VCT filming: Peaky Blinders
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Images used with written permission of Tiger Aspect Productions
BBC News item on Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders, an epic gangster saga, begins in 1919 in the lawless slum neighbourhoods of post-war Birmingham, Returning soldiers, newly-minted revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival in an industrial landscape gripped by economic upheaval. Guns smuggled home from the trenches find their way onto the streets and become lethal currency. Communists don’t just dream of revolution – they are planning for it and the Government is expecting it. As Churchill mobilises his Special Branch forces, illegal bookmakers make fortunes in speak-easy betting shops and traumatised infantrymen drink away their shell-shock in riotous ale houses.
There is still a gentler city at the fringes, where gypsies and canal boatmen deal horses and tell fortunes but sitting at the top of this industrial jungle are the extended Shelby family, whose many brothers and sisters, cousins and uncles, make up the fiercest gang of all, the “Peaky Blinders”. Named for their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, the Peaky Blinders make their money from off-track betting, protection and robbery.
Their boss Tommy Shelby is the most ruthless brother of them all, but his leadership is about to be put to the test, A ruthless new police Chief Inspector named Campbell arrives in town to clean up the city from Belfast to clean up the city and, perhaps more lethally, a beautiful woman – Grace Burgess – arrives in the neighbourhood with a mysterious past and a dangerous secret.
A six-part Caryn Manderbach/ Tiger Aspect co-production for BBCTV
Characters:
Chief Inspector Campbell Sam Neill
Aunt Polly Helen McCrory
Freddie Thorne Iddo Goldberg
Arthur Shelby Paul Anderson
Ada Shelby Sophie Rundle
Grace Burgess Annabelle Wallis
Winston Churchill Andy Nyman
Arthur Senior Tommy Flanagan
Characters in other scenes, not involving Vintage Carriages Trust:
Thomas Shelby Cillian Murphy
Shooting dates: 13 and 14 November 2012 on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
Scenes:
Episode 1 scenes 12, 17, 46 and 47
Episode 2 scene 68
Episode 5 scene 43J
Episode 6 scenes 34, 90, 91, 95, 98 and 100
Carriages provided by Vintage Carriages Trust: Metropolitan Railway Third 465
Metropolitan Railway First 509
Southern Railway “Chatham” Brake Third 3554
Other railway carriages used in the scenes: Lancashire & Yorkshire Club Carriage no 47
Lancashire & Yorkshire Brake Third no 1474
Steam locomotive used: London & North Western Railway Coal Tank no. 1054, numbered as 7799
Executive Producers: Steven Knight, Caryn Manderbach, Greg Brennan, Jamie Glazebrook, Faith Tiplady and Matthew Read
Producer: Katie Swinden
Line Producer: Brian Kaczynski
Directors: Tom Harper & Otto Bathurst
Designer: Grant Montgomery
Director of Photography: Steven Hall
Production Manager: Rebecca Davies
Location Manager: Andy Morgan
Location Assistant: Claire Stibbon
Graphic Designer: Josephine Watkinson
2nd Assistant Directors: Gemma Nunn, Laura Coggan-Hulmes
3rd Assistant Director: Jack Casey