C2- TV: Peaky Blinders Flashcards
Context
- a hybrid-genre, long form TV drama that combines gangster, Western and historical drama elements. The set episode of Season 1, broadcast in September 2013 on BBC Two in the UK.
-produced in the UK by Caryn Mandabach Productions and Tiger Aspect for BBC Two. The show ran for six seasons from 2013 to 2022. For seasons 5 and 6, the show moved to a prime time slot on BBC One.
-The showrunner for all six seasons was Steven Knight, an established screenwriter and TV producer.
-The plot of Peaky Blinders focuses on the Shelby family, who run the eponymous criminal gang in 1920s Birmingham. The first seasons examine the effects of WW1 on the working classes, while later seasons portray Tommy Shelby’s attempts to move from crime into legitimate businesses, and then onto politics.
-Peaky Blinders has won a host of awards, including-for Season 1- Best Director at the BAFTAs, and numerous awards for lightning, set and costume design. It has also attracted big name actorslike Tom Hardy and Adrien Brody.
-In the USA, the show was first distributed by the Weinstein Company and Endemol; it was purchased by Netflix in 2-014, who also distributed it worldwide, leading to a global audience.
Media language: general
-Peaky Blinders could be classed as a cross-genre or hybrid long form television drama. It has many characteristics of the gangster subgenre. This differs from other crime genres; in that it often focuses on the personal lives of a criminal family. Peaky Blinders could also be classed as historical drama- it uses lavish production design to evoke a specific period and location concentrating on Birmingham in 1919. It also explores many of the social and political issues of that time.
-Peaky Blinder’s creator and chief writer, Steven Knight, has also said each season is based around another movie genre. In season 1, he said he was particularly inspired by the Western.
-Knight said he wanted to ‘mythologise’ British working-class lives in the way ‘Americans took 19th Century agricultural workers and called them Cowboys and made them heroes of Westerns’.
- Knight has spoken on the so-called “black hole” for TV production in the midlands, and how he wants to reveal the “secret history” of England.
-Producer Laurie Borg says the show is “the anti-Downtown Abbey”.
Gangster conventions
-The importance of family loyalty- it doesn’t matter who the enemy is, the Law or other gangs, the Shelby’s are devoted to protecting and securing their family. This focus on family dynamics (an element familiar from soap opera) is also reminiscent of the US crime drama The Sopranos.
-The protagonist is a cool, quiet but ambitious antihero who uses intelligence and cunning, as well as brutal violence, to ascend the ranks of a criminal family/organisation- or is strategic in order to maintain in their position at the top. Tommy Shelby embodies this stock character in Peaky Blinders- a man of few words, as he says to Arthur in the first episode; ‘That’s what I do I think.’ His plan to inflate the value of the racehorse, despite Arthur’s concerns, illustrates his ingenuity.
-The antagonist is a lawmaker who is investigating the hero and his family/organisation. This is unusual in crime drama as her the investigator threatens the status quo, established by the criminals, rather than seeking to preserve it.
-Within the criminal family there is usually an older patriarch/matriarch around whose power the other characters orbit. Aunt Polly plays this role in Peaky Blinders.
-the narrative of ‘Peaky Blinders’ is typical of the gangster genre: the power of the criminal family is threatened- by other gangs, by the law, and from threats within- and the main characters must pull together (or sometimes betray each other) to survive.
Media language: Visual codes
-Clothing: the costumes have been a really impact element of the show.
-Iconography: Knight was often told tales from this era by his relatives. When he created ‘Peaky Blinders’, he ‘visualised the story through the eyes of a young boy growing up in this environment, so there’s a sense of heightened reality: the horses are bigger, the men taller, the pubs more glamorous.’
-Gesture: while the rest of the cast haven an intense dramatic energy, Cillian Murphy’s performance as Tommy is extremely under-stated, almost static comparison. His stillness and lack of emotion link to the Western cowboy archetype- strong, silent, but coiled and ready for action. His backstory of PTSD following the First World War adds an emotional backstory to this posture.
-Visual technical codes: Tracking shots are used to follow the characters through the streets and other locations.
Media Language: Audio codes
Dialouge: Tommy is a man of few words but what he says is well-chosen. This reinforces his background. Campbell is the opposite of this.
Music: The use of punk and rock songs, often released sixty years after the events of the show, establihses a modern feel to a period drama. Knight has said he wanted to “emphasise the idea of people in the period with modern emotions, aspirations and expressions.”
Representation: General
-Knight said that he is deliberately trying to tell stories about the “secret history of England” that may be darker, more violent and subversive than the more sanitised view of British history portrayed in mainstream costume dramas. There are no glimpses of aristocracy, businessmen or factory owners, at least in Season one, the focus is entirely on working class people and one area.
-Knight’s intentional “mythologising” of industrial communities, however criminal, has resulted in a fresh sense of civic pride in Birmingham. There are now Peaky Blinders tours, theme pubs, and a Rambert dance production in Birmingham.
-The representation of men as brutal and violent is complicated by the Shelby boys’ experiences in the war. Knight described them as “men who have forgotten about physical consequences.” Though apparently fearless, in relaity, they are suffering from PTSD.
-Despite the machismo inherent in the ganster genre, there are several strong and empowered female characters i the show. In the focus episode we are introduced to Polly, a matriarchal figure; Ada, a rebellious daugther; and Grace, who though initially ‘too pretty’ for the pub, is revealed as a cunning undercover agent. Knight has said this reflects the burst in female independance during WWI, where women ‘took over’ running the country.
