Peaky Blinders’ final episode pulls in a peak of 3.7m viewers – after ‘sobbing’ fans bid farewell to Tommy Shelby in dramatic conclusion

The final episode of Peaky Blinders pulled in a peak of 3.7 million viewers, as viewers bid farewell to Tommy Shelby on Sunday night.

Fans of the gangster drama were left ‘sobbing’ by the tense conclusion, which saw the family patriarch embark on a murderous rampage which included the death of one major character.

Peaky Blinders’ final episode sparked a flurry of reaction from viewers with many lauding the spellbinding 80-minute conclusion despite its ambiguous ending, setting the stage for a spin-off film which has already been confirmed.

It’s over! The final episode of Peaky Blinders pulled in a peak of 3.7 million viewers, as viewers bid farewell to Tommy Shelby on Sunday night

Peaky Blinders’ final episode pulled in an average of 3.3 million viewers and reached a peak of 3.7 million, according to overnight figures.

The numbers were a huge boost on the previous week’s episode, which boasted overnight ratings of 2.8 million viewers, and will no doubt see its final viewership increase once catch-up viewers are added.

Peaky Blinders’ sixth series saw Tommy Shelby’s wife Lizzie (played by Natasha O’Keeffe) reveal that she was leaving him, which promoted the protagonist (Cillian Murphy) to up-sticks to Canada.

Ending: Fans of the gangster drama were left ‘sobbing’ by the tense conclusion, which saw the family patriarch embark on a murderous rampage

‘I’m literally shaking!’ Peaky Blinders’ last ever episode was branded a ‘masterpiece’ by some viewers as the hit BBC drama came to a spellbinding conclusion

However, it was a tense exchange between the main character and his cousin Michael (Finn Cole) which left fans on the edge of their seat.

Hell-bent on avenging the death of his mother Polly Gray (the late Helen McCrory), Michael attempted to murder his relative by blowing up his car.

Thinking he had been successful, he entered a bar before saying: ‘Mum, it’s done. It’s over. My God, forgive me,’ however he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Tommy had ordered his friend Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee) to transfer a timed bomb to a nearby vehicle, and soon followed Michael into the tavern. 

Explosive: Series six of the cult gangster programme ended with an 80 minute extravaganza, complete with one final murder of a major character

Tragic: Tommy Shelby’s wife Lizzie (played by Natasha O’Keeffe) revealed that she was leaving him, which promoted the protagonist (Cillian Murphy) to up-sticks to Canada

End of an era: She left her wedding ring behind in emotional scenes during the installment

He boomed: ‘Speak to me. Speak to me Michael,’ while his astonished cousin stared on before replying, ‘You killed her.’

Tommy replied: ‘Polly made her own choices, Michael,’ who argued: ‘No. No one close to you makes a choice without your opinion Tom.

‘Not Arthur, not me, not Ada. We can’t escape you, your lethal hand is always on our shoulders.’

The World War I veteran then said: ‘She’ll visit me no more,’ before shooting Michael in his eye. 

Wow! However, it was a tense exchange between the main character and his cousin Michael (Finn Cole) which left fans on the edge of their seat

Shocking: Hell-bent on avenging the death of his mother Polly Gray (the late Helen McCrory), Michael attempted to murder his relative by blowing up his car

One step ahead: Tommy had ordered his friend Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee) to transfer a timed bomb to a nearby vehicle, and soon followed Michael into the tavern

Fans, who were left ‘literally shaking’ by the installment, rushed to Twitter to laud Cillian for his acting skills while begging for future episodes.

They wrote: ‘All hail Cillian Murphy. The best actor of his generation. His work on Peaky Blinders was, in turn, bold, epic, intimate, nuanced, and tremendously effective. I hope he is proud of it at least 1/10 of how proud we are. #PeakyBlinders.’

‘i thought i’d feel distraught and upset but i actually feel so at peace and content. this was a beautiful episode with such a poetic ending. it definitely feels like the beginning of something, not the end. #peakyblinders.’

‘The end of an Era. One of the best tv shows ever #PeakyBlinders.’

‘#peakyblinders s6 spoilers arthur being the one to finally get revenge for polly… i am sobbing.’ 

