By order of the Peaky Blinders, another season is coming very soon...
What a time to be a Peaky Blinders fan. Season five hasn’t even hit our screens yet and there’s an official music festival and ballet on the horizon, a VR game in the works, and talk of a film and various spin-offs. And that’s not all. It looks like season six could be hitting our screens much sooner than you’d expect.
Here’s everything we know about season six so far…
When will season six start shooting?
Next year! Soon, right? Season five director Anthony Byrne confirmed that he’ll be the first to return for a second series, and that work will begin very shortly.
“Steve [Knight, writer] sent me a really great email saying this was the best it’s ever been, and he couldn’t believe the rushes he was seeing,” Byrne told GQ. “Cillian Murphy started talking to me about it. We had a great relationship and he clearly liked what I was doing. Then Steve was on set and asked me officially… I really had to think about it because it’s a massive commitment to make, but it felt like this series is part one of two. I think previous series had very definite endings, whereas I think this series doesn’t end that way. So I felt more and more that I wanted to come back and finish this.”
He added: “I’m reading the scripts at the moment, which Steven is writing. I start properly on series six in early November. Then we start shooting early next year, is the plan.”
Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in ‘Peaky Blinders’ series five
Does season six have a release date?
Not yet, but judging by the usual run time we can probably expect it to hit our screens in Spring 2021. Season five started shooting in September 2018 and will premiere on BBC One in August 2019, so imagine the turnaround to be roughly one year. Fingers crossed.
Is there a trailer?
Not yet, but perhaps they’ll tease us with the drama to come once season five ends. Meanwhile, fill your boots with this teaser for series five:
What will the plot be?
We’ll have to wait to see how series five unfolds for the finer details, but we know where the arc is heading. We know series five revolves around Tommy Shelby strolling through the corridors of power after recently becoming an MP, as the Shelbys come face to face with the rise of fascism. Knight has been very vocal about how he expects there to be a total of seven series – ending with the redemption of Tommy at the start of the Second World War.
“This is part of the redemption of Tommy that started when he returned from the First World War,” writer Steven Knight told NME. “He was totally switched off and was unable to connect with humanity and the world and he’s been slowly coming back to life. Now he’s confronting an evil that makes him decide if he’s good or if he’s bad.
“The destination for the whole show has always been the start of the Second World War, so the show is the story of the family between the wars. I really want to end it with Tommy being alright. I want Tommy to be good and on the side of the angels. There’s a lesson to be learned and it will have an optimistic message, but there’s a lot of darkness to go through yet.”
He also told the crowd at the Cannes TV drama festival: “I want to take him on that journey from the person we saw [in series one], to the person he will become in 1939.
“[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.”
Tommy and Polly in ‘Peaky Blinders’
Who’ll be in the cast?
Who’s to say? Previous series have taught us that anyone can die at any time. All we know at this stage is that Tommy needs to survive for Knight’s plot through to 1939 to take place.
Who’ll be on the soundtrack?
Previous series have seen the likes of Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Iggy Pop, Radiohead, Laura Marling, Foals, and of course, Nick Cave. But what’s the one thing they all have in common?
“You just know when a song is ‘Peaky’,” Cillian Murphy told NME. “The artists are outsiders. They have resisted the tyranny of the mainstream, shall we say?”
Expect all of the ‘outsiders’ on the Peaky six score to only be one degree of separation away from Sir Nick Cave.
Nick Cave, and Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby in ‘Peaky Blinders’
“Nick Cave’s music has been there since the beginning and has defined the show sonically and atmospherically,” Murphy continued. “Once Otto Bathurst, the director of the first three episodes, put Nick Cave’s music against a period drama it fucking unlocked everything. It just works so amazingly well. Don’t ask me what it is about Nick Cave because I don’t know, but he’s one of the greatest living artists that we have. Now everything has to fit within the palette of that Nick Cave has created.”
Aside from the original tracks likely to be featured, expect an original score too. Season five’s has been written by Anna Calvi. Director Anthony Byrne spoke highly of the music she created, so perhaps she’ll return with him?
“The way she plays the guitar is very unique, and her voice and the way she uses her breath has allowed us to access the interior world of Tommy’s headspace,” Byrne told NME. “She has an innate instinct for those images, and has come up with something that I think is quite extraordinary.
“As always there’s a definite feminine voice there, but there are a lot of women in his life that are behind that – whether it’s his relationship with Lizzie or the spectre of Grace that’s hanging over him. We also touch upon the death of his mother, which we touch upon much more in this season. Anna is acting out whatever Tommy is projecting and brings this whole language to it.”
Peaky Blinders series five will premiere on Sunday August 25 at 9pm on BBC One. Check out everything else we know about season five here.
