Over the past five-and-a-bit series, Peaky Blinders has had no shortage of knowing cameos from genuine historical figures. So far, the current run has resembled an interwar history textbook that has come to life, then been moodily lit and mumblingly soundtracked, with Oswald Mosley, Diana Mitford and Winston Churchill all popping up. The BBC has even devoted an entire two-part crime documentary, The Real Peaky Blinders (whose finale airs tonight), to the show’s love of real-life history – presenting the true stories that inspired dramatist Steven Knight.
But who was the best? Who was the most historically accurate? And who was fairly impossible to judge against their real-life equivalent, but we don’t care because they’re Tom actual Hardy? Here’s our ranking of every real-life figure that has rubbed tweed shoulders with the Shelby clan …
