Steven Knight has created an intensely riveting plot with the perfectly weaved story leaving viewers breathless and at the edge of their seats with their jaws unhinged. While being based on a real youth gang of that time of the same name, the show Peaky Blinders is a period drama on the post WW1 era and begins in 1919 when the Shelby brothers have just returned home from the war.

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Thomas Shelby, the anti-hero and second eldest brother, war-weary and traumatized by his time serving in the 179th Tunneling Company, has great ambition. A stolen crate of guns changes Tommy’s standing in the underworld and its ripple gets not only the government involved but also the IRA and the Communists. He raises the family’s illegal betting business to a legal one and creates a powerful crime empire which he heads. With gang wars and gun violence, this show is a take on how, from the faecal streets of Small Heath in Birmingham, the Shelby family with growing power climbs its way to the top and a classic rethinking of who the bad guy actually is.

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With perfectly tailored suits, gleaming golden pocket-watches, flying overcoats, fancy accents, unique but handsome haircuts, and their trademark peaked caps with razors stitched into them, all demands of the Peaky Blinders are invariably met because of the fear incurred by the Shelby name.

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Cillian Murphy excellently portrays Tommy as an expressionless gentleman who believes in no God and fears nothing. Though the show begins with silent, small acts of kindnesses by Tommy, the real mud and grit of the time are unveiled as it progresses. This includes Tommy, who, however great his achievements, isn’t haloed; his flaws, vulnerabilities and mistakes are highlighted. A sweet romance – that for once actually makes sense – also follows. After all, Tommy is just a man and who wouldn’t be moved by an innocent face?

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Every character has been thought out and well-planned in this series with direction that keeps eyes glued to the screen and scriptwriting that makes it binge worthy. Casting is excellent and it is overall an intelligent and stylish drama worth its engrossing pace.

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And so you are to watch this show immediately, by the order of the Peaky fooking Blinders.

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