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Peaky Blinders - A world away from Downton!

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Thanks for the info
I look forward to seeing it ......... from the last link it sounds as if they actually have our accent correct!!!!
 
Re: the peaky blinders

I have read that they have tried to get 1920s Brummy accents. As we all speak differently now from how we spoke years ago, I don't know how they plan to achieve this. May be the accents aren't over the top. I have also read the the actor playing the Northern Irish policeman had to tone that accent down for the benefit of the American audience.
 
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I believe the guy playing the main character is from Ireland too.
It will be interesting to hear how they cope with the accents.
 
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What most people seem to class as a Brummie accent I'd say was Black Country and people who want to emphasise there 'Brummieness' tend to thicken it up in that direction.
 
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The Peaky Blinders. Just looked on tv planner. It looks as though it starts this Thursday 12th September 2013. BBC2 9pm. 1st of 6 episodes. Thanks for info on Peaky Blinders - all new to me. Should be interesting !
 
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I am looking forward to it too Wendy. One thing that puzzles me is that everything I have read about the Peaky Blinders refers to them being around in the 19th century. So was there a gang still using that name after the war or have the writers just decided to set it in those times?
 
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hi pol they were certainly around after ww1...i have a friend whos rellie was a peaky and he well remembers him and can recall many things that he used to get up to and certainly not one to be messed with...


lyn
 
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Lyn, thanks for your reply - how great to hear about the Peaky's from someone in the know.

I found this mention of them in the Birmingham Daily Post, October, 1895
 

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Re: the peaky blinders

pollypops said:
Lyn, thanks for your reply - how great to hear about the Peaky's from someone in the know.
I found this mention of them in the Birmingham Daily Post, October, 1895
Click to expand...
Just two Police-constables to tackle twenty to thirty 'Peaky Blinders' they must have been brave !

Several scenes in the BBC 2 production were shot at Brooke’s Mill in Armitage Bridge.
The producer said "The Birmingham we needed to recreate, due to a combination of the war and town planners, doesn’t exist anymore".
Mentioned in link below...
https://www.examiner.co.uk/news/bbc-2-drama-peaky-blinder-5906265
 
Re: the peaky blinders

pollypops said:
Lyn, thanks for your reply - how great to hear about the Peaky's from someone in the know.

I found this mention of them in the Birmingham Daily Post, October, 1895
Click to expand...

thanks for that snippet pol...i am really looking forward to the programme...

lyn
 
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jennyann, what a coincidence, my late father in law of Irish traveller extraction was named Stephen McNickle, born 1900, died 1986. Eric
 
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well i watched last nights first episode... was not to sure about it at first but by the second half i was getting into it think we must remember that for those of us who have read about the peakys we form ideas in our heads of what they were like and the producers can only go on info available to them so i wont criticise something i know nothing about first hand.. i liked the way that from the start it was made clear of the damage suffered by those who fought in the trenches and focused on the illegal gambling aspect which is quite true as my friend whos rellie was a peaky and amonst other things was convicted many times for welshing...really believed that the man who knifed the shop owner was going to be shot rather than be hung for murder but instead he was packed off to london..nice twist...

lyn
 
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cookie273uk said:
jennyann, what a coincidence, my late father in law of Irish traveller extraction was named Stephen McNickle, born 1900, died 1986. Eric
Click to expand...
Same here Eric, my Great Grandfather was Harry Fowler but he was born in 1886, not 1885. That was close!
 
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I agree with Lyn it was nice to see subjects focussed on which haven't been done in this way before. I started to get into it in the second half. Most people seem to be criticising the accents, I think the actors did quite well and didn't sound ridiculous, they can doing a Brummy accent some times. Sam Neil was brilliant in MHO. I wasn't keen on the music it didn't fit the time and was too loud. It is more of a period soap as it has to appeal to all ages. The atmosphere was great I hope it does well as it nice to see something about Brum. I loved it when the barmaid asked if the men were going to St Andrews to pray. I bet that still happens today...lol I will keep watching, there are some nice parts with The Black Country Museum featured what a pity we don't have one like that in Brum.
 
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Wendy said:
I agree with Lyn it was nice to see subjects focussed on which haven't been done in this way before. I started to get into it in the second half. Most people seem to be criticising the accents, I think the actors did quite well and didn't sound ridiculous, they can doing a Brummy accent some times. Sam Neil was brilliant in MHO. I wasn't keen on the music it didn't fit the time and was too loud. It is more of a period soap as it has to appeal to all ages. The atmosphere was great I hope it does well as it nice to see something about Brum. I loved it when the barmaid asked if the men were going to St Andrews to pray. I bet that still happens today...lol I will keep watching, there are some nice parts with The Black Country Museum featured what a pity we don't have one like that in Brum.
Click to expand...

agree with all you say about the programme wend...i have said to people many times what a shame that birmingham had no forward thinking when the demolision of our old buildings started it would have been great to have an open air museum like the black country does...but thats another topic for another thread...

lyn
 
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Due to other commitments I only saw the last bit and, from what I saw, I wasn't terribly impressed. However, like brummie nick, I'll give it another go next week.
 
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I was disappointed with the first episode. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I found it a bit boring. I thought it was all a bit glamourised for the TV, but I suppose it has to appeal to many different people. I might give it another go next week to see if it improves.

Judy
 
Re: the peaky blinders

My father remembered the peaky blinders as he lived in Small Heath, When the Teddy Boys started in the 5o’s he used to say “we had gangs like that the peaky blinders” he also told me where the ‘Teds’ had drainpipe trousers, the PB had pieces of velvet let in to theirs to make them ‘bell bottoms’
 
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]My father remembered the peaky blinders as he lived in Small Heath,

Hi All,

My father was born in Small Heath and lived all his life there. I was born there and lived there until I married in 1950. I can only remember him mentioning the subject once when my brother asked him what the Peaky Blinders did. It is obvious from Pollypops post at No 52 that the 'Blinders' were active in 1895 and had probably been going some time before that It is difficult to believe that they were still going strong 24 years later in 1919.

Frankly I think the program was very poor with gratuous violence and a story line difficult to follow..

Old Boy
 
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Re: the peaky blinders

This thread is to discuss the programme, which is fiction based on a true story. There is obviously a lot of poetic licence involved and imagination stretching by the producers.
This does not give us the oppurtunity to have a pop at the police force involved.
Try to remember that the accents portrayed are by actors so don't exspect them to get it bang on ( remember Crossroads, some of their accents could of come from anywhere, including Mars )
Enjoy it for what it is, just a peice of entertainment with the added bonus that its based in our great City.
Rant over!
 
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absolutely bang on jim and just to quickly mention the accents and just my opinion on this...nearly 100 years ago i would think that the brummie accent was a tad different to what is now so the producers and actors can only do their best given what they have to work on..i will be giving it another look in next week..

lyn
 
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I suppose it's no different to any other programme. F'instance we have Emmerdale set in a part of Yorkshire where very few people have Yorkshire accents, Corrie set in Manchester, Lancashire where those with any northern accent are from Liverpool or Yorkshire, Holby where no one has a Bristol accent. Even on radio, there's The Archers, set in a Midlands country village where most of the cast have Oxford English accents. Therefore maybe it would be better for the PB characters to just go for the script and forget about accents. Even so, from what I saw, there would still have to be improvements in many other area to make it a BAFTA winner. :culpability:
 
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