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Meet the real Thomas Shelby and his gang of Peaky Blinders
BBC’s Peaky Blinders is an undisputed hit, with fans up and down the country preparing to tune in to the sixth and final series of the programme.The show, set in 1920s Birmingham, follows the fortunes of the Shelby family - a hard-working and fearsome gang.Their criminal origins are based in bookmaking, although as the drama progresses they move into a range of different industries from factories and gin to politics.Every member of the family is as rich, wild, complex and terrifying as the next, but each in very different ways.But did this larger than life gang of likeable murderers exist, and are the characters based on real people?The Peaky Blinders were real, however, they were different in real life to how they’re portrayed by the BBC, with many elements of their story disputed by historians.First off, the real Peaky Blinders are thought to have operated in the 1890s, not the 1920s - making them a pre-war rather than post-war outfit.Despite this, the Liverpool Echo says that some of the criminal activities the TV gangs are based on happened in the 1920s and 1930s, meaning what you see in the show is a hybrid of different parts of British history.Another difference it that the famous blades in the hats are actually most likely just a grisly rumour, with no evidence suggesting that they actually did this.What is more likely to be true, however, is that in the tough urban centres of England street gangs emerged, taking control of industries like betting.The gang is instead more likely to have earned its name through the snappy way its members dressed; like in the show they're believed to have worn a flat cap, suits and waistcoats with brass buttons.The dapper look of the Peakys still carries meaning to this day - people