-These protrayals could raise interesting discussion about the way working class lives and communitites, as well as gender roles, are shown in historical dramas.
Representation: class/local identity
-Knight and his producers have said they were deliberately trying to offer a darker and less upper-class view of British history between the world wars. This could be seen as historical revisionism- adeliberate attempt to exavate alternative versions of a historical period by looking at the lives of the lower classes, women, LGBTQIA+, or migrant people, instead of royalty and wealthy people.
-Peaky Blinders doesn’t downplay the squalor of the industrial city, but it does portray it as a place of community, grudging respect and frequent excitement.
-Knight has pointed out that in 1919, Birmingham was seen as “the workshop of the world”, a hub for the Biritish Empire, maufacturing all the things needed to maintain that empire. The ambitions and plans of the Shelby clan represent this as a place of dirt and poverty, but also remarkable oppotunity.
Representation: Gender
-Tommy, like many other gangster characters in the genre is seen as a ‘tough guy eith a heart of gold’. THough emotionally restrained and capable of bursts of incredible violence, he is kind to children and the elderly and wants to support (and defned) his community.
-Though the violence in the show has been criticised, the machismo of the many of the characters is rooted by previous trauma. This adds a layer of vunerability to traditional ‘tough guy’ gangsters.
-The famle characters in the show are more complex and narritavely significant than the usual ‘gangster’s moll’ and sex workers featured in the genre.
-Polly particularly has more backstory and nuance to her character than a superficial crime family matriarch, including a problematic relationship with motherhood and her extended family.
-Grace is also an interesting female representation. Initially she is a fish-out-of-water, “too pretty” for the area, who can calm a bar with her siren’s song. Later it is revealed she is a ruthless and dedicated undercover agent who has adopted a “pretty” disguise to get closer to Tommy.
Media Industries: Production, distribution and circulation
-Peaky Blinders is a co-porduction between Caryn Mandabach productions, Tiger Aspect (both indepepndant) and Yorkshire Screen Fund. The show was the first ot recieve a grant from Yorkshire Screen Content Fund, set up to promote production and presentation of the county.
-The show was created by Steven Knight, who grew up in the Small Heath area of Birmingham. Knight had previously written several successful films and TV titles, including Dirty Pretty Things, Hummingbird, and Eastern Promises- these are also crime dramas witn strong characterisation and explorations of social issues including national and class indentity. His name on the project was a major draw forproduction companies and finance.
-Peaky Blinders was distributed by the Weinstein Company in the USA but, in the wake of the #MeToo movement’s revelations, the rights were sold to Netflix. This has exposed the show to a far wider global market.
-Peaky Blinders would be a good example of Netflix’s commitment to “telling local stories on a global platform”, i.e. commissioning or purchasing content based in a very specific location and culture, that also has international appeal. (Another good example is the Korean show Squid Game.)
Media Industries: Economic factors
-As a public service boradcaster and non-profit institution, the BBC isn’t constrained by the commercial model of other broadcast TV in the UK. Instead of ‘playing it safe’ by repeating popular concepts or genres, it has a responsability to develop fresh and unique content and diverse voices.
-The Midlands, much neglected by TV production, has been a key area of investment for the BBC, who has been shifting their studios and other offices from London to Manchester and other northern cities since 2011.
-This means there is investment earmarked for productions like Peaky Blinders that are shot and produced, as well as being set, in an under-represented part of the UK. However, it remains a popular mainstream show, with international sales potential.
-As television becomes more of a global industry, international co-productions are becoming common. Netflix has “rescued” many BBC productions like The Last Kingdom, providing a cash injection for struggling titles. The BBC has also collaborated extensively with cable and streaming channel HBO on big budget shows like His Dark Materials.
-The BBC has a global reputation as a quality media brand which less well-known channels/platforms would be eager to collaborate with. While most UK-produced content is distributed by BBC America, Peaky Blinders is the expection.
-Netlfix is the number one and biggest streaming service in the world- as of 2022 they had over 200m paid subscribers, with 37m joining in the previous year. They have also invested heavily in original content, but also commissioning or buying exisiting shows from non-Anglophone territories. 80% of content commissioned in 2021 was from outside the US and Canada.
-Shows like Squid Game (Korea), Lupin (France), and Money Hesit (Spain) have been huge successes in different territories and crucially offering bery different content to the franchise-heavy titles of rival channels like Disney+.
Media Industries: recent technological change
-The poularity of online streaming services means that audience viewing figures for a scheduled broadcast are no longer the main indicator of a TV shows’ success.
-Season 6 of Peaky Blinders had 5.42m viewers in the UK when it premiered on BBC One in April 2022. When it premiered on Netflix in June 2022, it had 45.71m hours of playing time in just one week (making it the second most popular title at that time after Stranger Things).
-Fans aroud the world -from Korea to Argentina- dress up in Peaky Blinders cosplay and share videos on social networking apps like TikTok, indicating the global reach of the show.
Audiences
-Peaky Blinders offer several audience pleasures that target a diverse ranger of viewers.
-Fans of the gangster or even Western genre would enjoy the clear genre conventions being used and innovated upon. Audiences who enjoy historical dramas- both for educational purposes and for visual spectale- would enjoy the lavish production design and unqiue fashions.
-More particular and educated -especially politically left-leaning- viewers would enjoy the social and political issues explored, and the alternative view of British history.
-Traditionally masculine viewers would identify with (and admire) the tough, no-nonsense male characters, whilst respecting their strict codes and moral values.
-Female viewers, especially with feminist values, would admire the strong and complex femlae characters that defy stereotypes.
