Peaky Blinders: Historical Context Flashcards
1
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A
- Peaky Blinders was praised for many of its plotlines and portrayls in terms of its
historical accuracy - many of the areas which show ‘got right’ included: - The fashions of the era including the flat caps and suits linked to PB imagery.
- The Post War culture of men returning from the War (WW1) - sanities in ruin.
- The fear of communism particularly amongst the ruling classes.
- Obsession with horse racing / gambling (some of which was illegal)
- The rise of the British Union of Facists (although this is from a later series)
2
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A
- The real Peaky Blinders were operational mostly before World War 1 – they
had apparently all but disappeared by 1919 and beyond. - Because of this, Winston Churchill never would have interacted with the
original Peaky Blinders due to the time period. The show gives a not entirely
accurate timeline of his career and the depiction of his character is fictitious. - During the show, the Peaky Blinders deal with the IRA or the Irish Republican Army. The IRA rose to prominence right after World War I - it was not already established as a group like it is during Series 1 of the show.
- The gang apparently never employed razor blades embedded into the insde of their caps (as those types of razor blades hadn’t been invented).
- Tommy Shelby (or indeed any of the Shelby’s in their TV incarnations) never
existed – it may have been a man called Thomas Gilbert or Kevin Mooney