‘Peaky Blinders’ creator on what will happen to Tommy Shelby and how the show will end

"He will be redeemed, and he will become good"

The creator of Peaky Blinders has revealed what path he wants the show to take in the final seasons – particularly the fate of lead character Tommy Shelby.

Peaky Blinders season five, which is currently in post-production and due to air later this year, picks up in 1929 after the stock market crash and tells of Tommy’s life in the corridors of power as an MP while facing the rise of fascism.

Creator Steven Knight has previously spoken of how he feels that there should be two more seasons of the show that take the plot up until the start of World War Two, but now he’s revealed how he wants to develop the arc of Cillian Murphy’s lead role from his ganglord beginnings into a man reborn.

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Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in ‘Peaky Blinders’

“I want to take him on that journey from the person we saw [in series one], to the person he will become in 1939,” said Knight at theCanneseries TV drama festival, reports Variety.

“[Series seven] will tell a different story, where Tommy Shelby – who begins as this nihilistic, looking-out only for his family person – will be redeemed, and he will become good.”

Knight also said that he wanted the show to challenge misconceptions about the working class in the UK.

“The tradition in Britain is if you do anything about working class people either they are scary or funny or it is a shame, it’s a pity … we must feel sorry for them,” Knight added.

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“The experiences I had of working-class life was of people enjoying themselves, having a laugh, having fun, having self-respect; they were in control of their own destinies to an extent, and so I wanted to reflect that. So you had a working-class environment where these people are sort of aristocracy in a way within their own community.”

This comes after an academic made headlines by claiming that Peaky Blinders “glorifies violence, nationalist ideologies and toxic masculinity”.

However, Peaky Blinders’ creators defended the show – arguing that the ideas are presented to be challenging, provocative and create a dialogue.

“The story of Peaky Blinders invites viewers to consider the effect of violence on men, and the terrible and long-lasting consequences — on both men and women — of gang violence, poverty, and most of all armed conflict,” a spokesperson said.

“The series also discusses the role played by the Establishment in relation to the above.”

Meanwhile, this week also saw the odds slashed on Cillian Murphy being cast as the new James Bond.

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