Peaky Blinders
Fifty years ago, I read a book called ‘Ragtime’ by EL Doctorow. The book really impressed me because it included real-life events and wound real people into a fictional narrative, set in early 20th century America. The idea’s been copied several times since then, but nevertheless it came as a surprise when I heard that a TV series was to be made about Small Heath, using the same concept, which I have since found out is called historiographic metafiction.
Like any Brummie, and growing up in Small Heath, I was, of course, familiar with the stories about the Peaky Blinders (the real ones) from what my granddad had told me. He said they were around when he was a young man in the 1910s and 1920s, but he would go out of his way to avoid them. They weren’t a gang, or a family, as depicted in the TV series, but more a term used to describe a fashion among young men, rather like the Mods and Rockers or the Teddy Boys of later years. He told me that they used to sew sharpened metal (note: not razor blades) into the peaks of their caps and would attack people with these, or with heavy buckled leather belts. I understand that Steven Knight, the creator of the fictional Peaky Blinders, heard the same stories from his own grandfather.
Everyone in Birmingham knew the legend of the Blinders.
Police mugshots of some genuine Peaky Blinders. Courtesy thesun.ie
Court 7 Trent Street, Bordesley. The kind of yard that the Peaky Blinders would have lived in. © Birmingham History Past & Present
Billy Kimber
One of the main protagonists in the first series was a criminal called Billy Kimber. Kimber was a real person, coming from Aston, who led a large, violent gang known as The Brummagem Boys.
Billy Kimber
The Brummagem Boys specialised in running protection rackets for the on-course betting at racecourses, initially in the North and Midlands but later, after having formed alliances with London gangs such as the Elephant and Castle Mob and the Hoxton Gang, they began to infiltrate racecourses in the South East, which led to friction with other gangsters such as Darby Sabini (Italian) and Eddie Emmanuel (Jewish). Kimber’s various alliances with other gangs has led to him being regarded by some criminologists as the first organised crime boss in Britain.
The real Peaky Blinders had nothing to do with racecourses and it’s highly unlikely that they ever crossed paths with Billy Kimber.
The Brummagem Boys on their way to terrorise a race meeting somewhere. Billy Kimber is the hefty man in the light suit at the extreme right, onboard the Charabanc.
Alfie Solomon(s)
Played magnificently by Tom Hardy in the TV Series, the Alfie Solomons character is based on another real-life gangster called Alfie Solomon. Solomon was allied with Darby Sabini in fighting a rearguard action against the Brummagem Boys. Many of the on-course bookmakers being robbed by Kimber’s gang were Jewish. Relations between Jews and Italians in London were strained, so it made sense for the Jewish Gangster Solomon to offer to support Sabini in his resistance against Kimber’s men. When Kimber was shot and wounded in 1921, Solomon was charged, but later acquitted. He did, however, serve a three-year prison sentence for killing someone else in 1924
Alfie Solomon
It later transpired that Solomon was a police informant, which could explain how he was acquitted for the shooting of Billy Kimber.
Again, the real-life Peaky Blinders would have had no contact with Alfie Solomon, he was well out of their league! They were just street thugs; he was a fully-fledged gangster.
Other ‘Real People’
So, just like Ragtime, the Peaky Blinders TV series has skilfully tied together real-world characters with fictional ones. Aside from Kimber and Solomon, characters in the show include:
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Oswald Mosley
Diana Mitford
Jessie Eden (trade union leader)
This is the real Jessie Eden. She was a communist trade union activist working at the Lucas factory in Hockley
Arthur Bigge (Private Secretary to the Royal Family)
This is the real Arthur Bigge
Charlie Chaplin
Charles (Darby) Sabini
The real ‘Darby’ Sabini
The Black Patch, Smethwick in the early 20th Century © Abz Hussein. This is the gypsy camp where, allegedly, Charlie Chaplin was born. His son unveiled a plaque there in 2015
Some other fictitious characters are based on real-world characters, but with their names changed, for example Northern Irish policeman Charles Rafter, renamed as Inspector Chester Campbell, various post-Russian Revolution Romanov exiles, renamed as the family of Grand Duke Leon Petrovich Romanov, Billy Fullerton, head of the Glasgow Billy Boys razor gang, renamed as Jimmy McCavern, The Economic League, represented in the series by the fictional Father John Hughes and, some would argue, Joe Kennedy, father of President Kennedy, played as ‘Jack Nelson’.
Reception
Typically, the London-centric BBC underestimated how popular a regional programme like Peaky Blinders would become. The programme was initially broadcasted at 9pm on BBC2 outside peak viewing times, but as the phenomenon gathered momentum, it finally dawned on the hopeless Oxbridge luvvies at the Beeb that they had stumbled unwittingly onto a winner and eventually they moved it over to BBC1. It’s puzzling how they managed to miss out when you consider some of the award-winning actors who have featured in the series and the follow-on film:
Cillian Murphy (Tommy Shelby) – Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA‑winner
Tom Hardy (Alfie Solomons) – multiple BAFTA winner
Helen McCrory (Polly Gray) – multiple BAFTA winner and multiple Olivier nominations.
Sam Neill (Inspector Chester Campbell) – multiple BAFTA winner
Adrien Brody (Luca Changretta) – Oscar Winner.
Rebecca Ferguson (Kaulo) – Golden Globe nominee
Joe Cole (John Shelby) – BAFTA nominee
Tim Roth (Beckett) - BAFTA winner
Barry Keoghan (Duke) – BAFTA winner, Oscar nominee, Golden Globe nominee
Stephen Graham (Hayden Stagg) – multiple Emmy awards, Golden Globe winner, multiple BAFTAs
Aiden Gillen (Aberama Gold) – BAFTA nominee
Sam Claflin (Oswald Mosley) – Golden Globe nominee
I can’t think of another TV series that features such a celebrated and talented cast.
Understated Brum
Peaky Blinders is truly a global phenomenon. I had some of my American relatives visiting the UK. The two main things they wanted to do when they were here was to see Buckingham Palace and visit ‘where the Peaky Blinders lived’, so I took them on a tour of Digbeth! One thing that grieves me is how little Birmingham makes of this – were the series based in, say, Liverpool or Manchester, they would have themed pubs and restaurants all over the place. In typically understated Birmingham, even the real Garrison pub, headquarters of the fictional Peakies, is, at the time of writing, not themed in any way, being used as a kitchen equipment showroom!
The actual Garrison pub just before it closed down. Steven Knight would take Cillian Murphy there to hear authentic Birmingham accents in preparation for his role as Tommy Shelby.
It’s fair to say that, largely owing to Steven Knight’s involvement with the football club, Birmingham City FC has done a good job of marketing the club’s and the city’s connection to the Blinders – there is a Garrison hospitality suite at the football ground, which is themed on the 1920s version of the Peaky Blinders.
The Garrison hospitality suite at Birmingham City FC which features some authentic props from the TV series. © bcfc.com
“Jaysus, Tom, would yer just look at dat? Dem people out there are readin’ all about us. D’yer think dey’d buy the feller who wrote this a cup of coffee for all his work?
