Welcome to the Peaky Blinders, a British gangster family epic drama that will make you want to pack up, move to Birmingham, England in 1919 and swear allegiance to the Shelby family.
At its heart, Peaky Blinders is about Thomas Shelby of the Shelby family and his ambitions to better his family by turning his criminal organization, the “Peaky Blinders,” into a legitimate business.
Not heard of the show? You soon will have, check out the trailer here.
Let’s meet the family. FYI, there are a lot of characters and getting to know everyone is like walking into a Fourth of July party as the significant other of one of the family members. Skip to the end for a season synopsis.
- Thomas “Tommy” Shelby – Lead boss man of the Peaky Blinders. Second eldest. Decorated hero of The Great War, introverted, smokes opium.
- Aunt “Pol” Polly – The matriarch and heart of the Peaky Blinders. The Shelby boys’ aunt, Aunt Polly is a tough as nails woman who ran the Peaky Blinders while the men were away at The Great War. No one makes a move in the Shelby family without asking Pol her opinion first.
- Arthur Shelby – Eldest brother who is the muscle of the family. Has a lovely conflict where he believes he should in charge of the Peaky Blinders, but he makes for a terrible leader.
- John Shelby – This third Shelby son is the cockiest one. Helps Arthur whenever things need to get rough. John’s wife died in the war, and John has trouble taking care of his four children alone.
- Ada Shelby – The fourth Shelby family member and the only female in this generation, Ada is wild, not afraid of her brothers, and absolutely not interested in the family business.
- Finn Shelby – The youngest Shelby family member at the age of 11, Finn plays a minor role in the family business and is often protected from the worst of it by Aunt Polly.
- Charlie Strong – An uncle in the Shelby clan. Owns Charlie Strong’s Yard, an area where the Peaky Blinder’s stables and boats are.
Friends of the Family:
Freddie Thorne – Love interest of Ada Shelby. Freddie grew up alongside the Shelby family, served in France alongside Thomas Shelby and Danny Owen. Was a longstanding family friend until Freddie’s sympathies for the Communist party became known.
- Jeremiah Jesus – An Afro-Caribbean street preacher in Birmingham, England who works for the Shelby family and is a member of the Peaky Blinders.
- Curly – A simple-minded Gypsy who has a gift for horses and works in the Peaky Blinder’s stables. He’s also the go-to man for automobiles.
- Daniel “Danny Whizz-Bang” Owen – Served with Thomas Shelby and Freddie Thorne in The Great War and saved Tommy’s life during his service. Member of the Peaky Blinders and often has violent PTSD flashbacks where he believes he’s still fighting in the war.
- Harry Fenton – Landlord and barman at The Garrison Pub. The Garrison Pub is the local hangout for
Peaky Blinders. - Esme Lee – Member of the Lee clan who is married to John Shelby in order to make peace within the two families.
- Lizzie Stark – A prostitute whom John Shelby proposes to, and then breaks off the engagement with.
Enemies of the Family:
- Chief Inspector Campbell – An Irish detective hired out of Belfast, Northern Ireland by Winston Churchill tasked with finding a shipment of stolen guns from the Birmingham Small Arms Company Factory.
- Billy Kimber – Runs the (legal) horse-racing tracks outside of London.
- Roberts – Billy Kimber’s accountant.
Frenemies of the Family:
- Winston Churchill – A former soldier, Winston Churchill is the Secretary of State for the Colonies who hires Inspector Campbell to find the stolen gun shipment.
- The Lee Family – A Gypsy family, blood relation of the Shelby’s.
- Grace Burgess – Undercover agent for the Birmingham Police who infiltrates the Shelby family by becoming a barmaid at The Garrison Pub.
- The Irish Republican Army (IRA) – Maguire and Ryan are two representatives of the Irish Republican Army.
Now that that’s over with, take a look below for a recap of what happened in Season 1.
