Peaky Blinders will continue beyond film, says Knight

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Peaky Blinders will continue beyond the upcoming film, says creator Steven Knight, sparking rumours of a potential new series.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, he said that work so far on The Immortal Man: A Peaky Blinders Film looks "fantastic" and will prove to be "a very fitting way to end this part of the Peaky story."

When quizzed on what he meant by "this part" by presenters Jon Kay and Sarah Campbell, Knight added: "It's not over, let's just put it like that. I'm not allowed to announce it... but I'm just saying that the world of Peaky will continue."

The writer and producer was appearing on the show to promote his new Disney+ period drama, A Thousand Blows, starring Stephen Graham.

There have been six series of the Bafta-winning hit BBC TV show Peaky Blinders, from 2013-2022, with the upcoming Netflix film continuing the story of Tommy Shelby and his Birmingham crime gang.

It will see Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy reprise his lead role alongside an ensemble cast including Graham, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee and Ian Peck; as well as Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo, and Barry Keoghan.

"I think we've got the best British actors all in one place, including Stephen," noted Knight.

"The stuff that I'm watching, the rushes... no-one will be disappointed.

"It is quite an incredible thing."

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Speaking on the breakfast sofa, Knight also described himself as a "BBC loyalist", despite the fact his new period drama A Thousand Blows is launching on Disney+.

In his latest creation, Graham stars as notorious boxer Sugar Goodson making his way in the dangerous world of illegal boxing in 1880s Victorian London.

It follows the tale of two friends from Jamaica, Hezekiah Moscow (Small Axe star Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), who find themselves thrust into the capital's bare-knuckle boxing scene.

It's here that Hezekiah meets Mary Carr (The Crown star Erin Doherty), queen of an all-female criminal gang known as the Forty Elephants, who hopes to use his talents to her and her gang's advantage.

Disney+

Asked by BBC Radio 4's Today presenter Nick Robinson if this type of show could still be made by the BBC, Knight replied: "Peaky is a BBC show and there was no issue with making that at the BBC. I'm a huge BBC loyalist, as I think you know.

"I love to work with the BBC creatively. There is no place like it. I think the BBC should be strutting on the world stage amongst the streamers, more so than it does."

He continued: "There are issues of money. I think the BBC has a history of making do and making the best of what they have.

"I'm working with the BBC on another series now, this just happened to come along from a different direction."

His new drama, based on the blurring of several true stories, finds him - with the help of executive producer, broadcaster and historian David Olusoga - imagining "what would have happened" if Hezekiah Moscow and Mary Carr had met.

"I find that the best stories are the ones least told for some reason," he added.

Knight added he was trying to address the issue of class within the series, as that was more prominent at the time than the issues of gender and race.

"People in the East End [of all genders and races], if you're cold, you're cold; if you're hungry, you're hungry," he noted.

"The real struggle, I suppose, in A Thousands Blows, is about east versus west", he added.

In a five-star review, the Telegraph's Benji Wilson said Knight's "brutal new drama may be his best yet."

"The Disney+ 19th-century bare-knuckle boxing series is blockbusting television in every conceivable sense."

Disney+

The Standard's Adam Bloodworth awarded it four stars, writing: "The result is a fantastically entertaining stew – as well as a chaotic and gruesome one, where limbs get hacked off in the ring and bones crunch like so many cornflakes.

"Tinge Krishnan and Nick Murphy's directorial vision is a dingy but Disney-by BBC Radio 4's Today programme presenter Nick Robinsonfied labyrinth of intimidating backstreets and ropey pubs, while script writer and creator Steven Knight's script is confident but often sparse; a look speaks a thousand words, but when men like Goodson talk, you listen."

Empire's Nicola Austin also gave it four stars, calling Graham's "metamorphosis" into Goodson "incredible".

"Though not always a total knockout, A Thousand Blows certainly packs a punch – courtesy of excellent lead performances, a gripping plot, and a fascinating historical setting," she wrote.

Morgan Cormack of the Radio Times wrote another four star review, saying: "Peaky Blinders comparisons will come, but this boxing drama is its own beast."

Series one of A Thousand Blows launches on Disney+ in the UK on 21 February, with production on a second series already completed.