to estimate how many he smoked while filming an entire series, and it came to a whopping total of over 3,000.

2. Family Affair

Family is a core narrative embedded deep into the Peaky Blinders storylines, even if the Shelby's do have a slightly skewed and unconventional take on family life.

It would appear there are family ties offset too, with the Cole brothers. Michael Gray, played by Finn Cole, and John Shelby, played by Joe Cole, play long-lost cousins in the show and are also brothers in real life.

Joe has starred on the show since the outset, and when the part of Michael Gray came up, he convinced his brother to audition for the role. Finn was barely out of college at the time; he had his A-Levels coming up but decided to take a gamble and sent an audition tape off to casting directors.

Within a couple of whirlwind months, he was filming the second series alongside his real-life brother and his new fictitious family, the Shelby's.

3. The Peaky Blinders were a real Victorian gang

The storylines from the hit TV series may be fictitious, but the Peaky Blinders were, in fact, a real gang based in Birmingham in the 1890's.

Just like the Shelby's Peaky Blinders, they were also renowned for their sophisticated fashion sense and strong disregard for the law.

The real Peaky Blinders didn't get involved in the same gravitas of crimes as their fictional counterparts; they were more likely to be found stealing bikes or breaking into clothing shops.

By the 1920's, a larger, more powerful gang, 'The Birmingham Gang', gained a stronghold on the city and the Peaky Blinders began to filter out.

4. Most of the show is shot in Liverpool

Despite most of the series being set in Birmingham and the storylines revolving around the Peaky Blinders exploits to gain control of the city, the show was filmed all over the UK.

With parts being filmed in Leeds, Manchester, Bradford, Dudley, Bolton, and Keighley, the majority of the shooting actually took place in Liverpool.

In series one, the distinctive Victorian-style street where the Shelby family resides is, in fact, the soot-blackened Powis Street in Liverpool.

There is even a tour bus that will take avid fans of the show around all the filming locations in Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside area.

5. The real Peaky Blinders didn't have razor blades sewn into their caps

Rumour has it that the Peaky Blinders earned their moniker because they hid razor blades in the peaks of their caps to cut anyone that crossed them.

It was said that if they wanted to do some serious damage, they would headbutt someone which would cause them to go blind.

This wasn’t so true of the real Peaky Blinders, who couldn't even afford luxuries such as razor blades.

Historians believe 'Peaky' stemmed from the slang term given to their preferred style of hat, and 'Blinder' was another slang term used to describe someone of dapper appearance.

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We hope you found these facts as interesting as we have.

If we still haven’t managed to satisfy your appetite for all things Peaky Blinders, check out this list of Peaky Blinders gifts for ideas to spoil a loved one (or yourself!).

Thanks,

- Taz & Jay

tv review
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About the Creator

Sally McKinstry

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