The Shelby family runs the streets of Birmingham as one of the most feared criminal organizations. The bulk of their money comes from smuggling small items (alcohol, cigarettes) and from their illegal betting ring. When a shipment of guns go missing from the Birmingham Small Arms Company Factory, Thomas Shelby seizes the opportunity to better the Peaky Blinders by using the guns as leverage throughout the series.
After the guns are reported missing, Winston Churchill hires Chief Inspector Campbell to find the stolen guns. Chester Campbell is an Irish detective out of Belfast with a reputation for violence. Inspector Campbell brings along Grace Burgess, whose mission is go to undercover with the Shelbys and report information back to the Birmingham police. She quickly establishes herself as the barmaid at The Garrison Pub. Grace constantly refers to Inspector Campbell as a father figure, as he knew her father growing up, and it’s revealed that Grace’s father was killed by the IRA.
Back to the Shelby family: we find out that Ada is seeing Freddie Thorne, and that their relationship is a secret from the Shelby family. Freddie Thorne is a known, active Communist, and Ada loves him because Freddie isn’t afraid of her brothers. The tension in their relationship comes from Freddie seemingly using Ada for her connection to the Peaky Blinders as well as Freddie constantly being on the run from the police and the Peaky Blinders.
Now, the main storyline: Thomas Shelby fixes a horserace that angers Billy Kimber, the owner of the local racetracks. At the same time, he starts a war with the Lees, a Gypsy family. As Tommy continues to piss off every group within his vicinity (including the Italians, which is quickly resolved), the brutality of the Peaky Blinders shine through – they are vicious and without mercy when they fight, and it’s easy to see how they rose to the top of the criminal gangs.
Fun fact – the name “Peaky Blinders” comes from their practice of sewing razor blades into their caps, to be used as a weapon during fighting.
After learning that the Peaky Blinders fixed his horse-race, Billy Kimber shows up at The Garrison Pub and threatens Tommy. Tommy states his intention of working with Billy Kimber, which he later solidifies by stopping multiple thefts at a race from Kimber’s bookies. After Kimber agrees to hire on the Peaky Blinders as security, Kimber and Tommy then switch women (Kimber’s wife for Tommy’s Grace) for a couple hours in one of the weirdest ‘wife swaps’ I’ve ever watched on television. Kimber almost rapes Grace, but Tommy gets there just in time and saves the situation by saying that Grace has the clap, is supposed to show in some twisted manner that Tommy is falling for Grace.
Word starts getting out that Thomas Shelby has the guns that the IRA and the Birmingham police are looking for. Both the IRA and Inspector Campbell approach Thomas about the guns – the IRA threatens Tommy into giving them the guns, and Tommy strikes a deal with Inspector Campbell. The deal is that Inspector Campbell is to stay out of the business with the racetracks in exchange for running Freddie Thorne out of town (short-term benefit), and Tommy will give the guns to Campbell at some point in the near future (long-term benefit). Tommy also meets with the Lee family in an attempt to have peace between the Lee and Shelby families.
In the meantime, Aunt Polly finds out that Ada is pregnant and convinces her to get an abortion. Tommy finds out that Freddie has gotten Ada pregnant, and is afraid that Freddie is trying to solidify his ties to the Peaky Blinders family. Despite Tommy’s warnings, Freddie proposes to Ada and they decide to keep the baby. Tommy later confronts Freddie and they almost kill each other until Freddie declares that he’s been in love with Ada since he was twelve and she was nine – this causes both men to put their guns down and walk away from the conflict, and Tommy is left with the problem of not holding up the short-term part of his deal with Inspector Campbell.
After going into business with Billy Kimber, the Peaky Blinders are issued a betting license and have thus achieved their goal of becoming a legitimate business. Grace is hired on as a ‘business manager,’ mainly to keep the books in shape as Arthur is so bad at it, and to bring some class to the Peaky Blinders proceedings. Tommy then kisses her to let her know he has other reasons for hiring her on as well. The insinuation here is that Tommy is falling in love, because if Tommy just wanted to fuck Grace he could’ve done so by now and no one would’ve been able to stop him.
