Business Is Surprisingly Good:Peaky Blinders S2.

"Til' the danger passes! That'll be the bloody day" - Polly Shelby

"In these times of hunger and hardship, business is surprisingly good" - Tommy Shelby

It is too - for the most part. The second series of Peaky Blinders (BBC2/iPlayer, written by Steven Knight, directed by Colm McCarthy, and originally shown in 2014) brings the action forward to 1921 and it sees bigger houses and nicer cars for the Shelby clan. But Small Heath, their base, is still as dirty, polluted, and as dangerous as before.

Freddie Thorne has died and while Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his family are at the funeral their pub, The Garrison, is blown up. But who by? It's the major point of concern at the start of the series but, by the end, Tommy will have far bigger things to worry about. Many of them a result of his own restless, and relentless, ambition.

He may now be the proud owner of four Bugattis but he's planning further expansion. Into London. Camden specifically. But the Jewish and Italian gangs of London, led by Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) and Darby Sabini (Noah Taylor) respectively, are already at war with each other and by picking a side, Tommy will also be picking an enemy.

As both Solomons and Sabini appear to be ruthless psychopaths, brilliantly played ones too, that can only create more danger. On top of that, Tommy's been summoned and blackmailed by a group of IRA members, seemingly led by Irene O'Donnell (Simone Kirby), to carry out their lethal bidding for them and Major Chester Campbell (Sam Neill) still seeks bitter revenge on Tommy whom he calls a "murdering cut throat mongrel gangster".

Campbell's been promoted, he now meets Churchill (Richard McCabe this time around) in person, and he still speaks the language of Christian salvation while carrying out unspeakably devilish acts. Tommy's own love life, too, has become more complicated. He still pines for Grace (Annabelle Wallis) but he's employed a race horse trainer in the form of the strong willed and independent of spirit May Fitz Carleton (Charlotte Riley) and he's only gone and fallen for her too.

Of course, family life is no easier for Tommy. Younger brother Johnny (Joe Cole) has started to make executive decisions on behalf of the family/business, sometimes without Tommy's knowledge, and older brother Arthur (Paul Anderson) has added to his already impressive repertoire of bad behaviour. Clearly still suffering from PTSD he's now mixing the booze with cocaine, or Tokyo - as I'd never heard it called before, and carrying out acts of ever more brutal and extreme violence.

As Polly Shelby, Helen McCrory is particularly good as she tries to keep the brothers together while, at the same time, pining for her lost children. The ones that were taken away from her and put into care. Tommy takes on her case and soon Polly's son, Michael (Finn Cole), has returned to discover who he really is - and who the Shelbys really are.

He's not, as you might have reasonably expected, horrified by what he finds. Or even disappointed. It turns out he likes horses and he's interested in getting involved in the family business. To a deeper level than Polly would like him to. The action in series two moves along at a more frantic pace than in the first season, it's beautifully shot - not least the scenes based around the canal, and the characters - particularly the female ones - are given more depth and their back stories are better fleshed out but there is still, of course, lots and lots of violence.

There are beatings, slit throats, and slit cheeks. People are shot in the face and people are raped. Tommy has a gun pulled on him a ludicrous number of times. Though Tommy has an unlikely fan in Winston Churchill (who admires his record in the battles of the Somme and Verdun), many loyal men and family members (even Ada (Sophie Rundle) and Esme (Aimee-Ffion Edwards, though being unafraid to speak truth to power, back him when it comes to the crunch), and a way with the women (who just love a bad boy) he has many more enemies.

Many of whom resort to crude, and racist, stereotypes to dismiss him. He's called a "scum tinker" and told to shut his "fucking gipsy mouth" and he even makes self-aware cracks about selling pegs and telling fortunes. While in fact he's looking to expand his business with the export of illicit whisky into prohibition era USA and Canada.

While Birmingham is dangerous, it seems London is worse. Esme calls it "just smoke and trouble" and it's shown as a hotbed of drugs, drunkenness, homosexuality, and jazz. Or, in Arthur's words, "a fucking freak show". Both cities are shown as part of a world of foundries, warehouses, three piece suits, fob watches on chains, telegrams, bare knuckle boxing, and blood seeping out of often fatal gunshot wounds.

An expertly captured world, too. Peaky Blinders has its cake and eats it. It's as much horrified by the violence as it celebrates it and that sometimes makes for an uneasy watch. Should violence be so stylised? In real life, it's not stylish. It's terrible.

Despite this, and what appears to be an incorrect back story for Charlie Chaplin, Peaky Blinders pulls it off. The vaguely historical context of the show, the fact that most of the criminals are themselves victims of society - or once were, and the sheer watchability of the show makes up for any misgivings.

There's the soundtrack too. Even if it does rely too much on certain artists (Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey, and, of course Nick Cave) those artists are, at least, all very good and mixing it up with tracks by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Johnny Cash, Royal Blood, Laura Marling, The Kills, and, yes, Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson adds to the general flavour of the drama.

There's a moving scene at a seance and two wonderfully played out reunions (one very chilling, one deeply touching) to remind you that Peaky Blinders is, at heart, a drama about a family and about personal lives as much as it is about the criminal underworld and the geopolitical scene of its time. 

There's even a love scene which appears to be inspired by Nic Roeg's brilliant Don't Look Now. By the time we reach the final episode, a dramatic denouement played out at the Epsom Derby, business looks to be surprisingly good for both Peaky Blinders the gang and for Peaky Blinders the programme.