Tense: Thinking he had been successful, he entered a bar before saying: ‘Mum, it’s done. It’s over. My God, forgive me,’ however he couldn’t have been more wrong

Amazing: He boomed: ‘Speak to me. Speak to me Michael,’ while his astonished cousin stared on before replying, ‘You killed her’

Bullseye: The World War I veteran then said: ‘She’ll visit me no more,’ before shooting Michael in his eye

‘What an absolute masterpiece of an ending omg #PeakyBlinders.’ 

‘this scene shattered me, i love them so much #PeakyBlinders.’

‘Without these two Peaky blinders would be nothing. Tonight’s scene between Arthur and Tommy was absolutely perfect, that was the real farewell, with Johns picture on the wall too. A fine bit of acting #PeakyBlinders.’

‘THIS WAS SO F*****G GOOD I’M LITERALLY SHAKINGGGGG AAAAAAAAA THAT SCENE WITH ARTHUR I CRIEDDDDD !!!! #PeakyBlinders #PeakyBlindersS6.’ 

‘Peaky Blinders [clapping emojis] what a finale. Surely can’t leave it at that?! Brilliant.’

‘My face watching the end of peaky blinders I was not f*****g expecting that #PeakyBlinders.’ 

Cillian recently revealed the impact of co-star and friend Helen’s death on the show’s final series.

The actor spoke to Variety about the upcoming series of the show and how it will be ‘in tribute’ to the late actress, who passed away from breast cancer last year.

Cillian explained her absence in the show will play a big part of the story of his character, Thomas Shelby.

Enthusiastic: Fans, who were left ‘literally shaking’ by the installment, rushed to Twitter to laud Cillian for his acting skills while begging for future episodes

He said: ‘I think the whole series is really in tribute to her and to honor her. Her presence and her character’s presence are very much still felt in the series, and it is very much part of Tommy’s journey in the season.

‘It’ll be different without her, you know. It simply won’t be the same. I’ve spoken about how phenomenal she was as an actress and as a person and it is an enormous loss to the whole acting community and not just for our show.

‘My thoughts are always with Damian [Lewis] and her kids. I just hope that the show will live up to her memory and our memory of her.’

Helen did not film any scenes as her iconic character Aunt Polly in the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders following her cancer diagnosis.

Tragic: Cillian recently revealed the impact of co-star and friend Helen’s death on the show’s final series (pictured in 2014)

The BAFTA Cymru award winner did not get the chance to appear in any scenes and creators of the BBC drama had to rewrite ‘vast sections’ of the show.

Filming for the last series was brought to a standstill in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and resumed in January 2021.

Helen swore friends to secrecy as she faced gruelling breast cancer treatment.

She passed away in April last year and had appeared on TV to promote the Prince’s Trust only six weeks before her death, and shared her secret struggle with ‘very, very few people’.

A spokeswoman told The Sun: ‘Helen did not film with us in series six but Polly is an ever-present part of the show.

‘She is forever the matriarch of the Shelby family and her presence is always felt by Tommy and the rest of the family. Her influence is an integral part of the season.’

According to reports, Aunt Polly was set to have a larger role in the new series, before she had to be rewritten out of the script.

Helen played Polly Gray since series one which aired in 2013 and became a household name thanks to the part and her role in Harry Potter.

Her final TV role was in the autumn of 2020, portraying Prime Minister Dawn Ellison opposite Hugh Laurie in the BBC political drama Roadkill. 

Awful: He said: ‘Even with Helen McCrory, the impact she had on Peaky Blinders. I never got to meet with her unfortunately, never even got to dance with her’ (pictured in-character)

There hasn’t been a more ambiguous conclusion since the end of The Sopranos: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews the final act of Peaky Blinders as BBC viewers bid farewell to the hit gangster drama

By Christopher Stevens for the Daily Mail 

Peaky Blinders

Rating:

Not a bullet, not a bomb, not a knife can kill Tommy Shelby…just as Aunt Polly always predicted. 

Tommy himself (Cillian Murphy) couldn’t do it at the climax of Peaky Blinders (BBC1). 

Loading his gun with a bullet that bore his own name carved into it, he raised the muzzle to his head – and had a sudden vision of his dead daughter Ruby.

Long story short, Ruby told him he wasn’t dying from a brain tumour after all, and suicide was unnecessary.

His fatal diagnosis was a lie fed to him by the Fascist leader Oswald Mosley. 

