Of course, a large part of the fun on Peaky Blinders is working out how much of Tommy’s actions happen through design and how much is a question of luck and quick reactions. Quite frankly, a lesser man would have collapsed in exhaustion – although the furious release of bullets at the episode’s end suggested that our Mr Shelby is not as in control as he’s pretending. This week, he managed to combine a funeral with a meet-and-greet session, throw a belated Christmas lunch, ensure that his own factory goes out on strike in order to camouflage the mayhem he has planned, sign a prize fighter and exchange fashion tips with Luca Changretta.
If we know anything about Tommy Shelby, it’s that he’s a fantastic multi-tasker. To be honest, if the whole thing doesn’t culminate in a showdown along the lines of Howard Hawks’s classic Rio Bravo or John Carpenter’s modern-day nod to the western, Attack on Precinct 13, then I shall feel obscurely let down. It helps, too, that Peaky Blinders has always nodded to the conventions of the western and those conventions lend themselves to this year’s plot with the Shelby clan penned back in their old haunts and enemies approaching on all sides. The plotting and writing feel leaner and the life-and-death stakes are free of grand, overarching conspiracies.
The move back to Small Heath has definitely done this show the power of good. Don’t read on if you haven’t seen episode two.
SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for those who are watching series four of Peaky Blinders.