Shortly after, John Shelby asks the family’s permission to marry a well-known prostitute, Lizzie Stark.
Tommy tests Lizzie to see whether she will give up whoring now that she is engaged to John, and she fails the test. Tommy tells John about how Lizzie is still working despite being engaged. John breaks the engagement off with Lizzie, and the very next morning Tommy manages to marry John to Esme Lee (part of the Gypsy Lee family) as a peace treaty.
At the celebration after John’s marriage, Ada goes into labor. Tommy declares a peace with Freddie Thorne for the night, and Freddie comes running to Ada’s side, where he is handed a newborn son (Karl, named after Karl Marx). Unfortunately, Grace hears this tidbit, tells the Birmingham police, and gets Freddie arrested. Tommy is blamed for setting a trap for Freddie.
A higher-ranking member of the IRA visits Tommy and they setup a sale for the guns at The Garrison Pub. A couple minutes before the IRA walks into the pub, Tommy tells Grace to hide in a backroom and point a gun at the IRA members (two of them), at his signal. After finding out the location of the guns, the IRA tries to kill Tommy, Grace ends up shooting an IRA member (an IRA member had killed her father), and Tommy kills the other one. It’s revealed that the Birmingham police was supposed to intervene at an earlier time, and it’s at this point when Tommy realizes that he can’t trust the word of Chief Inspector Campbell.
Grace, after overhearing the conversation with the IRA and Tommy, figures out the location of the guns and tells Inspector Campbell on the condition that he leaves the Shelby family alone. Inspector Campbell finds the missing guns underneath the fake grave of Danny Owen. Everything is accounted for except for one machine gun, and Grace resigns with the Birmingham police. In response, Inspector Campbell proposes marriage to Grace, and Grace turns him down. In a typical turn of events, Inspector Campbell assumes that Grace is in love with Thomas Shelby, and does the typical man-thing of getting angry because he doesn’t approve of her choice in love (read: not Inspector Campbell). Since Inspector Campbell has the guns, he no longer has to fear Tommy and sics the police on The Garrison Pub. Tommy manages to get away with the help of Grace, who leads him to her apartment. Inspector Campbell refuses to let his policemen go after Grace though, and so Tommy is safe. While Tommy is hiding out at Grace’s for the night, Tommy pulls a slick “let’s dance” move and they have sex set to some lovely piano music.
Back to business: Thomas Shelby gathers the family to move against Billy Kimber, only to find out that Billy Kimber has been notified and brought the fight to the Peaky Blinders. Outnumbered, the outcome looks bleak for the Peaky Blinders.
When Inspector Campbell is informed of the upcoming showdown, he tells the police to stand down and desert the area where the fighting is about to happen so that the two sides can kill each other.
Then, at the battle, Freddie Thorne appears with the missing machine gun, thus evening out the odds of the Peaky Blinders surviving. All hell is about to break loose when Ada appears with her baby in a carriage and stands squarely in the middle of the Peaky Blinders and Billy Kimbel’s men. She tries to get the men to stand down, appealing to their paternal natures as fathers, husbands and brothers, and as a result Billy Kimber gets the first shot in at Tommy Shelby. Tommy takes the hit in the shoulder, and Danny Owen rushes in front of the next bullet that’s meant for Tommy. Tommy then promptly shoots Billy Kimber in the head, and everyone goes home. On the bright side, none of the police officers were there so no one can arrest Tommy for shooting Billy Kimber.
After the fight, Tommy knows that Grace was working for the Birmingham Police, and because of that their love is doomed. Grace asks Tommy to go America with her, which he later turns down in a letter that’s read over the last scene as Grace is held up at gunpoint by Inspector Campbell. A gunshot snaps the episode to black as we are left with wondering whether Grace is dead come Season 2.
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