By order of the Peaky Blinders—and Netflix—Steven Knight’s BAFTA-winning series will return with more drama, dodginess, family tension, and Cillian Murphy on October 4.
You’d be forgiven for missing out on this crime drama in the era of Peak TV, as this writer only started watching in 2017. But after an award-winning fourth season, this is a great time to get caught up. Now in its fifth season, Peaky Blinders follows Birmingham’s Shelby family, a clan of strivers and criminals modeled in part after the real-life Peaky Blinders. Murphy stars as Tommy Shelby, whose trajectory has seen him add a whole string of letters after his infamous family name, including OBE and MP. As Polly Gray, Helen McCrory is just as steely and devoted to her family as her nephew; she’d have to be, given that she ran the group when her nephews were off fighting in World War I.
In season five, Tommy’s standing in Parliament becomes much more fraught once Oswald Mosley (new cast member Sam Claflin) shows up. The new antagonist is based on the real-life Oswald Mosley, a 20th-century British politician who became the leader of the British Union Of Fascists, so looks like shit’s about to get timelier.