Stephen Graham’s Peaky Blinders Character Is Definitely One-To-Watch

Peaky Blinders fans, prepare yourselves. There’s a tough guy we need to keep an eye on, and we’re not talking about Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy). Stephen Graham made a splash in his brief, but oh so memorable, turn in the fifth series of Line of Duty, and now he’s set to do the same when Peaky Blinders returns for its sixth and final instalment. The series’ plot has been kept tightly under wraps by the BBC, but the show’s creator has given us a glimpse of what to expect from Graham’s character.

Talking to Digital Spy, Steven Knight divulged: “It's somebody who comes up against Tommy, who isn't an enemy, really." Interesting. Revealing he’s long had his eye on Graham, the director added: “I've always wanted him to be in it. A character was starting to develop in the Liverpool docks. And you just think, well, there can be nobody else for this character.”

The last series of Peaky Blinders ended with Tommy running into an open field, only to find the ghost of his late wife, Grace (Annabelle Wallis), waiting for him alongside a black horse. "The work's all done, Tommy. It's all done,” she says. We see him Tommy hold a gun to his head and scream, before the screen goes black.

The sixth and final series will honour Helen McCrory, who portrayed the formidable, but loved, Aunt Polly. The celebrated actress missed out on the final series, due to her battle with breast cancer. She died in April 2021, during the latter part of the filming schedule.

Murphy recently told Variety: “I think the whole series is really in tribute to her and to honour her. Her presence and her character’s presence are very much still felt in the series, and it is very much part of Tommy’s journey in the season.”