Why Blackpool Rocks

The seventeen year old show is set to find new life on Britbox and it’s about time.

Britbox has finally decided to take a little vacation to the north and blessed us with Peter Bowker’s sadly long forgotten classic Blackpool. It’s a show that aired on BBC1 in 2004 and the garish colour palette of the filter is certainly of its time but also rather fitting of the Blackpool illuminations themselves. On the surface Blackpool is a story that exudes pizazz with outlandlash broad strokes but the real heart of proceedings is one man’s descent as his world crumbles around him.

Ripley Holden (David Morrissey) is an arcade owner with big dreams of turning the town into the casino capital of the north west. Once a dead body is found on his property, Ripley no longer holds any of the cards. His ego takes a bruising and amid a murder investigation his family fragment and his past comes back to haunt him. Morrissey is incredible in the role and quite clearly revelling in Ripley’s sourpuss complexity, crafting that fine line between arrogance and fragility. But he is in great company as quality runs through everything like a stick of rock. Enjoy the sugar rush but boy, just to warn you all there’s quite the comedown.

David Tennant is at his mischievous best as the Dastardly D.I Peter Carlisle. No Ice Cream is safe as he aims to bring Ripley and his family down (or with him, ahem). His long suffering assistant Blythe (Bryan Dick) is just another of his fall guys. Tennant’s intensity in delivering a nuanced and very comical performance deserves more plaudits. Still, he’s done pretty well since so probably doesn’t lose sleep over it. Speaking of long suffering, there’s Sarah Parish being a powerhouse as Ripley’s wife Natalie. Stuck in a loveless marriage and with very different ambitions, it sets things on a course where two worlds collide.

Add to all this and one of Blackpool’s biggest strengths has so far been left unsaid – it’s a musical extravaganza! Through glam rock, country ditties and eighties power ballads the cast sing, dance and fight in imperfect harmony, breaking out into songs at random moments. Here’s the thing, they do actually sing too, albeit over the tracks and not always in tune but it is a touch that just adds to the show’s unique charm. Highlights of the songs include Holden’s son being arrested by Carlisle to the tune of The Boy With The Thorn In His Side, replete with the most stilted dancing since I last went clubbing. Then there’s the water fountain based fight set to Should I Stay Or Should I Go which totally puts Hugh Grant and Colin Firth’s efforts to shame. They are all beautifully directed, funny and heart warming.

Bowker finessed a story that encapsulated the extremes of Ripley’s teetering mind. It’s brash and over the top but also has a very dark heart. He mastered brooding tension with incredibly light comical moments. Nuance dictates the characters, the series arc and the dialogue. Themes of depression, drugs and murder intertwine with riotous silliness. The fruit machine being used as a method to illuminate where the characters are at was a masterstroke. On the other side of the coin is Holden’s moralistic battle with protester Hallworth (David Bradley).

Even the supporting cast is paved with gold. Steve Pemberton, John Thomson, Georgia Taylor, Thomas Morrison, Kevin Doyle, Lisa Millett and Paul Ritter add to the rich tapestry and that ultimately makes us, the viewers the real winners. Underneath the sheen of Blackpool’s bright lights lurks a gritty underbelly and there lies the faded glamour of this lost TV classic.

Peaky Blinders: The Shock (Series 5, Episode 5 review)

“A CONSEQUENCE OF GOOD INTENTIONS”

It turns out Polly’s aim with a bullet is as pinpoint as her sass and rumours of Linda’s death have been greatly exaggerated. There’s a strange hate directed at Linda in the fandom and many will be up in wound free arms. Strange, because all of Arthur’s toxic actions are overlooked mainly because he’s a man, but thats a debate for another time. Meanwhile, Doctor Tommy is quick on the scene to apply his own medical style. A stunned Arthur, who by now is begging for the kindness of death is thankful. “I saved his life, he hugs him” Pol bemoans with a knowing look almost to camera. In the end, Linda says her goodbyes on her own terms and it looks like this really is the last we’ll see of her.

