Peaky Blinders: Genre

Answer 1

• Peaky Blinders could be classed as a crossgenre 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.

Question 2

Gangster Genre conventions

Answer 2

• The importance of Family
• Proppian protagonist/antagonist
• Patriarch/Matriarch

Question 3

The Importance of Family

Answer 3

• It doesn’t matter who the enemy is, the Law or other gangs, the Shelbys 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.

Question 4

The Proppian protagonist

Answer 4

• A cool, quiet but ambitious antihero who uses intelligence and cunning, and brutal violence, to ascend the ranks of a criminal family – or is strategic in order to maintain 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.

Question 5

The Proppian antagonist

Answer 5

• A lawmaker who is investigating the hero and his family/ organisation.
• This is unusual in crime drama as here the investigator threatens the status quo, established by the criminals, rather than seeking to preserve it.
• In Peaky Blinders, Campbell is the antagonist in the first series – in episode 1, his ride through Birmingham, righteous sermon to the police and his torture of Arthur, clearly establish him as a binary opposition to Tommy.

Answer 6

• Within the criminal family there is usually an older patriarch / matriarch around whose power the other characters orbit. Aunt Polly plays this role here.
• Another stock gangster genre character is the less smart, more violent sibling of the hero (Arthur here) – playing another binary opposition to the protagonist.

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

• Episode 1 of Peaky Blinders establishes a number of plots and subplots around these themes.
• Tommy’s robbery (hidden from Arthur) has backfired and brought Campbell to Birmingham.
• Meanwhile Communists, the IRA and rival gangs from different ethnic groups are referred to as threats to manifest later in the season.
• In addition, Grace, an undercover agent, catches Tommy’s eye, opening a possibility of both romance and betrayal.

Answer 9

• In long form TV drama, more subplots and characters can be added to add richness and complexity to a more generic narrative.
• There is space for Aunt Polly, en Danny ‘Whizz-Bang’ to have fully developed narrative arcs all in one season.

Question 10

Intertextuality through Genre

Answer 10

• Tommy’s ride through the city streets, the
  townspeople who dash to hide when he arrives and then linger to watch the drama,
  the peaceful living room that hides a bustling gambling den, etc.
• The story of a crime family, the power dynamics within it, and their battles with rivals / the law was immortalised in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. The ‘rise of the foot soldier’ narrative arc, from working class to mob boss, references The Godfather 2.
• The ‘ruthless enforcer vs mob boss’ set up, as well as the 1920s setting and costume (especially flat caps), recall The Untouchables

Answer 11

• The Midlands there is a ‘cultural cringe’ about their location and identities.
• Whilst Liverpool and Manchester have celebrated their cultural histories, there have been very few TV shows or movies set in the Midlands, particularly in Birmingham.

Answer 12

• Steven Knight sought to reveal the ‘secret history’ of England – the lives and dramas of people who aren’t wealthy or landed gentry.
• Producer Laurie Borg said the show was a conceived as ‘the anti-Downton Abbey’, showing a completely different world existing in the same historical period.
• Despite this, the production design is spectacular and lush, the costumes particularly having an impact on mainstream fashion. Ornate sets, costumes and décor is usually a convention of the historical drama.