Peaky Blinders: Historical Context

Answer 1

• Peaky Blinders was praised for many of its plotlines and portrayls in terms of its
  historical accuracy - many of the areas which show ‘got right’ included:
• The fashions of the era including the flat caps and suits linked to PB imagery.
• The Post War culture of men returning from the War (WW1) - sanities in ruin.
• The fear of communism particularly amongst the ruling classes.
• Obsession with horse racing / gambling (some of which was illegal)
• The rise of the British Union of Facists (although this is from a later series)

Answer 2

• The real Peaky Blinders were operational mostly before World War 1 – they
  had apparently all but disappeared by 1919 and beyond.
• Because of this, Winston Churchill never would have interacted with the
  original Peaky Blinders due to the time period. The show gives a not entirely
  accurate timeline of his career and the depiction of his character is fictitious.
• During the show, the Peaky Blinders deal with the IRA or the Irish Republican Army. The IRA rose to prominence right after World War I - it was not already established as a group like it is during Series 1 of the show.
• The gang apparently never employed razor blades embedded into the insde of their caps (as those types of razor blades hadn’t been invented).
• Tommy Shelby (or indeed any of the Shelby’s in their TV incarnations) never
  existed – it may have been a man called Thomas Gilbert or Kevin Mooney