The finale of Peaky Blinders (BBC1) was as ambiguous as the famous cut-to-black ending of The Sopranos

She even, helpfully, pointed him to a newspaper that exposed the whole deception.

Except, of course, it didn’t. 

The charred news cutting, with a photo of the doctor with Mosley (Sam Claflin) and his duplicitous, over-sexed wife Diana (Amber Anderson), didn’t explain why Tommy has been suffering hallucinations and violent epileptic fits.

And even in a drama as soaked in the supernatural as this, isn’t it a tiny bit too convenient to have the hero saved by a vision from beyond the grave?

There is another, darker way to read that enigmatic final scene. 

Tommy stands in the doorway of his gypsy caravan, surrounded by photos of everyone he has lost – not just Polly and Ruby, but his wife Grace and brother John too.

There is another, darker way to read that enigmatic final scene

He raises the gun, his dead child materialises. 

In the final moments, we saw the caravan ablaze (an echo of the traditional Romany funeral) and Tommy, framed by the flames, riding away on a white horse.

In a story so rich with enigmas and double meanings, it seems very plausible that Tommy is indeed dead by his own hand.

The brief interlude with the newspaper and the doctor was a hallucination, and that was his departing spirit we glimpsed on horseback.

There hasn’t been a more ambiguous conclusion to a TV serial since the screen went black at the end of The Sopranos.

The decisive answer might come when the long-promised Peaky Blinders movie is made. 

The decisive answer might come when the long-promised Peaky Blinders movie is made

Perhaps it will bring the continuing adventures of T. Shelby, in which case he definitely won’t be dead.

Or perhaps it will centre on his youngest brother Finn (Harry Kirton) and Duke Shelby (Conrad Khan), Tommy’s illegitimate son, who has his father’s psychopathic streak as well as his cut-glass looks.

Duke kicked Finn out of the clan, after shooting the treacherous and cowardly Billy (Emmett J Scanlan) between the eyes. Poor Billy had it coming: he’s been one nervous squeak away from death in every scene he’s ever featured in, since the first series.

The feud between Finn and Duke could supply the next chapter. Only creator Steven Knight knows. The rest of us, as usual, are left guessing by Peaky Blinders.

Neither was there any satisfactory answer to the riddle of that name. 

The show has heavily implied that it referred to the gang’s penchant for sewing razor blades into the brims of their cloth caps. Swung in the fist, the cap became a slashing weapon.

The haircuts will be missed and so will the stylised art deco sets, the outrageous games with history (did Diana Mosley really proposition MPs for sex on the benches of the House of Commons?) and the shamelessly sentimental dialogue

A documentary last month about the Birmingham mobsters who inspired the series pointed out how unlikely this was. Safety razors had not been invented, and cut-throat razors were the wrong shape.

More likely, one historian suggested, that the thugs got their nickname by wearing their hats pulled low over one eye.

In fact, the mystery is solved by a 1929 court report in the Daily Mail archives.

This states the hoodlums wore caps with heavy iron plates in the brims – and used them to blind their victims with head-butts. 

The Mail’s reporter noted that the gang’s notoriety was so fearsome that Birmingham was known as ‘the City of Dreadful Night’. 

That name was apt for the Wild West shoot-out between Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) and the IRA, outside the Garrison pub.

It began as a gunfight and ended like a World War I battlefield, with machine guns and mustard gas.

In a story so rich with enigmas and double meanings, it seems very plausible that Tommy is indeed dead by his own hand

Arthur was winged, hit in the arm, but his luxuriant banner of hair was fortunately untouched. If any harm had come to that, the barbers of Britain would be plunged into mourning.

No one sported a short-back-and-sides better than Arthur. His hair has inspired a million young men and women too, all adopting extravagant topknots on shaven skulls. A haircut that signified conformity and the lingering influence of National Service, half a century ago, has become high fashion… entirely because of Peaky Blinders.

Arthur’s soup-strainer moustache never did catch on, chiefly because it made him look like his mouth was under attack from a drug-crazed hairbrush.

The haircuts will be missed and so will the stylised art deco sets, the outrageous games with history (did Diana Mosley really proposition MPs for sex on the benches of the House of Commons?) and the shamelessly sentimental dialogue.

‘To family,’ said Tommy, raising a glass to the surviving Shelbys. ‘Sometimes it is shelter from the storm, sometimes it is the storm itself.’

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