Peaky Blinders' home-grown gangster saga remains a sure-fire hit: review

It was a showdown between the dodgy accents on Peaky Blinders (BBC Two) last night. The period mobster drama’s star, Cillian Murphy, has long spoken in a patchy Brummie brogue, with notes of Scouse twang and his native Cork lilt leaking through. He just about gets away with it, due to his character’s Romany Irish roots. 

Now Murphy shared a tense scene with Tom Hardy as a glowering Jewish gangster prone to potty-mouthed Cockney mumbling and Aidan Gillen, whose gypsy hitman seems to hail from Dublin, Glamorgan and California all at once. Pardon me if I pop the subtitles on, gents. 

Fortunately, Peaky Blinders devotees have long stopped caring about such trifling details. This is a series where the anti-heroes swagger in slow-motion down stylised Twenties streets, set to an anachronistic indie-rock soundtrack, while flames belch, sparks fly and the sky turns strange colours. We don’t go to the dramatised slums of Small Heath for realism, we go for hard-boiled thrills, simmering feuds and snarled one-liners.

Besides, the unintelligible trio’s stand-off was incendiary stuff: three charismatic actors on-screen at once, with Hardy chewing the scenery while Murphy and Gillen stayed broodingly watchful. It’s testament to this home-grown cult drama’s burgeoning international reputation that it can now attract a line-up worthy of a Hollywood film.

This adrenalin-coursing episode found crime kingpin Tommy Shelby (Murphy) playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the Mafia amid the Midlands murk. There were decoys, double-crossings and vendettas.

Gun-for-hire Aberama Gold (Gillen) and his pugilist son Bonnie (Jack Rowan) calmly picked off two Italians with blade and bullet. Just 11 to go but only two episodes in which to do it. A pre-Christmas bloodbath is coming to town. How festive. 

Ever adept at multitasking, Tommy also found time to launch a gin-bootlegging business, juggle competing love interests and settle an industrial dispute. Finally, his friend-cum-foe Alfie Solomons (Hardy) paid a typically menacing visit, accompanied by a giant boxer named Goliath (Dino Kelly), who made The Mountain from Game of Thrones look like Ronnie Corbett.

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We left on another agonising cliffhanger. Tricked by his treacherous Aunt Polly (the electrifying Helen McCrory), Tommy drove straight into a trap, with a truck full of armed assailants laying in wait. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d been hired by the “Accent Standards Authority”.