So what of Oswald Mosley who, to prove the point, is more popular than Linda? He takes it upon himself to grand stand on Tommy’s platform. His diatribe is full of slogans such as “change is coming” and “false news”. It also went on way too long so there’s another comparison to today’s political escapades. There’s also an odd moment where he eyes up the swan (honestly, it did happen) that jars because his impassioned speech continues but his lips stop moving. It’s obviously meant but somehow looks like a mistake in the edit. Either way, Mosley looks to have the upper hand. “Drink less” he orders Tommy as he walks out of the room but this is a spur for him to down a few in one go. That’s their relationship to a Tee (well, a whiskey).

What most sets Peaky Blinders apart from other shows is the music but setting two sex scenes to a song from Radiohead’s ‘Ok Computer’ is a brave move even by its own standards. The claustrophobic sounds of anguished guitars and distressed vocals as Oswald watches himself in the mirror and Tommy lays Lizzie down as an act of power play are about as sexy as dipping your genitals into a beehive. But then, hopefully that’s the point.

Ben Younger gets his reluctant hands on the evidence of a criminal network as supplied by Tommy. The claim earlier to his wife that he’s only doing it to get favourable terms on defence contracts is pretty transparent. Lizzie and Ada see the heart beating underneath. “Don’t listen to my sister’s opinion of me. They are always hopeful, therefore always wrong” he tells Younger, a man who will never get older due to the small matter of a bomb going off in his car. In an instant two lives are gone and so too might be all the evidence. Tommy running into the street to save the children amid the debris is an affecting moment made more heartbreaking as Tommy follows the hearse of the young boy killed at a grand funeral he clearly paid for. The scene is set to Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’. Hardly an original choice, it might even have been a respectful nod to the Ian Curtis funeral from the film ’24 Hour Party People’, but flipping hell it was powerful.

In another inspired Steven Knight twist we suddenly find ourselves in a mental asylum with Tommy to meet an old friend. The whole set up as he’s getting searched and walking to the cell is deliberately designed to build up the hope with every footstep that Allie Solomons is behind the door. It’s actually Barney Thomson who we’ve never met before but he fought the war with Tommy ten years previous. It serves as a reminder where Thomas and his brother could end up. What starts as an attempted mercy killing ends up in potential assination. A plan is hatched to free Barney from his padded cell resulting in a gleeful “IT’S FUCKING WEDNESDAY!

For an episode which had a bomb explosion, awful sex, Arthur going physco with a gun and a prison escape the pacing still feels on the laboured side. That’s not to say it was bad, far from it, it just feels like a new era for the show and shows must always evolve. For any new slight flaws there will always be new positives and the mix of dialogue heavy scenes and action sequences must be a difficult balancing act.

As things stand we now have the plan in place. The Billy Boys and Oswald Mosley are in Tommy’s sights and the war we were promised looks to be back on again. To quote the Black Sabbath tune at episode five’s denouement: “Evil minds that plot destruction /
Sorcerers of death’s construction“. Indeed Ozzy, indeed.

A LITTLE PEAK:

– Artistic license has always applied to Peaky Blinders, historically speaking. Mosley lived until 1980. Will the sniper miss?

– Arthur’s gun toting lunacy at the London docks felt a bit forced and fan servicey.

– “He’s in the mood for a quarrel”. Perhaps the most obvious thing said about Arthur ever.

– “Don’t scare me by saying you see things in my face” Tommy can’t hide from Lizzie even if he wants to.

– Michael and Gina have gone very quiet which is disconcerting.

– Alfie gets a mention when Tommy refers to him in the present tense. Is he really alive? Is Alfie part of a back up plan?

– Has Tommy been his own black cat all along and does that mean he’s trying to not walk in front of himself?

“I don’t think it’s really flour” Nothing gets past Curly.

Peaky Blinders Series 5 Interview: Steven Knight

This interview was carried out on behalf of thecustardtv.com and an abridged version can be found there.

Steven Knight has become one of television’s most successful writers since Peaky Blinders launched back in 2013. Not just content with creating one of The BBC’s most critically acclaimed hits he’s also close to finishing scripts of the second series of Taboo and has completed ‘A Christmas Carol’, starring Guy Peace which is coming to your screens this winter. If he is feeling the pressure it’s not showing as he takes his seat with a relaxed smile, clearly relishing what series five has in store.

What are the themes of the new series?

“It’s a fork in the road for a lot of characters, especially Tommy and if you put it simplistically, between good and bad. Is he going to do the right thing? It’s about members of the family being confronted with things that are so huge and potentially damaging that they have to decide who’s side they’re on”

What is it that will make Tommy happy?

