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The first series of the British period crime drama television series Peaky Blinders was broadcast on BBC Two from 12 September to 17 October 2013. Set in Birmingham, the show, created by Steven Knight, follows the exploits of the Peaky Blinders crime gang in the direct aftermath of the First World War.

It features an ensemble cast led by Cillian Murphy, starring as Tommy Shelby, Helen McCrory as Elizabeth "Polly" Gray, Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby, Sophie Rundle as Ada Shelby, and Joe Cole as John Shelby, the gang's senior members. Sam Neill, Annabelle Wallis and Iddo Goldberg also feature in the series.

Filming took place in Birmingham, Bradford, Dudley, Leeds, Liverpool, and Port Sunlight. Episodes were directed by Otto Bathurst and Tom Harper. The series received praise from critics and was nominated for multiple awards.

Main characters

 * Cillian Murphy as Thomas "Tommy" Shelby, the leader of the Peaky Blinders.
 * Sam Neill as Chief Inspector/Major Chester Campbell, an Ulster Protestant policeman drafted from Belfast.
 * Helen McCrory as Elizabeth Pollyanna "Polly" Gray, née Shelby, the aunt of the Shelby siblings, and treasurer of the Peaky Blinders.
 * Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby Jr., Tommy's best friend and eldest of the Shelby siblings.
 * Annabelle Wallis as Grace Shelby (series 1–3, 5), née Burgess, a former undercover agent, and Irish Protestant. She is Tommy's first wife and mother of his son Charles.
 * Iddo Goldberg as Freddie Thorne, a known communist who fought in the Great War with Tommy and was Ada's husband.
 * Sophie Rundle as Ada Thorne, née Shelby, the only sister of the Shelby brothers.
 * Joe Cole as John "Johnny" Shelby, the third-youngest Shelby brother and a member of the Peaky Blinders.
 * Ned Dennehy as Charlie Strong, owner of a boatyard and an uncle figure to the Shelby siblings.
 * Benjamin Zephaniah as Jeremiah 'Jimmy' Jesus, a preacher, and friend of the Peaky Blinders.
 * David Dawson as Roberts, Billy Kimber's accountant.
 * Andy Nyman as Winston Churchill
 * Charlie Creed-Miles as Billy Kimber, a local kingpin and leader of The Birmingham Boys who runs the local races.
 * Tommy Flanagan as Arthur Shelby Sr., the father of the Shelby siblings and Polly's brother.

Recurring

 * Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Esme Shelby-Lee, John's wife and a member of the Lee clan.
 * Packy Lee as Johnny Dogs, Tommy's Gypsy friend.
 * Ian Peck as Curly, a horse expert and Charlie's assistant.
 * Alfie Evans-Meese as Finn Shelby, the youngest Shelby brother and a member of the Peaky Blinders.
 * Lobo Chan as Mr. Zhang, a business owner in Chinatown.
 * Neil Bell as Harry Fenton, a former landlord and owner of the Garrison pub.
 * Samuel Edward-Cook as Danny "Whizz-Bang" Owen, Tommy's former comrade and a loyal member of the Peaky Blinders.
 * Tony Pitts as Sergeant/Inspector Moss, a police officer from Birmingham.
 * Kevin Metcalfe as Scudboat, a henchman of the Peaky Blinders.
 * Jeffrey Postlethwaite as Henry, a Peaky Blinders henchman.
 * Matthew Postlethwaite as Nipper, a Peaky Blinders henchman.

Guest

 * Natasha O'Keeffe as Elizabeth "Lizzie" Shelby, née Stark, an ex-prostitute who worked for Tommy as his secretary. She is his second wife and the mother of his daughter Ruby.

Production
On 27 July 2012, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) announced the commissioning of Peaky Blinders by Janice Hadlow and Ben Stephenson for BBC Two. The series was created by Steven Knight as his first television drama, with Knight, David Leland, Stephen Russell and Toby Finlay writing. On 21 September 2012, it was announced that Cillian Murphy, Sam Neill, Helen McCrory, Annabelle Wallis, Iddo Goldberg and Charlie Creed-Miles were cast in the series, with filming commencing in Birmingham, Bradford, Dudley, Leeds, Liverpool, and Port Sunlight. Railway sequences were filmed between Keighley and Damems, using carriages from the Ingrow Museum of Rail Travel (owned by Vintage Carriages Trust), and carriages owned by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Trust. Many of the scenes for the show were filmed at the Black Country Living Museum.

Knight originally envisioned the role of the lead Thomas "Tommy" Shelby to Jason Statham, explaining to the magazine Esquire "I met them both in LA to talk about the role and opted for Jason. [...] Cillian, when you meet him, isn't Tommy, obviously, but I was stupid enough not to understand that". Knight then opted to cast Murphy instead after receiving a text message from Murphy that read "Remember, I'm an actor".

Neill, a New Zealand actor born in Northern Ireland, enlisted the help of Northern Irish actors James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson to help him recover his lost Northern Irish accent for the role of Chief Inspector Chester Campbell. He ultimately had to tone the accent down for the distributor Endemol to market the series in the United States.

Broadcast and release
The series was broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom starting 12 September 2013 and concluding five weeks later on 17 October.

On 5 November 2013, American film and television production and distribution studio The Weinstein Company announced it had acquired distribution rights to Peaky Blinders from Endemol on linear television and streaming in the United States. On 24 September 2014, The Weinstein Company and Endemol reached a deal to distribute the series on the streaming service Netflix in the United States and select overseas markets, with the first season being released in its entirety on 30 September.

Home media
The series was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 21 October 2013 by 2entertain, under the BBC Home Entertainment label and under license from Endemol.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator website, the series holds an 88% rating based on 17 reviews. David Renshaw of The Guardian summarised the series as a "riveting, fast-paced tale of post-first world war Birmingham gangsters", praising Murphy as the "ever-so-cool Tommy Shelby" and the rest of the cast for their "powerful performances". Sarah Compton of The Telegraph gave the series four out of five, praising the show for its originality and "taking all of our expectations and confounding them". Alex Fletcher from Digital Spy believes that "Peaky Blinders has started as sharp as a dart", while Den of Geek called the series "the most intelligent, stylish and engrossing BBC drama in ages". Cult TV Times critic Hugh David said the show "warrants the billing" by "managing to tick several ratings boxes – period drama, gangster epic, film star leads – yet go against the grain of those in the most interesting of ways".