It's not long now until the sixth and final season of Steven Knight's gritty and violent drama Peaky Blinders returns to our screens.
Next weekend, Cillian Murphy will return as Tommy Shelby along with Paul Anderson (Arthur Shelby), Harry Kirton (Finn Shelby) and Sophie Rundle (Ada Thorne).
Another addition to the new series is Stephen Graham, who is set to join the cast as a new character and there's much talk about the return of Tom Hardy in the role of Alfie Solomons.
But sadly there will be one big noticeable difference within the cast and that's the absence of matriarch character Aunty Polly, after the death of actress Helen McCrory last year following her battle with cancer.
A world premiere will be held at Cineworld Broad Street on February 24 to mark the new season and there is a ballot for tickets on the BBC Shows and Tours website until Thursday, February 17 at 6pm.
The event will include a screening of the first episode and a Q&A with participants including creator Steven Knight.
With 30 episodes already having been screened across previous series - which began in September 2013 - fans will be eagerly awaiting to learn what happens next in the story of the notorious Shelby family’s rise to prominence and power, against the backdrop of working class, post-First World War Birmingham.
Filming for the sixth series was less than a week away when the first lockdown was announced in March 2020.
According to Birmingham Live, Steven Knight has confirmed that a Peaky Blinders film is still "definitely" on the cards. He said it could be next year and that he had plans for a film "from the beginning".
Cillian Murphy revealed that returning to the set of Peaky Blinders without his co-star Helen McCrory was “very strange”.
Cillian and Helen started filming for the BBC One series when it started back in 2013, and he has since described her as the “beating heart” of the show.
McCrory’s husband, Damian Lewis, announced in April that she had died at home at the age of 52, surrounded by her family.
Filming of the sixth and final series of the period crime drama began in January 2021, after it initially had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
McCrory was absent from the beginning of filming due to her cancer diagnosis.
Murphy, who plays Tommy Shelby in the show, told Esquire UK: “We were just reeling throughout the whole thing. She was a dear, dear pal and she was the beating heart of that show, so it felt very strange being on set without her.
“The difficult thing to comprehend is that, if it wasn’t for Covid, there would be a whole other version of this show with Helen in it.
Peaky Blinders will begin at 9pm on Sunday, February 27 on BBC One.
