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Peaky Blinders - review


Pighills

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Just finished watching this and whilst not set in WWI, it has many referenes to it. The flashbacks and after affects the men have portrayed so far are brillant.

It will be interesting to see how this develops and what other references they will use from WWI.

Thoroughly enjoyed it so far.

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Somewhat surprised that no other comments have been made as yet. I watched this drama quite spell-bound by the story-line and the quality of the acting and sets. If I was to rake up anything that caught my eye it was the brief scene where in the background, men stripped to the waist were supposed to beating presumably metal with sledge hammers, but patently weren't. For goodness sake, why not? I was also left questioning the scene when a certain man is executed. Won't spoil the story-line for anyone who has not seen this, but found the scene very hard to believe once I learnt the actual outcome. These very minor niggles aside, I thought it was an astounding production.

David

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Just watched it on iPlayer.

Very good. Contemporary music on historical drama is all the rage today, isn't it.

Minor niggle - everyone drinking beer from 10 sided glass pots instead of stoneware.

Nice to see Ben Zephaniah, but a West Indian with dreadlocks in 1919??

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Wouldn't normally watch a drama like this, but was prompted to by the comments on here, and was quite glad I did - very watchable, well acted and well written.

On bar room quibbles, the 'mild' looked like bitter to me...!

James

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This show had me thinking - which real life gangsters had any form of military service during either world wars? The likes of Jack Spot, Billy Hill and Frankie Fraser all seemed to have avoided it, as did Darby Sabini.

None of their US counterparts did their bit either, as far as I'm aware

The only one that springs to mind is Monk Eastman.

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As Birmingham is seldom depicted in film or drama I have never experienced the complaints other people have made about the depictions of regional accents. But having lived in Birmingham all my life the accents grated a bit. It was also galling that some of the street scenes were filmed in Liverpool and Leeds (with some scenes filmed at the Black Country museum). I too questioned the Benjamin Zephaniah character not that there wouldn't be a black man in Birmingham but with dreadlocks? Also the pub seemed too clean...and bright. I also found the openning scene of people engaged in carnal activity in the open streets a tad unlikely - whilst it is generally known that people engaged in "knee tremblers" in shop doorways and alley ways would they have done so in full view in the open?

On a personal note I have worn one of those newsboy caps for at least two years (I believe I wore it to the GWF conference) I do not want people thinking I wear one because of this programme or that I have razors in the peak :)

Edit: the spell checker changed Carnal to Canal which is somewhat appropriate in the circumstances.

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This show had me thinking - which real life gangsters had any form of military service during either world wars? The likes of Jack Spot, Billy Hill and Frankie Fraser all seemed to have avoided it, as did Darby Sabini.

None of their US counterparts did their bit either, as far as I'm aware

The only one that springs to mind is Monk Eastman.

Not service in the conventional sense, but "Lucky" Luciano is believed to have done his bit by ordering his Mafia contacts in Sicily to cooperate with Patton's 7th Army. Luciano's 30 to 60 year sentence handed down in 1936 was then commuted in 1946, although he was deported. Apparently he felt double crossed by having deportation foisted upon him.
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I did a quick bit of research regarding sheffield gangs after the question of gangsters serving in the conflict came up and it appears that most gangsters were able to avoid active service and exploited the situation here in England to strengthen their hold on illegal activity while men were away fighting, hence the terrible problems with criminality and gangs in the immediate post WWI period. Sheffield was overrun by gangs in the 20's as well.

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One of the books East End Gang Land by James Morton mentions pre Great War criminals who served in the war and at least one gang boss winning the MM ,don't have the book to hand but will check the details later.

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Never heard of Nails Morton. Great story.

I suppose Al Capone did his bit by washing army laundry whilst in Alcatraz.

He was released from prison in 1939
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Plenty of references to men of the gangs having served in the book 'Sheffield Gang Wars' by J.P. Bean.

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Heh. Good point.

But howabout this:

The key informant that the prosecution had against Capone in his tax trial was a businessman called Edward J O'Hare, who wanted his son Butch to attend the US Naval Academy at Annapolis in exchange for his cooperation with the government. O'Hare was murdered by Capone gunmen but Butch later became a flying ace by shooting down five Japanese bombers who were targeting USS Lexington. Had Lexington been sunk, the Japanese may have been totally victorious at Coral Sea.

