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

 

 

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