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Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

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philbee

birmingham born and bred
just bought the book gangs of birmingham and as i am reading it a lot of the streets appear on this website around aston/nechells and city central area the stories relate to the practice of slogging (stone throwing at each other and strangers) and the peaky blinders now i know it is stories of a different age namely victorian era and times were harder but i wonder how common these practices were in reality because it paints a picture of a very lawless society back then and not one for the law abiding citizen or did the press of the day make more of it than there was?
any comments phil
 
thanks Phil.. this thread has been on before,,i don't think that the press did make more of it than it was ..i for one (after reading the book )would not have liked to have been in Brum at the time ..we all tend to look at the past with rose coloured specs and this book makes you realise that it was not like we imagine
 
I am also reading 'gangs of birmin gham' - many of my families lived in the Cheapside and Watery Lane areas - I think now that in those Victorian days they were probably quite rough - how could boys living in those places not be caught up in slogging?
Sheri
 
Also, i don't think there was much of a police presence at that time, they probably didn't have the numbers available to patrol thoroughly.

A bit like today, come to think of it....
 
I gather, from the posts made here, that the book refers to the Victorian era and probably the latter part of the 19th. century.

However my father told me that a good fight was often to be had in the Bull Ring when Sir Oswald Moseley and his blackshirts held a rally there.
 
thanks Phil.. this thread has been on before,,i don't think that the press did make more of it than it was ..i for one (after reading the book )would not have liked to have been in Brum at the time ..we all tend to look at the past with rose coloured specs and this book makes you realise that it was not like we imagine

I totally agree with you Maggieuk, i read the book when it first came out ( and on the 1st thread said that the " peaky blinders " talked about in this book, were despicable mongrels, ( i know i had 2 great uncles that were Mongrels) We love to read about such things ,,,,,,, but not if you were on the receiving end of nothing more than what were thugs . Max
 
In Gangs of Birmingham the first picture shows Vale Court - would this be off Vale St? This is where my gt.grandparents lived and I guess had a blacksmiths there??
Sheri
 
Hi have just noticed that the BBC are making a drama aboyt the Peaky Blinders set in Brum in the 1920s,not sure when its due for release but look out for it in the future
 
Re: the peaky blinders

Hi have just noticed that the BBC are making a drama aboyt the Peaky Blinders set in Brum in the 1920s,not sure when its due for release but look out for it in the future

thanks for the info steve...this could be interesting..

lyn
 
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Yes I would like to see that the book was brilliant and led to me finding my gt grandfather. A program would be great!
 
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I was talking to an elderly lady about this today. She told me her father had a building firm in Birmingham in the late 1920's. One of the young lads came to work in a peaked cap which he thought may carry some metal. The lad denied it but when his cap was removed it was found to have blades embedded in the peak. The lady's father took the cap and gave the lad his cards. She thinks it may still be in the family home so I asked for a photo. A piece of social history not very nice but still history.
 
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as you say wend not very nice but a very important part of our social history...would love to see one of these caps...

lyn
 
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You have got me interested in the book and programme. I could do with a good book to read especially local history I have just ordered the book from Amazon.
 
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I hope you enjoy it Shady. My gt grandfather Thomas Smith is mentioned in the book he was secretary of West Bromwich Albion. Finding him in the book lead me on an amazing journey that I will never forget.
 
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Good read, recognised loads of the street names in and around the city centre, also places in Erdington and Shustoke, Coleshill. Had map up on google to look at the places as they are now. And could just about remember some of the locations in dudeston and nechells as they used to be before some of the industrial estates were built. Now just waiting for the tv programme.
 
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[h=1]BBC Two announces brand new six-part drama series Peaky Blinders[/h]
Date: 27.07.2012Last updated: 30.07.2012 at 11.05 Category: BBC Two

Commissioned by Janice Hadlow, Controller BBC Two, and Ben Stephenson, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning, Peaky Blinders is created by acclaimed writer Steven Knight and produced by Caryn Mandabach Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions.
In his first television drama, creator Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises) says: "The story I want to tell is based on family legend and historical fact. It is a fiction woven into a factual landscape which is breathtakingly dramatic and cinematic, but which for very English reasons has been consigned to historical text books."
Peaky Blinders is an epic gangster family saga that begins in 1919 in the lawless slum neighborhoods of post-war Birmingham. Returning soldiers, newly-minted revolutionaries and criminal gangs all fight for survival in an industrial landscape gripped by economic upheaval. Guns smuggled home from the trenches find their way onto the streets and become lethal currency. Communists don't just dream of revolution - they are planning for it and the government is expecting it. As Churchill mobilizes his Special Branch forces, illegal bookmakers make fortunes in speak-easy betting shops and traumatised infantrymen drink away their shell shock in riotous ale houses.
There is still a gentler city at the fringes, where gypsies and canal boatmen deal horses and tell fortunes, but sitting at the top of this industrial jungle are the extended Delaney family, whose many brothers, sisters, cousins and uncles make up the fiercest gang of all, the 'Peaky Blinders'. Named for their practise of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, the Peaky Blinders make their money from off track betting, protection and robbery.
Their boss Tommy is the most ruthless brother of them all, but his leadership is about to be put to the test. A ruthless new police chief arrives in town from Belfast to clean up the city and, perhaps more lethally, a beautiful woman arrives in the neighborhood with a mysterious past and a dangerous secret.
Peaky Blinders is a dazzling picture of England which blows away preconceptions even though the characters and events are taken directly from the pages of history. They now burst into life in a vibrant evocation of a hedonistic age, where the clothes are razor-sharp, the music fast and the dancing outrageous. The real Peaky Blinders were a scandal and this fiction will be the same. The Delaney's will be a family not to be taken lightly.
Controller BBC Drama Commissioning, Ben Stephenson, says: "Building on BBC Two's reputation for world-class drama, Peaky Blinders is a phenomenally authored drama series shedding light on a piece of hidden British history. Authentic, bloody and utterly compelling, Peaky Blinders welcomes Steven Knight and Otto Bathurst to BBC Two and adds another boldly crafted drama to our roster of upcoming shows."
Head of Drama, Tiger Aspect Productions Greg Brenman and Chief Executive, Caryn Mandabach of Caryn Mandabach Productions says: "Speaking on behalf of Greg Brenman at Tiger, and all of the other producers who are fortunate enough to be associated with this groundbreaking work, we couldn't be more lucky or more honored to be supporting Steven's vision. This is television at its best
 
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There is a write up today in one of the supplements of the Mail on Sunday giving Birmingham a good un' 'But its Birmingham thats the star of the show - people forget that it was a powerhouse, a world manufacturing city more important that Detroit or Chicago - We are putting our city back on the map.

STARTING BBC2 NEXT MONTH
 
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"...Peaky Blinders is a dazzling picture of England which blows away preconceptions even though the characters and events are taken directly from the pages of history. They now burst into life in a vibrant evocation of a hedonistic age, where the clothes are razor-sharp, the music fast and the dancing outrageous. The real Peaky Blinders were a scandal and this fiction will be the same. The Delaney's will be a family not to be taken lightly..." A few years ago I got the Peaky Blinders Folk Group to do a charity gig for me and they seemed like a nice bunch. The one even got his wife, a stilt walker, to come along and perform for nothing as well.
 
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Katie it does look like the clothes are a bit glamourised though. Nothing like the clothes shown in the actual book.
 
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