Capone was therefore indirectly responsible for the US victory in the Pacific and Chicago O'Hare airport would still be called Chicago Orchard Field.

Probably.

(waits for po-faced analysis on the importance of USS Lexington in the Pacific Theatre)

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I must say I did watch the first episode but wasn't overly impressed with the script or the acting. I might watch the second episode to give it a chance but unless it improves I doubt I'll watch the third.

Craig

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Acting was very good, in my view.

Inaccuracies all over the place, but never mind, it cut the mustard as entertainment.

Loved the Ulsterman !

Sam Neill is superb.

Phil (PJA)

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I gave this a go on iplayer, bit too stylised and a little bit cliched for my liking. The modernish music seemed out of place, and at times I thought I was watching something set in America in the `20s.

My mrs normally likes historical based dramas but was mightily confused, she asked when it was supposed to be set because of the music, and because of the accents she thought it was set in Ireland.

Curiosity kept me watching it but I had to give up just over halfway through as it was such hard work.

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I gave this a go on iplayer, bit too stylised and a little bit cliched for my liking. The modernish music seemed out of place, and at times I thought I was watching something set in America in the `20s.

It seemed to owe a lot to Boardwalk Empire, didn't it?

Another critic pointed out the excessive hand-holding that hammered home various plot points in a very clunky fashion

‘As you know, the man you killed was Italian"

Yup. He knows and we know - we just saw it a few minutes ago.

‘Fixed bayonets!’

[sigh] yes he's having another flashback. We got that from his nutty behavior. Why not go the whole hog and shout "I'm violent and confused and feel like I'm in battle all over again. I might kill someone by accident"

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It seemed to owe a lot to Boardwalk Empire, didn't it?

I`ve only seen clips of Boardwalk as I don`t have Sky, but I did wonder if there was an American influence in the programme. The first few scenes of the chap wandering into town on a horse with all the people running for cover could almost come straight out of a western. I half expected him to wander into a pub where everyone stops and turns to look, throws his hat on the counter and asks for a drink....oh that did happen, only thing missing was the ever present piano player. Luckily the sheriff turned up in the shape of Sam Neill doing a rough impression of Ian Paisley.

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Not service in the conventional sense, but "Lucky" Luciano is believed to have done his bit by ordering his Mafia contacts in Sicily to cooperate with Patton's 7th Army. Luciano's 30 to 60 year sentence handed down in 1936 was then commuted in 1946, although he was deported. Apparently he felt double crossed by having deportation foisted upon him.

I'd heard this before, along with other tales about Meyer Lansky, Calogero Vizzini and Moe Dalitz but they're all stories that seems to be without any basis. What mobsters say they did and what actually happened are two different things.

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I think an interesting research study would be why there is a fascination with gangs which results in such compelling TV. Why is it seemingly so glamorous? The most lauded TV programmes in recent times The Sopranos and the The Wire as well as Boardwalk Empire are essentially gang related dramas as is the critically claimed Channel 4 drama Top Boy How does this reconcile with our abhorrence of real life gang related crime and behaviour. We have real problems in Birmingham with gang related violence (seems like we always did) which is widely and rightly condemned yet a TV series seemingly glorifying gang culture is popularly and criticallyacclaimed. Even one of our most enduring legends Robin Hood - basically a gang of outlaws getting one over authority. There are those who even consider the many internecine battles during the medieval period as essentially turf wars for various "families" to get their hands on a lucrative protection racket which was the feudal system.

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Probably

I wouldn't call that statement a particularly incisive observation !

Agreed. But it's interesting to see how much the myth becomes absorbed into the reality. It seems to be something that we want to be true, which relates to Mr Gunboat's post on fascination with the underworld. We want to give these people redeeming features in order to make the outrageousness of their actions more palatable.

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Probably

Agreed. But it's interesting to see how much the myth becomes absorbed into the reality. It seems to be something that we want to be true, which relates to Mr Gunboat's post on fascination with the underworld. We want to give these people redeeming features in order to make the outrageousness of their actions more palatable.

Capone was apparently very philanthropic and generous to charities.

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