Through five seasons, Steven Knight’s historical crime thriller “Peaky Blinders” depicts the illicit exploits of the Shelby family in the years following World War One. When a violent guy named Tommy Shelby (headed by the enigmatic Cillian Murphy) starts moving up the ranks to become the largest figure in the world of organised crime, the drama revives 1920s Birmingham, a city dealing with the effects of war.
Since its debut in 2013, “Peaky Blinders” has starred an ensemble cast that includes Murphy as well as the older members of the gang played by the late Helen McCrory (Polly) and Paul Anderson (Arthur Shelby). Sam Claflin (Sir Oswald Mosley), Finn Cole (Michael Gray), Annabelle Wallis (Grace Shelby), Tom Hardy (Alfie Solomons), and Sophie Rundle (Ada Shelby), among others, all have recurring parts.
Early in 2022, the highly acclaimed drama will return with its sixth and final season, marking nine years since the Shelby family’s follies began. Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, has swiftly become one of the most intriguing characters in television history. He has a flat cap that was sewed with a knife, and he is vicious and unrelenting in his quest to keep his family safe while also trying to establish the Peaky Blinders as the top gang in the nation. He is a fearless, self-interested individual who you would never want as an adversary because of his unwavering drive and fearlessness.
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What do we know about Tommy Shelby’s past despite having observed his flawless character development on the show? We catch glimpses of Tommy’s old life anytime he isn’t putting on a brave face. When he was younger, Tommy frequently laughed and smiled, he was a romantic, and he loved horses. However, how could a young boy decide he wanted to enter and rule over the world of organised crime?
Steven Knight, the author of the series, offered two poems via audio stories around the end of the year, which provide insight into the personalities of Tommy Shelby and Alfie Solomons. With Cillian Murphy reciting the poem, “The Ballad of Tommy Shelby” explores the past that caused Tommy to develop into the cruel, unforgiving person we know him to be today.
Alfie Solomons is the subject of “The Gospel of Alfie Solomons,” which is narrated by Tom Hardy. The audios eventually shed light on Tommy and Alfie’s background, although some portions of it have been revealed over the course of the seasons.
Tommy Shelby Liked Scaring People … And Horses
Yes, Tommy Shelby enjoyed frightening people when he was younger—without using weapons, of course. In the audio, Cillian Murphy describes how Tommy used to startle people as a kid in order to get them to laugh.
“But for a laugh, with a stick, not to rob you, he’d come out of the fog, not to rob you, just to scare you, and to make you laugh.”
The poem also discusses Tommy’s passion for horses, which has been a recurring theme in the programme. He used a stick to almost kill a drunk man as a boy in order to save a horse.
“And once, to save a horse, he used a stick on a drunk. They had to pull him away, or the man would be dead. They whispered: Get him away from here. That man has friends.”
His Past Continues To Haunt Him
Tommy enlisted in the military in 1915 and “went away on a ship to fight a million other kids, and they all pulled straws to see who eventually perished,” according to one account. We already know that Tommy worked in a really sinister position during the war. He was a clay-kicker or a tunneler, going behind enemy lines to place explosives that would blow up their fortifications.
Shelby grew to hate those who put him into battle after personal exposure to the horrors of war and the constant threat of death. His experiences have caused him to dislike authority, religion, and terror.
“And the boy came home knowing everyone, but the horses lied,” Murphy writes. The poem depicts Tommy’s adventures underground and his scepticism of the significance of bravery awards. He believes he is about to be swallowed up as he hears the ground below shake. Even yet, he manages to survive after it’s all over.
The character has post-traumatic stress disorder when we first meet him at the start of season 1, and this condition only gets worse with the passing of his wife Grace and his injury to his skull in season 3.
Tommy’s survival during the war was, in Murphy’s words, “nothing short of a miracle.” However, not everyone held that he had.
“Then, by some miracle, they sail you home; to the place you used to be, and the barman says: Tommy, I heard you died, but anyway, what is it that you want?”
After his return, Shelby stopped worrying about the past and instead “become the soldier of the living lost, the ruler and guardian of the forgotten past.” In the final few lines of the poem, Murphy proclaims Tommy’s rebirth as he relates his undying desire to rule Birmingham: “I came out of the fog, a sleepy-eyed kid.”
Tommy’s hopes will continue to be dashed in the next season 6, and new foes like Oswald Mosley will surface.
Alfie Solomons Dislikes Many Things
We discover a lot about Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy), who has a wide range of pet peeves.
He doesn’t accept the idea that nothing is ever perfect and that things only get worse with time. “Some issues are simply unfixable. Some people do not have the best of intentions when they are born, “In the audio, Hardy reads.
We also learn about Alfie’s imperfect father, Alfred Solomons Sr. He is referred to as a “barbarian” and a “dispenser of semen to the gullible and the disoriented” by his son, who has low opinion of him.
Alfie’s father’s absence throughout his life is also made plain.
“He planted the seed, but he did not tend the garden. He stayed only long enough to piss on the compost.”
The Mystery Behind Alfie’s Hat
The audio reveals that Solomons Sr. was a trader who operated out of a suitcase, but the largest revelation may be the answer to the character’s hat-related conundrum.
Alfie never saw his father, and the cap he is wearing is the same one he has worn his entire life. He has clung to the “holy relic,” which was the only way he might have known his father during his formative years because there were “no kisses, no night stories.”
Because it allowed him to strategize and let “the schemes and proposals” “come out of the darkness,” Alfie continued to wear the hat. He frequently dreams about the victims he has killed, despite the fact that he doesn’t feel bad about his murders.
Alfie has been involved in several deaths, all of which are still haunting him today. “I’ll have you know, [the victims] attend my dreams every night in different disguises, in regular order, without any rhyme or reason to it.” Alfie’s linens “had to be wrung out with sweat” when he awakens in the morning.
There is no good or bad in this world, only strong individuals who redefine it to suit their whims and fancies, according to Hardy’s character, who believes this to be true.
“There is no good, and there is no bad that is categorical in this world beyond the calculations of powerful men who shift the definition according to their own selfish schemes of accumulation. Life is good, and death is bad purely, purely for argument’s sake,” he concludes.
