"Mr Shelby, it's almost as if you want trouble" - Jessie Eden
"When you're dead already - you're free" - Polly Shelby
The fourth series of Peaky Blinders (BBC2/iPlayer, originally aired November/December 2017) proved to be the most addictive, best plotted, most moving series of all the ones I've seen so far. I'm not 100% sure why but it felt like everybody (from the actors to director David Caffrey and on to writer Steven Knight) put in that little bit extra for this one and the hard work paid off.
The action begins with Arthur (Paul Anderson), Polly (Helen McCrory), John (Joe Cole), and Michael (Finn Cole) with their heads being placed in tightened nooses in preparation of being hanged. But, of course, Tommy (Cillian Murphy - who in this series seems to have perfected his impenetrable steely gaze as he regular surveys the empire of dust he's built around himself) saves the day.
When we rejoin the Peaky Blinders, one year later - in the run up to Christmas 1925, they're no longer together. Ada (Sophie Rundle) is in Boston, Arthur is rearing chickens with wife Linda (Kate Phillips), Joe's still knocking out kids and scrapping with wife Esme (Aimee Ffion-Edwards), Michael's doing cocaine and taking care of business, and Polly? Well, Polly's drinking.
Tommy, somewhat remarkably, has been made an OBE (what next? A criminal as Prime Minister of the UK?) But having those three letters after his name doesn't mean he can escape the inevitable trouble that comes his way and in this series that comes in many forms. Primarily, in the person of Luca Changretta (a terrifying and captivating Adrien Brody, rarely seen not chewing on a toothpick).
Each of the Peaky Blinders receives a letter from Changretta with a black hand in it. It's a sign from the New York branch of the Sicilian mafia that a vendetta is in place for the killing of Vicente and Audrey Changretta in the previous series. A vendetta that can only end in death. When a customs official at Liverpool docks asks Changretta "what's the purpose of your visit?" he gleefully replies "pleasure".
The black hand letters do have the affect of bringing the Shelby family uneasily back together and when Changretta's assassins commit a bloody murder in broad daylight, the gypsy mercenary Aberama Gold (Aidan Gillen - a man with a very impressive CV) is brought into the picture.
The 'war' between the Shelbys and the Changrettas takes place against a backdrop of strikes and this allows Tommy to make the acquaintance of the young female trade union leader and campaigner for equal pay Jessie Eden (Charlie Murphy) who objects to him calling her 'sweetheart' but still, quite clearly, is in danger of joining May Fitz Carleton (Charlotte Riley) and Lizzie Shelby (Natasha O'Keeffe) as a nother notch on his wrought iron bedpost.
Elsewhere, Ada is suspected of being a Communist revolutionary seditionist, Finn (Harry Kirton plays the youngest Shelby brother as if an Evelyn Waugh character or an Aubrey Beardsley illustration) is elevated to the senior ranks of the Blinders, and Tommy's power struggles with both Polly and Arthur show no sign of abating.
There's side stories about horse racing and boxing (Aberama's son Bonnie (Jack Rowan) is a fiercely talented welterweight and the boxing rings look as if they've been painted by George Bellows), the glorious return - or not - of Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy), a debut for Polly's classic 1920s Betty Boop hairstyle, a play on the line 'Let Him Have It' for scholars of Derek Bentley, a quote from a Junior Murvin tune ("guns and ammunition" from Police And Thieves), and endless scenes of long johns hanging on washing lines in back gardens, screw top beer bottles, and dimly lit offices that look like prison cells.
The Peaky Blinders grandad shirts still look good, still have a certain cool, but the Italians come in tailor made suits which sees Tommy Shelby raise his sartorial game. With the mafia now involved Birmingham starts to look a lot like the Chicago of Brian De Palma's 1987 movie The Untouchables. There was, at time of airing - however, much controversy about the portrayal of Jessie Eden. One of a smattering of real life people who have been co-opted into the world of Peaky Blinders.
That caveat notwithstanding, the series gets off to a flying start and rarely slows down. There's less fat on its bones that in previous seasons and you find yourself caring more about what happens to the leading protagonists. The soundtrack, as ever, is crucial and features the likes of Johnny Cash, Radiohead, Skepta, Idles, Rachel Unthank, Savages, The Kills, Laura Marling, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Imelda May, and Foals as well as Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker's version of the show's theme Red Right Hand.
Nick Cave, of course, is in there too and a version of The Mercy Seat soundtracks a tragic death in one of Peaky Blinders' most moving scenes. Series four also contains one of the show's most violent murders - in a kitchen already dripping with the blood of slaughtered livestock - as well as possibly the funniest scene in the whole four seasons so far when a Sicilian gangster complains about how disgusting spotted dick tastes.
So you get to laugh, you get to cower, and you get to feel sad. You also get caught up in the action and end up binge watching the whole thing very quickly. Once I've calmed down and had a little palette cleanser I'll be on to series five.
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