“I think that he’s drawn to acquire power but doesn’t know why. Tommy doesn’t know what he wants since the war. If anything, I’d say what he wants is to go back to being the person he was before the war. He worked with horses, he was attached to nature, he had compassion and feelings but the war blasted everything out of him. When he came back he was just switched off so what I’m trying to do over the series is flick his switch back on and make him human again even though it’s painful to start feeling”

Do you have a writing process? Is the plan still to take the Shelby family up to the second world war?

“I don’t really plan things to that extent but what I do have is a destination and when you have a destination you can then get there however you want because at least you know where you’re going. For any journey the most important thing is where you’re heading so it’s always been a particular scene at a particular moment in history that’s going to happen, it’s just how you get there. I’ve found that sitting down and planning an episode doesn’t work for me”.

Do you know how Peaky Blinders ultimately ends?

There’s a knowing laugh followed by a firm “Yes…” The short silence that followed conjured up so many possibilities.

So you knew how series five ended when you started it?

“Only that, so everything else is up for grabs. You can do anything else, keep Tommy alive.. probably and head for that destination. It sounds weird but I know the characters really well so I tend to put them in a room and let them talk about anything. The kiss of death is saying ‘in this scene she must reveal this to him’ whereas if you just let them talk it happens naturally.

For the end of series three the idea was to split everybody and series four forced them back again. What I wanted at the end of the fourth was to experiment with the idea that you get to the end of the series and there’s still ten minutes left, so what are you going to do? So Tommy, goes on holiday and can’t stand it. So what am I going to do now? So I come up with this thing that completely surprises everybody”

Is Tommy’s PTSD explored further, as hinted at in that finale?

“Very deeply. A lot of it is about where he’s at and the business of coming alive again. He hasn’t reached the bottom yet. What I didn’t want to do is give him post first world war stress related mental illness in series one and in series two say ‘oh, that’s over now’. I want to keep it going because these people lived with it all their lives”

On Tommy’s venture into politics, there are certainty comparisons that can be made between the late twenties and the current climate.

“It’s extraordinarily appropriate. It’s fortunate for me and unfortunate for the world but those years had a great deal in common with what’s happening now. There’s the rise in nationalism, populism, facism and racism were suddenly becoming currency, becoming respectable. Some of the things that were said at the time could have have been out of the newspapers today – word for word. It’s quite chilling because we all know how it ended up, it ended in war”

Were you conscious of drawing those parallels in your writing?

“I didn’t even have to. I didn’t have to force it because you just read what happened and what people said and quote that. I think people will think I made it up. It’s like with Churchill, you take things that are real, dance around them and join the dots. It’s great for driving the plot when you know that history is marching alongside you”

How does Tommy manipulate the establishment from inside?

“He’s in his element in the house of commons because he’s found an environment where people with power are not particularly scrupulous. There’s lots of fighting, lots of gangs. His ability to speak, control and strategic are really useful. It’s not beyond reality”

What can we expect from Oswald Mosley? How do he and Tommy spar against eachother?

“Tommy confronts many things. Family things, gang things and emotional things but the biggest thing he can confront is this new sensibility. Sam (Claflin) is absolutely hypnotic in it”

The show has had its share of brilliant guest stars over the years.

“We get a lot of approaches from astonishly A-list actors who love the show but we’ve always tried not to make it ‘spot the celebrity’ because it’d spoil the atmosphere”

Is there life in these characters beyond 1939? A spin off maybe?

“They wouldn’t fight in the war but they would live through it. I’m starting to think there’s something to be had there. I don’t know yet, it’s just a thought”

A film has long been rumoured. Is there any substance to that?

“I’d never rule anything out. The inspiration came from my parent’s stories that I heard when I was a kid so the world sort of came out of that. It’s the details that are really amazing. The authority of truth is always important”

With that, it’s time for Steven to leave and head to a spa weekend retreat or whatever the hell it is he does to keep himself so calm and serene. There may be be gruesome murders and graphic violence in his mind but he’s floating out of here on a different plain to the rest of us. We, and not just for the obvious reason, really don’t want the second world war to start.

