GANGSTER WRAP

Bullets fly as the Shelbys bid farewell in the final season of Peaky Blinders

- EAN MARLAND

NEW DRAMA

Peaky Blinders

Sunday, BBC1 HD, 9 pm

In the nine years since Peaky Blinders first arrived on our screens, the gangster drama has become a cultural phenomenon, wowing audiences all over the world, and even launching its own fashion line.

A spin-off movie is scheduled to begin filming next year, but, before then, fans can enjoy the Shelby family's final appearance on the small screen - and it promises to be quite a ride as the series returns to BBC1 this week.

'I think we have made this year's season the richest and deepest one yet' says Cillian Murphy, who has played Peaky Blinders boss Tommy Shelby since 2013. “This is the show's culmination, and I think the fans will be pleased?

Viewers will remember how the Birmingham crime outfit was left reeling at the end of the fifth season following their failed attempt to assassinate fascist politician Oswald Mosley. Now, the final installment picks up the story four years on, in late 1933, as Prohibition in the US comes to an end, the opium trade begins to boom, and World War Two edges ever closer.

"There's so much material about this time in history, so I immersed myself in as much reading as I could; says Murphy. “The thing about Steven Knight's writing is he doesn't land on the more obvious, major historical events. He always takes an unusual, less-well-known event and focuses the plot around that?

FRESH CHALLENGE

One obscure place that is set to become central to the new six-part season is the French territory of Miquelon Island in Newfoundland, where Tommy finds himself in this week's opening episode.