Things look set to return to dark form in Peaky Blinders Series 4, which will be coming to BBC 2 later this year, bringing Cillian Murphy (Dunkirk) and Tom Hardy (Taboo Series 2) back for more brutal drama. To kick off the upcoming fourth series, the BBC has released the trailer below to give us the first glimpse of what to expect from the show.
The biggest news is that Adrian Brody (The Pianist) will be joining the cast in the form of the new enemy for Tommy and his Peaky Blinders gang. Created and written by Steven Knight once again, it follows on from the more negative fan response to Series 3, but from the look of the trailer it might be back in solid shady business for the fourth season.
Release
BBC 1 hasn’t confirmed the specific release date for Peaky Blinders Series 4 as of yet, but it’s planned for Autumn 2017, so it won’t be too far away. It’ll feature another six hour-long episodes, so get set for another batch of intensity from Murphy and the rest of the cast.
If you missed out on the previous three series, unfortunately they’re no longer available on iPlayer, but you can pick them up on DVD and digital download. However, the first two series are available to stream on Netflix, so you can get pretty close to the 4th series. The third series is still yet to arrive on the streaming service, so it would appear as though season 4 will be even further down the line.
Story
The only thing to go on is the trailer below as the BBC is keeping pretty tight lipped on the whole thing. It looks like Tommy’s international intentions in Series 3 have caused the arrival of another bad man to the mean streets of Birmingham as a new criminal power threatens the entirety of the Peaky Blinders’ setup, and the Shelby family with it.
The question is how the show is going to write things back into action following the police bust at the end of Series 3. With the entire gang and family in handcuffs the last time they were seen, there’s going to be a fair amount of catch-up story to set things up for the fourth series.
Things didn’t really end too well between Tommy and Alfie either, so there may well be a certain amount of animosity at the start of the show. If the gang is forced to fight a war on two fronts then the odds are going to be stacked heavily against them, but when has that not been the case.
Cast
Obviously, Cillian Murphy will be back as leader of the gang, Thomas Shelby, and he’ll be joined again by Helen McCrory as his Aunt Polly, Paul Anderson as his older brother Arthur and Joe Cole as younger brother John. Charlotte Riley is back from Series 2 as wealthy racehorse owner May Carleton. Tom Hardy will also be returning to the cast as Alfie Solomons and Adrian Brody takes on the challenge of being the new nasty on the block.
Other newcomers to the cast include Born To Kill star Jack Rowan, along with Aiden Gillen, who you might recognise as Goosefat Bill in Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword.
Production
In addition to Steven Knight penning the script for the show, we also know that David Caffrey has directed the new series with director of photography Cathal Watters thanks to the wrap shot posted in a Tweet on the official Twitter account. Filming was completed in July 2017, having begun in May earlier in the year, which is pretty impressive to put together six hours of movie quality production from Caryn Mandabach Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions.
Image credit: Robert Viglasky, film still photogrpaher.
First impressions
Things look balanced on a knife-edge for Peaky Blinders Series 4, especially with the introduction of Adrian Brody, who looks very menacing as the new enemy for Tommy. Cillian Murphy and Thomas Hardy have proven themselves time and time again, whether it’s their big screen efforts together in Dunkirk, or Hardy’s own visceral TV series Taboo, so we’re expecting more good things from them in the upcoming series.
The third series didn’t land quite as well as the previous two installments of the show, but if the trailer below is anything to go by, Steven Knight might well be back at his best.
