Peaky Blinders is returning for its sixth and final series this winter and fans won't have long to wait as the air date is set for the end of February.
The Birmingham-set drama, centred around the Shelby gangster family, is one of the BBC's most successful dramas and its sixth season will debut on Sunday, February 27 on iPlayer.
Read more: Damian Lewis' touching tribute to late wife Helen McCrory at star-studded event
The BBC teased with a 60-second trailer, released last month and then on Sunday, February 13, it confirmed the air date. There will be six episodes, with the first one named, Black Day.
Star Cillian Murphy has teased that this final instalment will be dark, telling Rolling Stone: "I think it's going to be very intense. The word we keep using is 'gothic'. Yeah, it's going to be heavy!"
While director Anthony Byrne has said the team had 'nailed' the perfect ending. He told The Sunday Times: "We’ve nailed it. It’s the perfect ending. It’s very big, and lands in the great endings of long-running TV shows.
"Peaky is talked about within the conversation of other great shows and when I watched the rough cut I knew, personally, we nailed it."
Cast-wise, Murphy is back as Tommy Shelby, Sophie Rundle as Ada Thorne and Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby.
Also returning are Tom Hardy as Alfie Solomons and Sam Clafin as the dangerous Oswald Moseley and Queen's Gambit star, Anya Taylor-Joy as Gina.
Joining the cast this series are Stephen Graham and breakout star, Conrad Khan, who won plaudits for the film County Lines. Welsh actress, Aimee-Ffion Edwards is also back as Esme Shelby.
Sadly, due to the death of Helen McCrory last April, Aunt Polly won't appear on screen again, but, as Byrne revealed, viewers will hear her thanks to some unused footage.
He said: "I had footage of Helen that I didn’t use during the last season and found this really special line that sets up season six so perfectly. In the opening scene, Tommy hears Polly’s voice in his head saying, ‘There will be war and one of you will die but which one I cannot tell.’ And that sets it up between Tommy and Michael Gray. It was perfect, a gift.
"It’s been a surreal experience and everyone who knew Helen, and loved working with her, is still processing what has happened. She was a really wonderful person."
Peaky Blinders first aired on BBC Two in 2013 with ratings starting at over two million for the first series and jumping to more than four million for series four.
It made the transition to BBC One for the fifth series in 2019, again garnering rave reviews, and achieving audiences of over seven million. It has been broadcast elsewhere across the world on Netflix. Throughout its run, the drama has won many awards including NTAs as voted for by the public, Bafta Craft Awards and a Bafta for best drama series in 2018.
