Is Thomas Shelby a real person?

Was Thomas Shelby a real person? Nope! While some of the characters in Peaky Blinders are based on real historical figures (including politician Winston Churchill, trade unionist Jessie Eden, rival gang leader Billy Kimber and fascist leader Oswald Mosley) Cillian Murphy's character Tommy Shelby did not actually exist.
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Is Thomas Shelby based on a real person?

Although many characters in the series are based on real-life historical figures, most of the Peaky Blinders are entirely fictional and were created by Knight. Tommy Shelby is from a Romani family based in Birmingham. Murphy spent time with Romani people to prepare himself for the role.
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Who is Thomas Shelby based upon?

Thomas Shelby is a character on Peaky Blinders, who's played by actor Cillian Murphy. While not directly correlated to a real-life person, Shelby might have been inspired by former real-life Peaky Blinder Kevin Mooney, aka Thomas Gilbert.
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Is the Shelby family real?

The Shelby family themselves are a work of fiction, though the Birmingham Gang did come to be led by a man featured in the TV series, yet one presented quite differently to who he was in reality.
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Who is Peaky Blinders in real?

Notorious members. The most powerful member of the Peaky Blinders was a man known as Kevin Mooney. His real name was Thomas Gilbert, but he routinely changed his last name. Other prominent members of the gang were David Taylor, Earnest Haynes, Harry Fowles, and Stephen McNickle.
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The Original Peaky Blinders | Britain's Biggest Dig - BBC



How rich is Thomas Shelby?

A man like Tommy Shelby, the Peaky Blinders gangster boss, would now be worth an incredible £450million. It was calculated that the mobster's assets, such as his properties, his betting empire, his clubs and bars, combined with his other business interests, would make him one of Britain's richest people.
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What is the Peaky Blinder haircut called?

The Thomas Shelby haircut is one of the most iconic haircuts in the entire show. Gang leader and criminal businessman, Tommy, sports a short back and sides with a cropped top that's several inches long. Similar to a French crop, the top is layered to create texture, with a longer part at the front.
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How much of Peaky Blinders is true?

Created by Steven Knight, Peaky Blinders is technically based on a true story but has also been heavily fictionalized for dramatic purposes. The BBC-Netflix crime drama focuses primarily on the Shelby family, a gang of outlaws who infiltrate high society in 1920s Birmingham, England.
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Is Luca Changretta a real person?

Luca Changretta and his gang are entirely fictional and come from the mind of Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight.
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Was Billy Kimber a real person?

William "Billy" Kimber, born 1882 in Summer Lane, Aston in Birmingham, a brass caster by trade, was head of the Birmingham Boys. With gangs in Uttoxeter and Leeds he controlled racecourses in the Midlands and the North. For several years Kimber was probably the biggest organised crime boss in the UK.
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Was there a real Alfie Solomons?

The character is based on a real-life Jewish gangster called Alfred Solomon. Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight says, "We have portrayed him as funny but with an edgy character. The Jewish gangs of the East End would have been just as famous but for some reason history seems to have remembered Alfie Solomons.
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Did the real peaky blinders have razors in their hats?

Historian David Cross, of the West Midlands Police Museum in Sparkhill, is also confident that razor blades in caps is just an urban myth. "If you think of your grandfather's cap in those days, then it would have had a very hard peak," said Mr Cross. "They used their hats with razor blades sewn in to rob people.
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Is Michael Gray a real person?

Biography. Michael Gray was born in Sheffield, England in 1903, the son of Polly Shelby and a river gypsy. His father drowned while drunk, and he and his sister Anna were taken from their mother by the parish after her mother was found to be using opium and getting drunk while having sole custody over her children.
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Is Polly Gray real?

Aunt Polly Gray (Helen McCrory) was a real person and she was terrifying – all the men were scared of her.
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Was Aberama gold real?

Other key characters, like Tom Hardy's Alfie Solomons, Adrien Brody's Luca Changretta, and Aidan Gillen's Aberama Gold are also fictional, existing as figureheads that represent the kind of people that the real Peaky Blinders would probably have encountered.
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Was Peaky Blinders Cancelled?

The sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders concludes on Sunday 3rd April 2022, with the BBC gangster drama bowing out with much fanfare.
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What do Peaky Blinders mean?

The term Peaky Blinders derived from the name of the Birmingham-based gang. Their name is said to have come from a practice in which gang members would stitch razor blades into the peak of their flat caps. In fights, they could then simply use their hats to slash the faces, eyes and foreheads of their enemies.
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How old is Tommy Shelby?

Tommy was born in 1890 and so at the beginning of series five, the gangster is 39-years-old.
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How do I become Thomas Shelby?

4 Life Lessons Every Man Can Learn From Thomas Shelby
  1. Walk past the devil, but shake his hand first. ...
  2. Paranoia will keep you alive. ...
  3. “Enough” is never “enough”, think bigger. ...
  4. Never lose sight of what it's really about, never apologise for your success.
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What does Tommy Shelby smoke?

Treatment. Thomas Shelby and Danny Whizz-Bang's method for easing stress and symptoms involves the smoking of brown opium with a clay pipe.
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What are they drinking in Peaky Blinders?

The whiskey that is drunk in Peaky Blinders is the Gallglennie Whiskey. However, this whiskey does not really exist but it was invented by the makers of the series. By the way, the actors do not drink real whiskey during the filming. Instead of whiskey they use tea.
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How much money did Tommy Shelby lose in the market crash?

We were most definitely on board.” However, no one reveals exactly how much the Shelbys have lost in the crash, in which $14 billion was lost in one day, the Black Thursday that gives Peaky Blinders season five, episode one its name.
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What did they smoke in Peaky Blinders?

In a previous interview, Helen McCrory (who plays Aunt Polly in the film) revealed that they actually use herbal cigarettes. "They use herbal tobacco which has no nicotine and tastes horrible," the actress revealed to the Mirror. "They're the same type they smoke in theatre productions."
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Did Michael GREY betray Tommy?

Michael returns to England and is treated with contempt from the Shelby family as they believe he is a traitor, even his own mother Polly and especially Tommy. Throughout Series 5 Michael plots to replace Tommy as head of the company, likely due to the manipulation of Gina.
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