Is Peaky Blinders based on a true incident? Details of BBC's period crime drama, revisited

One of the BBC's largest crime dramas ever, set against the backdrop of post-World War I, Peaky Blinders took fans on an action-filled rollercoaster through the life of the Shelby clan and their ascent within the crime community. Through its wonderful characters and must-be-watched narrative, viewers are pondering: is Peaky Blinders a true story?

Here, we look at the historical origins of the show, learn about the true-life inspiration behind its characters, and see what's real and what's not.

The real Peaky Blinders: The gang that inspired the show

The Origins of the Peaky Blinders Gang

The Peaky Blinders gang existed and resided during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Birmingham, England. The name of the gang came from their signature flat caps with razor blades stitched into the peaks. The actual gang was more mundane than what was shown on television.

They committed low-level crimes like theft, extortion, and street-level violence. They were not the high-level, high-stakes criminals that were shown on television.

Real-life crime and their transient reign

Although the Peaky Blinders gang did exist, they were not nearly as powerful or enduring as they portrayed on television. Active for the most part in the 1890s, the gang activities were confined to the streets of Birmingham.

Their time was short-lived at best, and in due course, the police dismantled them. Their rise to power, as depicted on the screen, through a complex matrix of politics, crime, and backroom machinations, is quite a sizeable deviation from historical fact.

The historical context: A post-war England forged in adversity

The role of World War I in Britain's crime scene

The post-war context of Peaky Blinders is the hook upon which the drama hangs. Economic depression, disillusion, social disillusion, and war trauma offer fertile ground in which crime and gangland would sow and thrive. Organized crime had done incredibly well historically during times with servicemen like Tommy Shelby battling post-traumatic stress disorder as well as an inability to move from a martial ethos into life among civilians.

The post-war era was also characterized by political instability, with forces like communism and Irish independence becoming powerful. These real historical forces weigh heavily on the narrative of Peaky Blinders. The show's representation of the Shelby family's dynamics with political figures and their engagement in larger social movements is predicated on the unsettled political climate of the time.

The fictionalization of the Shelby family: Merging fact and drama

The development of Tommy Shelby: A legendary figure with realistic origins

The main character of the series, Tommy Shelby, is not inspired by an actual person. But his character symbolizes the cunning, ruthless men who came into power during the interwar period. Most of his personality traits, such as his battles with PTSD and becoming powerful in the underworld, are based on actual events. However, his story and actions are fictionalized for entertainment purposes.

Polly Gray and the matriarchal crime family role

Polly Gray, the fierce matriarch of the Shelby clan, is another fictional figure whose position within the family's criminal empire is a reference to the actual influence that women had in crime families at the time.

Although Polly's character doesn't directly translate to a historical figure, the dynamics of power in her characterization are indicative of how women tended to have huge power in family-owned businesses, whether legal or illegal.

Historical persons and actual crime syndicates: The inspirations behind major characters

Real historical characters in Peaky Blinders

1. Winston Churchill

Probably the best-known historical figure featured in Peaky Blinders is Winston Churchill, played by several different actors throughout the series. Churchill was then Secretary of State for War and later Home Secretary during this period. Churchill appears in the early seasons as a character monitoring Tommy Shelby and the gang, concerned with rising political tensions and gang crime.

2. Brilliant Chang

Brilliant Chang, glimpsed briefly in Peaky Blinders, was a real Chinese restaurateur in the 1920s who was notorious for his purported links to the narcotics trade, particularly to the sale of opium. While the real Chang was not as deeply involved in organized crime as suggested by the show, he was hyped in the British press as an opium boss.

3. Darby Sabini

London gangster Charles "Darby" Sabini is the villain of Season 2, appearing as Tommy Shelby's nemesis. Sabini was a real figure who had a stranglehold on organized crime across London's racing circuits, with protection rackets and bookmaking rings.

The influence of other crime families

The world of organized crime within Peaky Blinders is also drawn from real gangs and gangsters during this period. Supporting characters in the show are based on some inspirations from the likes of Billy Kimber, the actual gangster leader in Birmingham, and Alfie Solomons, inspired by an actual Jewish gangster. These actual criminal references help keep the series rooted within the context of the period, although the Shelby family as a whole is fictionalized.

Birmingham: The real crime hub behind Peaky Blinders

The emergence of Birmingham as a crime capital

Birmingham, where the program is set, has also historically been linked with the rise of industrialization and the associated increase in crime. City growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries created ideal conditions for the growth of gangland when new industries increased prosperity and, thus, new social frictions.

It was against such an environment that the Peaky Blinders existed, although the show implies there was not quite so much to the city's underworld as it was shown.

The impact of Industrialization on crime

Birmingham's booming industrial economy at the time also helped to fuel the growth of organized crime. The show's portrayal of the city's hard, gritty streets is not necessarily inaccurate, since most gangs and criminal organizations capitalized on the economic disparities to become successful. The Shelby family empire is fictional, but the concept of crime flourishing in such an environment is based on history.

Peaky Blinders: Fact and fiction

The Creative Freedom of the Series: Fact vs. Fiction

Although Peaky Blinders is based on real history, the series takes artistic liberties with events and figures. Political plots, crime family dynamics, and interpersonal relationships are the invention of the series creators, overlaying real historical background with dramatized fiction. The series is very good at depicting the atmosphere of post-WWI England but is largely a spun fictional tale.

The Real Legacy of the Peaky Blinders Gang

Although liberties were taken with Peaky Blinders, the genuine Peaky Blinders gang has left a legacy. While their real influence was minor, their name has lingered in popular culture as the symbol of the hard, tough, and often violent early 20th-century British crime world. The success of the series has generated new interest in this period of Birmingham's history, although it is not real.

Finding Sense in the Real and the Imaginary in Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders is an interesting blend of fact and dramatized fiction. While the show takes its backdrop from the real Peaky Blinders gang and the social and political context of post-WWI Britain, the characters themselves and their doings are largely not real.

The series employs actual historical events, personalities, and places as context for a grander, not based-on-facts story. In doing so, it provides viewers with a glimpse of the sophisticated crime world in the early 20th century while maintaining the entertainment value of a drama series.

By merging historical elements with fictional plots, Peaky Blinders can build a world that appears real and tell an engaging and fictionalized version that keeps viewers all over the globe glued to their screens.

Edited by Debanjana

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