Peaky blinders: cillian murphy unmasks thomas shelby's 'contradiction'

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight described Shelby as “a good man, who does bad things to a bad end” – a quote that resonated with the TV lead. Cillian felt that each season of the show

was “very, very slowly… peeling back layers” to unmask “what Tommy was like pre-World War 1”. He believed that Mr Knight intended to “ultimately redeem” the character – who at the end of

season five was embroiled in a failed assassination plot to kill the fascist Oswald Mosley. Cillian explained: “He’s a contradiction as we all are, you know, as human beings. “Now he’s a

politician, he’s an MP, how do you reconcile that with being a gangster? How do you recognise being a father with being a gangster… [or] a husband? “How do you deal with an ideology, a

fascist ideology, something that you can’t use machine guns against – so all of that stuff, it’s just very rich.” Cillian felt the show was so compelling because viewers were given insight

into the mentality of “men stumbling through life, suffering the aftermath of World War 1”. He told the Happy Sad Confused podcast last year: “You know, ejected from the most mechanised,

most horrific bloodshed ever known to man, at that point. JUST IN: CILLIAN MURPHY EXPOSED PEAKY BLINDERS AS 'ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT' SHOW When asked about his character’s “moral code”,

Cillian claimed that viewers were “gradually beginning to see” what he was like before fighting in the trenches. The star said: “He was so traumatised and devastated by his experiences in

France. “We’re beginning to see some of those values and things that were important to him seeing them – they were dormant for a long time and now are coming back to life.” Earlier this

month, fans of the show were teased by Peaky Blinders star Paul Anderson,  who plays Thomas Shelby’s troubled brother Arthur. READ MORE: PEAKY BLINDERS: ACTORS' MAJOR FEAR AMID BBC SHOW

BACKLASH EXPOSED On Instagram, he wrote: “Season 6 #comingfknsoon… Thanking you all for the wait, it will be worth it.” Mr Knight, the show’s creator, revealed that the new season was “a

tragedy” and would have a “supernatural element”, during an interview with NME.  He said: “‘Is Tommy cursed?’ In other words – is everything predestined? Are lives already mapped out? Do you

have free will or not?” _PEAKY BLINDERS SEASONS ONE TO FIVE ARE AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON NETFLIX._