Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) may have given up the booze but Peaky Blinders (BBC One) continues to struggle with its own problematic addictions. Most glaringly, its obsession with parachuting in real-life historical figures for toe-curling cameos.
This week it was a History channel two-for-one with appearances by British fascist leader Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin) and, fleetingly, Winston Churchill (Neil Maskell). Or three, if you count a veiled reference to Adolf Hitler (Mosley’s “friend in Berlin”). It isn’t beyond the bounds that the season will conclude with Tommy snogging Eva Braun as PJ Harvey clatters in the background.
Or if not Braun then Diana Mitford (Amber Anderson). Mosley’s mistress was instantly riveted by Tommy, with whom she locked eyes at one of Oswald’s fascist rallies. Tommy seemed likewise smitten, notwithstanding the presence on his arm of wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe).
Shelby was meeting Mosley in his capacity as Labour Party MP for Birmingham South in an instalment that brimmed with a familiar swagger yet which had an uncharacteristic heaviness in its bones, too. That stumbling quality suggested Peaky Blinders has lost its moorings slightly with the tragic passing of Helen McCrory. Aunt Polly brought a mischievous verve to a show that habitually teeters on self-parody; her scintillating energy is badly missed.
The scenes between Tommy and Mosley might have worked had the latter come across as a genuine anti-hero. Instead, he was a flamboyant bad guy, more Austin Powers or Doctor Who villain than antagonist in a prestige drama. Mosley preened and cackled. Was it the dim lighting or did I see him twirl his moustache at one point?