Peaky Blinders Series 5 Inteview with Helen McCrory

Helen bounds in after the designated meeting time “I’m so sorry I’m late! I was being interviewed”. She takes a look around her “He’s not here now so I can blame him!” On series five’s opening episode Helen gleefully asks “Have you seen it or are you seeing it tonight? Tonight? Great, I can say whatever I like.. I’m the lead!” 

Where do we find Polly at the beginning of it?

“It starts with the crash and they lose a lot of money very very quickly and she’s back on the streets- not literally! You see her  enjoying all the luxuries and then you see her realising she doesn’t have any left.

How does the relationship between Polly and Tommy progress? Does she still not approve of his ways?

“Well, people in glass houses and everything! I think she’s very encouraging of Tommy’s philanthropy. She’ll always be on his side but for the first time the son and Tommy become much more divided so she’s in the middle”

What’s in store for Tommy?

“Tommy has, for the first time, access to the world of journalism where they’re allowed to talk about people’s private lives. there’s also the whole idea of can somebody escape their past? Can a bad person become a good person? Can you have a good act by a bad man?”

How does Tommy’s new career in politics affect the family dynamics?

“What Steven (Knight) starts to explore is how much Tommy uses politics as a commodity, just as he used to deal with horses and then booze, he deals with politics in the same way. The information can be bought and sold and information is a way of getting what you want wether it’s blackmailing or trading. It’s just another form in which you hussle”

The women of Peaky Blinders have grown from strength to strength and are part of what makes the show incredibly successful? Do they steal more of the limelight?

“For the first time women were hauling their husbands to account quite publicly. The women really question the men”

Is Polly still connected to the spirit world? 

“That continues to be part of Polly, that sort of quasi psychic thing. She just has good instinct, it’s that streetwise thing isn’t it? She believes it. I think at the beginning Steven wrote the first scene like he wasn’t quite sure she was psychic but because I came in all ‘Yes, she obviously is’ he went ‘Yes, she obviously is. You’re mad. She’s mad. There you go!'”

—

It’s wonderful to report that Helen has all the presence of Polly Shelby but non of the menace. That is replaced by a wicked sense of humour and fierce intellect. You feel like you’re in the presence of someone powerful.

What of Polly’s vulnerabilities though? Her fears went awol in series four. 

“The biggest fear is still leaving Michael behind. Fear of death is not death itself, if you’re going to fear death then that’s a pretty fucking losing battle you’ve got on that one! That’s the one thing that is going to happen. Your fear is your children’s lives without you”

Polly and Michael have always been a fraught pairing. Does that continue?

“She’s always trying to protect Michael. He’s greedy in a way that Polly isn’t. Polly doesn’t really care about the trappings, she wants the family to be together and safe as you can be when you’re carrying razors around with you! So there’s a tension with her son. She’s lost the battle with Michael but hopes he doesn’t get caught with blood on his hands. It quite a family to discover particularly as Michael seems to have come from.. apple scrumping land of make believe!”

Peaky always has great guest stars. Is this this same in series five? 

“I have one special scene with Sam

(Claflin) and he’s really fucking good. As Polly I got to watch him do something and I was really impressed with the clever choices. Because of who he’s playing it’s all got to be totally fictional because it’s a litigious hell if you did anything that was vaguely truthful. You just can’t be”

Celebrities are also proud to be part of the Peaky fandom too.

“It’s such a cacophony of people who have nothing in common! You’ve got Julia Roberts and Snoop Dog! I heard the other day about the demographics, it turns out more women watch Peaky than men which is interesting because it’s boys with guns”

What do you make of the public’s reaction to the show? The fashion and music in particular.

“It’s fantastic! The move to BBC1 is interesting because I’m really loyal to BBC2. I thought they took such a punt on it. You can’t compare it to anything else”

The music is so opposite to the visuals that you’re seeing. You hear Nick Cave in a completely different way than if it’s him standing in a tortured pose in a music video. And you’re used to seeing somebody in flat caps with the Hovis music! It’s such a contrast”

What can we expect from Polly’s wardrobe this time round?

“Now THAT (Helen points to the promotional picture on the wall) I get particularly excited about as it was my design. I really wanted her to wear a suit in one of the scenes. I really wanted Polly in it because it’s just so cool”

—

With that, Helen is whisked away, this time on schedule and to no doubt cause mischief somewhere else. It’s been a pleasure.