Peaky Blinders recap: series five, episode one truly worth the wait | Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders: episode by episodePeaky Blinders This article is more than 4 years oldPeaky Blinders recap: series five, episode one – truly worth the wait
This article is more than 4 years oldAfter nearly two years away, Tommy Shelby and co roared back on to our screens with a ferocious instalment full of bolshiness and brutality
Hello everyone and welcome back. I think it’s fair to say that a Bafta, a move to BBC One and an absence of almost two years hasn’t made Tommy Shelby’s heart grow any less cold, his brain any less busy or his emotional state any less troubled.
Steven Knight has always been particularly good at beginnings and this ferociously paced opening episode was one of his best yet. It set a number of storylines in play, from the effect of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 on the gang’s legitimate business to Tommy’s attempts to build a political career as a man of the people-style politician. It also threw in a reminder in the brutal closing moments that the middle Shelby brother remains a killer at heart, albeit one who is no longer quite so impervious to the aftermath of his decisions.
Our heroes
While Tommy contented himself with knocking back his little bottle of dope and communing with the lilting shade of his dead wife (“Ah Grace … just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger,” indeed) the episode’s most welcome news was that Polly, whom we first glimpse having the time of her life in Monte Carlo, has very much got her mojo back.
That is good news both for the Shelby clan and for the show itself. A depressed and off-her-game Polly is never quite as much fun as a bold and bolshy Polly threatening to careen gloriously off the rails while making random predictions of golden futures to come.
Nor was Polly the only Shelby woman getting her time in the spotlight as Knight appeared to address some of the criticisms regarding female characters in the last season. Certainly, it will be interesting to see what happens with Ada’s pregnancy (and the revelation that she’s been sleeping with, as well as informing for, Tommy’s former commanding officer Col Ben Younger) while Linda’s continued fall from grace, growing cocaine habit and apparently unstoppable ambition for Arthur remains one of the show’s most interesting strands. If they would only give the excellent Natasha O’Keeffe, who plays Lizzie, more to do than look lovely and sigh sadly, then I would be truly thrilled. Then again, the lot of Tommy’s women is never a happy one, so perhaps Lizzie is doing the right thing by largely skulking out of sight.
If the women were greeting the approach of a new decade with reinvigorated purpose, the same could not be said of the show’s men. From Tommy’s repeated insistence that no one from little Charlie to the members of the Shelby board were listening to him, to Arthur’s struggle to be chairman in anything but name, there was a definite sense that this is one of those seasons where things are starting badly and can only get worse – and that’s before we even get to the problems caused by the two youngest members of the family.
While Shelby baby Finn tried to prove himself a man, and got a (thankfully not fatal) bullet for his pains, the night’s biggest loser was Michael, who appears to have taken his move to New York as a licence to indulge in all the girls, guns and gak he can possibly muster. Unfortunately, this hedonistic lifestyle meant that he ignored Tommy’s tip regarding the crash and lost the Shelby money. Does a Fredo Corleone style fate awake him or will his mummy ride cigarillo in hand to his rescue once again?
The bad guys
The labyrinthine plotting on this show means that it is unlikely we have met all of this season’s main antagonists – although I do wonder if Tommy might come to regret both his harsh words to the judge and sending the Peaky Blinders in to stir things up in Chinatown – but we did get a short introduction to rising Labour MP Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin doing suave and slimy very well). Given that most of Tommy’s enemies prefer brute force to sharp words, it will be interesting to see how he deals with Mosley, a man who clearly knows his way round parliament and who hides his thuggery beneath that flashy smile.
Notes from the boardroom
Alas poor Mr Levitt, late of the Times. It’s never easy trying to speak truth to power and particularly not as a member of the press. Although it did seem a little belt and braces to have him shot after terrifying him with the whole blackmail thing.
So we called it right last season: Aberama Gold is working with (or should that be for) the Peaky Blinders right now. He’s no Alfie Solomons, but the mutual distrust should still be fun.
Michael’s gangster’s moll of a girlfriend is clearly going to cause all manner of problems in Small Heath. I’m particularly keen to see Polly’s reaction to her blue-eyed boy’s new flame.
I enjoyed Linda’s attempts to bring both feminism and sarcasm to the boardroom. That said no one does withering looks of great scorn as well as Helen McCrory.
I know Ada has abandoned her communist ideals but I will still be very unhappy if she doesn’t call her new baby Rosa.
I’m increasingly fond of Frances, the incredibly stoic housekeeper. Long may she reign over Tommy’s affairs.
Peaky Blinders can call the area where Tommy mournfully rode his horse across to contact Arthur the Lickey Hills as much as they want – I know Saddleworth Moor when I see it.
Anachronistic yet strangely right song of the week
While Anna Calvi’s soundtrack helped everything hang together and there was a nice use of Black Strobe’s I’m A Man, this can only go to one song. It might have taken them five seasons but Peaky Blinders finally paid homage to the Black Country’s finest as Black Sabbath’s The Wizard played the gang into the Garrison.
Quote of the week
“I once took a bullet from between two ribs, one inch from the heart. Mind you, it was a horse and the horse did die.” It’s the way Aberama Gold tells them you know …
So what did you think? Welcome return or a busted flush? With trouble in the air can Tommy keep the family together? Will Michael miraculously make it through another season? And if you were Ada, which famous dead revolutionary would you name your unborn child after? As always all speculation and no spoilers welcome below …
Peaky Blinders: all our episode-by-episode recaps
ShowSeries 5
Episode 1: Black Tuesday
Episode 2: Black Cats
Series 4
Episode 1: The Noose
Episode 2: Heathens
Episode 3: Blackbird
Episode 4: Dangerous
Episode 5: The Duel
Episode 6: The Company
Series 3
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Series 2
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Series 1
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