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Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

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Eric Gibson said:
I lost interest half way though the last series, gave it a go last night again but find it too much like the old James Cagney films back in the forties/fifties...……….boring!
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I’m glad it’s not just me then Eric. Too far fetched, too loud and totally boring
 
Hi,
Im looking for some further clarification on the original Peaky Blinders can anyone please help?

Was Thomas McDonald & Thomas McDonough the same person?

members had been charged with the severe wounding of Thomas MacDonald. He had been “found dazed outside a public house with sever razor slashes and head blows”. Indeed, the prosecutor explained that his face was slit from ear to lip. One man was discharged but the others were said to have come to Birmingham to create a disturbance. In their defence, the men’s solicitor declared that “MacDonald was a notorious fighter and bully among Midland race gangs”.
Although he said that he was a caster from Hockley, MacDonald was a serious racing rough. Born in 1882, when he was just ten he had been given six strokes of the birch rod for the petty crime of stealing bread. Punished for being hungry, MacDonald went on to receive convictions for obstruction and gaming. Then in 1907 he was sentenced to nine month’s hard labour for grievous bodily harm to a William Tooley. He was also handed six months to be served consecutively for assaulting a police officer.
Often operating under the alias of Thomas McDonough, MacDonald’s scar was recalled by his stepson, Jackie Currigan – a member of a tough but fair Birmingham family which built up a big business of legal betting shops. Jackie told me that MacDonald was indeed a very hard man and that his razor scar did go from his ear to his lip.
According to some accounts the attackers were members of the Sabini Gang. If this were so then this was a new development, for none of the London gangs had previously dared to make any raids into Birmingham, even during the midst of the violent racecourse war of 1921. However it is unlikely as the Sabinis had already begun to wane in influence. Instead it seems that MacDonald’s attackers were other Birmingham gangsters affiliated to the Birmingham Gang.
On June 23, 1925 the ‘Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer’ informed its readers that four of the assailants were Moses Kimberley and Isaac Compston Kimberley, both of whom were agents; William Kimberley, a professional backer of horses; and Charles Kimberley, a bookmaker’s clerk. All four were from Bordesley Green in Birmingham. The other two men were William Weston, a tailor, as was William Whitehouse from Camp Hill.
Two years previously, in a report in the ‘Evening Telegraph on May 23, 1923, William Kimberley was given as a 31 year-old commission agent living in Paddington when he was charged with wounding Steve Griffin in a Camden Town pub. Detective Inspector Gillan gave evidence as to the violent character of Kimberley and his associates who were well-known as racing pests and who made their living from blackmailing bookies.
Griffin had been struck with a broken glass, giving him cuts to the throat and wrists. He was an associate of Alfie White and Alfie Solomon, both of whom were allied with the Sabinis. With two others they had previously beaten badly a bookmaker with a hammer and then pointed a revolver at him and kicked him. It seems, then, that Kimberley’s attack was in revenge for this.
According to Brian McDonald, Kimberley had been born in Birmingham but was a member of George Brummy Sage’s Camden Town Gang, which was allied to Kimber and the Birmingham Gang. Kimberley was indeed from Birmingham as was his family. In 1907, when he was a twenty-year old cycle worker, he had been given eighteen months’ hard labour at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace in the Victoria Courts in the city. This was for breaking and entering a house with intent to steal.
His brother, Charles Kimberley, also had a bad record. Between 1907 and 1909, he was convicted for theft three times in Birmingham; whilst in 1910 he had been found guilty of shop breaking at Stafford. Then in September 1912 he was sentenced to three years in prison for breaking and entering a shop and stealing two costumes. At that time he was a hawker. The previous year, the 1911 Census showed the two brothers living with two other brothers, Isaac and Henry, and their parents in Allcock Street, Deritend. This was very close to the locations of the attacks in the Garrison Lane Vendetta.
MacDonald’s slashing would suggest that there had been a serious fall-out within the always loose groups of villains that made up the Birmingham Gang and that the attack did not involve the Sabinis. As for the case of unlawful wounding against MacDonald, the prosecuting counsel took an unusual course. He stated that because the bandaged MacDonald admitted to being in a rival race gang he declined to give evidence. Consequently the case could not be continued and all the defendants were bound over to keep the peace for various sureties, bar for Charles Kimberley who was discharged.
MacDonald was then charged with “being a disturber of the peace and likely to persevere in such conduct”. He promised not to attempt anything in Birmingham, though – to which statement the clerk of the court asked if he would get his own back elsewhere. MacDonald replied, “I have made up my mind, I don’t care who knows it, to get my own back”. The stipendiary advised him that he had better take care and told him not to be foolish. MacDonald was also bound over.
This assault on MacDonald came at a time when the ‘Western Daily Press’ revealed that “disruptions had occurred” to the agreement between the Birmingham and London gangs to operate within different zones. The newspaper explained that this had been “scrapped, and the two separate and main gangs have been invading each other’s preserves”. This had led to a vendetta; whilst “peril and confusion” had been exacerbated by the emergence of new gangs.
 
Who counted them.Myself and the wife came up from Kent 4 times.Nobody counted us.Might be one plucked out the sky by someone in the Council on a bonus.:mad::mad:
 
Edifi said:
Who counted them.Myself and the wife came up from Kent 4 times.Nobody counted us.Might be one plucked out the sky by someone in the Council on a bonus.:mad::mad:
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If I go to London and buy two single tickets as I often do. How do they know whether I am a tourist visiting London or a tourist visiting Birmingham?

I have just discovered that the Guardian do a summary of each episode of Peaky Blinders. This came up on my phone today
www.theguardian.com

Peaky Blinders recap: series five, episode three – the life of a gangster's wife for me

In a nicely paced episode, Linda, Lizzie and Gina told their stories, while the Shelbys continued to collect enemies
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
I've not seen it either but I know they have used the Black Country Museum for quite a few of the shots, I don't know about Brum, I guess it would be difficult to find places there now.
 
They must have done some filming in Liverpool, as I understand that they are doing Peaky Blinder tours there now.
 
Several canal and factory scenes were shot in the Black Country Museum. Street scenes were mainly shot in Liverpool. Studio scenes were, I believe, shot in Bradford. I have read that they are planning to do more shooting in Birmingham in the later series.
 
I have a friend in Canada who told me she absolutely loves watching the Peaky Blinders and she was very curious about Birmingham. When I told her Small Heath really existed and that I used to collect train numbers from the bridge at Small Heath Station as a boy, she said she'd enjoy the series even more. It's good to see Brum attracting such interest in countries around the world.
 
My father (b 1905) told me about the peaky blinders. They always interested me. But I have not watched any of the TV series. I am afraid that I would end up throwing things at the TV. I wonder if I should watch at least the first series. Do they get the accent right? Do they, say, show someone coming out of a pub in Small Heath, he just crosses the road and goes into Snow Hill station? The equivalent did happen in some American films that were supposedly in London. Any advice you have for me would be welcome.

Have you ever heard of the other peaky blinders? Eric Partridge in his masterly Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1937) says it also became a nickname for railway men from Birmingham because of their peaked caps.
 
Pedrocut said:
Yes, so does it follow that Alfie Solomons is not actually dead? Looking again at the deserted beach at Margate you can see that the dog resuscitates Alfie, and by licking the wound he keeps him going until help arrives.
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Told yer Alfie wornt dead!
 
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