Spoiler alert! Some closing ramblings on Peaky Blinders, the greatest ever TV Show?

To be honest I didn’t start watching the hit BBC1 TV drama "Peaky Blinders" until Season 4, missed out on Season 5 and then came back to Season 6. While watching Season 6 I went back over Seasons 1 to 5 to catch up on the nuances and relationships I had missed. 

Creating space for social housing
Tommy Shelby destroys Arrow Hall

I’m glad I did. It is these little hooks that make a multiple Series television programme addictive viewing. 

Take for example Tommy’s second wife Lizzie. I couldn’t understand where she had come from until I went right back to Series 1 (and Polly’s put down “Lizzie never did a day’s work vertical!”) Since then she had become increasingly useful and loyal to Tommy so presumably their marriage was one of political expediency and a public show for the voters.

By the time we got to Oswald Mosley in Series 5, and to explain his previous encounter with her, Lizzie was described as a nightclub hostess, leading ultimately to her great put down of Diana Mitford, the revenge for which ultimately saw Lizzie finally leave Tommy with Charlie in tow. While we're talking about Charlie another puzzle for me had been the relative size between Rosie and Charlie; Rosie always appears taller than Charlie? She always strikes me as the older sibling despite it being the other way round.

People have commented that Lizzie was permanently miserable in Series 6 - perhaps she had cause to be as the reality of life with Tommy sank in. Remember the conversation where Tommy said “I feel I’m still paying you for it”; that was brutal; losing a daughter was brutal; and while we never saw the exact terms on which they got married Tommy's affair with Diana Mitford was clearly the last straw. "The smoke of our daughter's funeral pyre was still on your clothes" - very poignant.

Turning to Series 6 Episode 6 my prediction was that we would "see Tommy heading off into the sunset in his caravan…………….. but whether that’s as a spirit or not we wait to see". But while I really wanted the ghosts of Tommy, Ruby and Grace to ride off into the sunset I was happy with the dodgy Doctor twist and the chance for Tommy to show he was a new man by not shooting him. I particularly liked the scenes between Arthur and Tommy and Alfie and Tommy. Poor Michael, freezing his nuts off all series in prison just to mess up big time with the assassination. I wasn’t sure why Johnny Dogs asked if he’d done good by switching cars with the bomb but "I'm going to look at the fog" was another Peaky Blinders classic line.

Destroying Arrow Hall was a great bit of cinema and literally "blew" the BBC's special effects budget, in my mind there's still unfinished business with the Billy Boys and who snitched on Aberama Gold, we can wonder how different the final series might have been if they hadn't had to write Polly's character out, we can look forward to a spin off with Finn feuding with Duke of the series. For me the ending cast Tommy Shelby in the roll of that other working class, great depression era hero Tom Joad, and we can imagine that both of them are everywhere, keeping watch over us.

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad
Another peak capped hero

On Lizzie’s character lacking depth in Series 6

Lizzie had spoken to a solicitor in Series 5 and told Tommy his boundaries. Then she had the way he acted while Ruby was dying followed by his infidelity with Diana Mitford that finally pushed her over the edge.

She was able to stand up to Mosley and Mitford in Series 5 but in Series 6, with her daughter dead and Tommy increasingly distant, she had no fight left.

But I honestly think she was allowed to leave because it matched Tommy’s plans otherwise he would have found a way of stopping her.

 luckily the storyline is a little more complex than “Tommy settling for an ex hooker”, although she did sum up her transition beautifully with “I used to f seven men a day and now I am learning to ride side saddle”.

On Ruby’s sickness and death being an unnecessary diversion to the plot

They had to have a reason for Tommy to have an X-ray, and it meant Ruby could be the one who appeared to Tommy from beyond the grave. But I agree the way he went off up the hill with Esme was a bit drawn out.

The link between smoking and lung cancer was not recognised until the 1940s and with Tommy’s apparent lack of regard for his own health perhaps he needed to be emotionally shocked into taking action.

But as you say the plot could have taken many different twists but we got what we got based on the loss of a key actor, Covid constraints and the need to set up a sequel.

Personally I would have had Tommy, Grace and Ruby riding off into sunset to Johnny Cash’s “Ain’t no Grave” (can hold my body down) but Steve Knight overruled me.

 

One final final thought: having watched everything back the thing that’s really worrying me is however did they fit that crate of guns and ammunition in Billy Whizz-bang’s grave? Poetic license!?