Entertainment
What does Peaky Blinders mean? The story behind the name of the BBC drama
What exactly is a ‘Peaky Blinder’? (Picture: BBC/Mandabach/Tiger Aspect/Robert Viglasky)
The name for the show has to come from somewhere.
The BBC show Peaky Blinders starring Cillian Murphy about the criminal Shelby family after World War I in Birmingham, has had people looking into the history behind the series since it began back in 2013.
The show follows ring leader Tommy Shelby, played by Murphy, along with his brothers Arthur played by Paul Anderson and John played by Joe Cole, chronicle the men of the Peaky Blinders gang.
It finally returns for its sixth – and final – season tonight, with many fans excited to see what will become of the Shelby’s and the Peaky Blinders (or what’s left of them anyway).
But what does ‘Peaky Blinders’ mean, and where did the name come from?
What does Peaky Blinders mean?
Cillian Murphy returns as Tommy Shelby (Picture: Robert Viglasky/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd & Tiger Aspect Productions Ltd)
The Peaky Blinders were a criminal youth gang from Birmingham, England, active during the late 19th to earlier 20th century.
The name was derived from the weapons the group made and used.
They would stitch razor blades to the inside of their flat caps.
While the Shelby family are fictional, the gang itself was very real, featuring legitimate crooks such as David Taylor, “baby-faced” Harry Fowles, Ernest Haynes, and Stephen McNickle
From the weapons to the costumes, the show is true to the roots of the story and the grit of the gang comes through.
Cillian Murphy films his role of Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders and fires off a gun in Manchester City Centre (Picture: Mark Campbell/MCPIX)
Flat caps were commonly called ‘peakys’ at the time and when the person wearing a flat cap equipped with razor blades headbutted someone in a fight it would cause the victim temporary blindness.
In the TV series you can see this first hand, when Tommy Shelby and his gang fight they whip off their caps and use the blades to cause series damage to their victim’s face.
The Peaky Blinders had a distinctive clothing style of peaked caps, cravats, bell-bottom trousers and a jacket with brass buttons.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
The show is incredibly true to the original style of the gang, and the Peaky Blinder haircut, or the hair style of the characters on the show, has become a new fashion trend in men’s hair.
The Shelby boys and many others associated with them will always be impeccably dressed in the drama, but not pretentious about their ensemble.
The women associated with the Birmingham gang would historically have a distinctive style of wearing lavish pearls and a large fringe hiding the face.
The late great Helen McCrory (Picture: BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd 2019/Ben Blackall)
Aunt Pol, or Polly Shelby played by the late Helen McCrory, has a fringe in the show, and her hair often obscures her face, she can also be seen wearing other items typical of the era and style of the group.
The women would also often wear brightly coloured silk scarves hiding their necks as it was common for their Peaky Blinder boyfriends to be violent towards them.
More: Showbiz
Peaky Blinders originated as one gang but the name became a general name for ‘sloggers’ or fighters, according to Philip Gooderson, author of ‘The Gangs of Birmingham’.
What time is Peaky Blinders on?
It’s the beginning of the end for Tommy Shelby (Picture: BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd./Matt Squire)
The sixth season of Peaky Blinders begins tonight – February 27 – at 9pm on BBC One.
You can catch up and stream all the series so far on BBC iPlayer.
MORE : Peaky Blinders season 6: Will Tom Hardy return as Alfie Solomons?
Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Share your views in the comments below
