The Peaky Blinders creator on Tommy’s mental health journey and series five’s cliffhanger ending. Interview by Louisa Mellor.
When Tommy Shelby held a gun to his head in the series five finale, it wasn’t the first time, says Steven Knight. Tommy came back from the First World War changed. Though physically whole, mentally he was as ravaged as his brothers-in-arms Barney Thompson and Danny Whizz-Bang, two soldiers who returned from France in body but not in mind.
That’s why the men Tommy served with – the tunnelling clay-kickers, machine gunners and snipers of the Warwickshire Yeomanry – are the only people he trusts. Only they understand the blood and dust and flames raging behind those still blue eyes. Knight gives Peaky Blinders TV a glimpse inside Tommy’s head.
How was Tommy changed by his experiences fighting in the First World War?
Tommy came back from the war pretty much prepared to be dead. I always imagined that just before the series began, he’d put a gun to his head but decided ‘I might as well carry on, why not?’ There’s a line by the artist Francis Bacon, ‘It’s all so meaningless, we may as well be extraordinary’. That’s completely what Tommy is at the beginning.
When he got back from the war, the war was still going on in his head. Imagine you’ve been in an environment where you pull a trigger on a machine gun and kill 20 people in 10 seconds, and then you get home and get told human life is precious… He carried on with the war, like a lot of people did, inside.
It shut him down emotionally?
During really horrific war situations, human beings change very quickly. Some part of the subconscious decides ‘If you’re going to survive, you’ve got to be like this’ so that’s who you become – hard and brutal and all of those things that happen to soldiers. When Tommy got back, he couldn’t stop that. He was frozen inside, like a lot of people who’ve suffered the trauma of war.
Tommy was locked up and frozen inside for a long time. Then he met Grace and she changed things, she unlocked the doors a bit. Then as soon as that happens, it gets closed down again because she gets killed. What I keep doing with these characters is offering them a road to happiness and then blowing the bridge up and not letting them go down it. Polly too, would have been happy perhaps with Aberama, but then he’s taken away from her as well.
Is there special significance to Grace’s name?
Yes. She was exactly that, the old Puritan Christian concept of grace – whether
... keep reading on reddit ➡Which land vehicle would win?
Yeah. I couldn't finish book one. This rarely happens with me. I got through Lolita because it was a classic even though it turned my stomach. I got through Belinda even though it was the worst, gut-churning book my favorite author ever wrote; even the wolf series which admittedly was a tough sell. But I just can't this time. This saddens me because the first part of this book was striking in the development of the protagonist. It was not like the beginning to any other fantasy series that I have read, and I do love fantasy series. I was so looking forward to spending the minus 20 degree weather curled up with my cat on the sofa reading this book today, but no. I'm interested in anyone else's reactions and insights. Please share.
What would be the political implications of potentially having two supreme court vacancies, and the return to a 5-4 conservative court?
Tony Stark was almost the cause or part of all the problem of the previous MCU, Avengers 1, Avengers 2, Civil War, SpiderMan etc. This time Dr. Strange has it's share with other problems
I heard the story of this man who lived in seclusion in the Maine woods for 27 years. Several other podcasts have covered the dude, but I’d love to hear DA and Gareth discuss it.
One of the members in discord found through Fidelity [ to check go: Fidelity > Research > Tools] that stock sales by directors Thomas Healy and Stephen S. Phang were "Automatic Sell". This means these sales were not as Christopher on YF said "sells that they woke up and decided to do, these are on an automatic schedule via SEC rule 10b5-1…."
So what is SEC rule 10b5-1?
Rule 10b5-1 provides an affirmative defence from insider trading for corporate insiders and companies to buy and sell company stock as long as they adopt their trading plans in good faith and while not in possession of material non-public information. These arrangements typically involve periodic sales pursuant to a schedule determined at the outset of the plan, sometimes combined with giving a third party (generally a broker) sole discretionary authority with respect to certain aspects of the trades.
That being said, the whole argument of TH selling due to bad news to come is out the window.
