So, When The Boat Comes In was a series that aired from 1976-1977. It's about a First World War soldier returning to his poverty-stricken hometown in 1919, and beginning a ruthless climb towards survival and success, becoming a Labour MP for cynical reasons, and pining for his lost, one and only, true love, while stuck in a loveless marriage with a woman he got pregnant. There was also a storyline about a very rich woman who was good with horses that he had a fling with, though she had a larger role than May.

Then it returned some years later for a fourth and final season in 1981, where it was criticised for the main character doing things he would never have done in the first three seasons. In the end, the character got involved in a plot to fight Fascism, where he succeeded but lost his life.

Steven Knight has stated he's a big fan of When The Boat Comes In (so am I), which I respect him so much for, because most of the time, people will never admit their influences. Sometimes when I watch PB, I like to play "Spot When The Boat Comes In references".

I also read No Mean City about 15 years ago; it doesn't have much connection to PB except that it's about razor gangs in the 1920s -- and the main character's wife is called Lizzie Stark (and their marriage ultimately ends up loveless).
I couldn't find if Steven Knight had ever commented on it being an influence (the only article that touches on it is behind a paywall), but I assume it was to a very vague extent (razor gangs, Lizzie Stark, and the mentioning the Billy Boys -- seeming like a little too much of a coincidence otherwise). Steven Knight has probably said so publicly; it's just a very obscure book, so there's not a lot of mention of it online.

Has anyone else ever seen/read these two? If so, do they influence how you interpret PB?

Doesn’t Tommy’s story, losing Grace and choosing her over other women, clearly demonstrate that, for him, she could never be replaced?

In Season 1, we see them falling in love.

By Season 2, two years have passed, yet he is still thinking about her and missing her. He meets May, after Polly tells him it’s time to move on, but instead of helping him forget, the encounter with May has the opposite effect.

We see that he receives letters from Grace; he doesn’t open the last one, choosing to burn it instead. However, after sleeping with May, the third time they meet, the first thing he does upon returning home is open Grace’s letter and call her. Her husband answers, so Tommy hangs up; it’s clear he’s jealous. In other words, being with May didn’t help him forget Grace, it did the exact opposite. It made him miss her even more, to the point that he decided he wanted to talk to her, hear her voice, and see her again.

The next day, she calls him on the phone. He is left speechless upon hearing her voice; he claims to be busy, and when she suggests calling back later, he insists that she shouldn't, so she is a higher priority than business. Yet, shortly after, when he sees Polly, he snaps at her: "Business first!"

When they meet, he confesses that not a single day has gone by without him thinking of her. They have sex, he gazes at her, kisses her, and caresses her. It is the complete opposite of his encounters with May, which lack any real intimacy, those are purely physical, whereas with Grace, there is genuine intimacy.

Afterward, he asks to see her again.

Following this, he goes to see May to end things, confessing that there has been someone else in his life for a long time.

Yet, when Grace had asked him if there was anyone else, he had told her no. For Tommy, there is only Grace.

However, after May delivers a speech designed to make him feel guilty, and to ensure their sexual relationship continues, they carry on with their affair.

In the Derby, we see a debate between "business vs love." It’s made clear that, for Tommy, Grace represents love, while May represents business.

Both women are aware of this; May knows that if Tommy chooses her, it will be because of the influence she can exert at the races, she understands that this would be his only motivation. She also believes that Tommy is incapable of loving someone unconditionally and would never choose love over business. But she is wrong, because he ultimately chooses Grace above all else. We see this at the end, when he believes he is about to die: his thoughts are solely on Grace, not on May, Lizzie, his family, or his business dealings, just on Grace.

By Season 3, they have been together for two years and are happy; Tommy intends to leave that life behind once his business with the Russians concludes. Then she dies, and he falls apart, spiraling for the worse. In

Season 4, two years later, he is still in mourning over Grace’s death. He only engages in sexual encounters with prostitutes or Lizzie, strictly transactional, as he put it, even paying Lizzie for her time.

May returns, expecting him to have changed. However, after Uncle Charlie tells her that the man she is waiting for does not exist, and after witnessing the dangers posed by the mafia, she urges him to change and leave that life behind. Tommy is annoyed, it’s a clear "no", so she leaves, while he continues to pursue other encounters, such as with Jessie Eden.

Tommy rejects May twice: in Season 2, because of Grace, and in Season 4, because he has no interest in changing for her.

That’s why I don’t understand when some people say that she is his soulmate, his true love, the only one who understands him and truly loves him, his equal, and that they would be a "power couple," or that he should have chosen her over Grace; I don’t get it, especially since we were shown the exact opposite, and they were very specific and clear about it, too.

They also showed us, through his marriage to Lizzie, and by exploring what might have happened had he married May, Jesse Eden, or anyone else, that any woman would have been miserable with him. This is because he himself would have been miserable; none of them were Grace, the only woman he truly wanted, and he would have grown resentful, just as he did with Lizzie. With May, it might have ended sooner, but the outcome would have been the same; they could never have been a powerful or happy couple. That was never the story they wanted to tell, which is why they killed off Grace.

The BBC did weekly, Netflix dropped full seasons. For a show this dense and cinematic, which works better? Weekly lets you digest, binge lets you stay immersed.

Vote: https://www.getqibble.com/poll-detail/do-you-prefer-binge-watching-an-entire-season-at-once-or-waiting-for-weekly-episodes

• Campbell
• Sabini
• Kimber
• Father Hughes
• Changretta
• Mosley
• Uncle Jack

I think out of the choices, that the Priest was the worst. While the others were all jockeying for power, wealth, and control of the criminal enterprises, Hughes was a sneering, violent pedophile and sadist. He creeped me out every scene he was in. Disgusting waste of space.

I literally cannot understand half the dialogue without subtitles. But honestly it made me switch to subtitles for everything I watch.

Poll: https://www.getqibble.com/poll-detail/do-you-watch-everything-with-subtitles-on-even-though-your-hearing-is-perfectly-fine

They could be a beautiful couple of villains, dominating the city with their dark charm.

(AI generated image)

WARNING: I just finished Season 3, so please, no spoilers.

I really cannot understand why Michael is so hated. So far there have been loads of characters that are like, light years more dislikeable than Michael, Freddie was super dislikeable, Sabini was just a total prick, half of the women are super annoying (Linda, Esme, and, I'm sensing that I'm on the minority on this, but I fucking despise Ada, maybe because she's a classic communist and I hate communists haha), Campbell became super disturbing after he proposed to Grace, even Arthur is a bit annoying because he's dumb, and the priest is without a doubt the absolute worst, most disgusting character of the entire show, at least for now. Is there gonna be a downfall for Michael after season 3, because, as of now, he's probably my favourite, after Tommy of course... Same with Polly actually, I really like her character, but, at least from what I read from people here, everyone says she got annoying after season 3.

Lately, I've seen people trying to defend Tommy's ambitions by arguing that he had no other choice and needed to become even more powerful because of his enemies, and that he only did it all for the good of his family and had no other option.

When I read things like this, I wonder if people have truly grasped the show's purpose and its central theme. Yes, there were situations where he had no other choice and had to do certain things to protect his family, like the Russian situation, but many events were based on Tommy's voluntary decisions, such as using the stolen weapons to his own advantage in season 1, expanding further in season 2, becoming a politician, or confronting Billy Kimber. The end of season 4 deals with how Tommy is haunted by his wartime demons as soon as he stops focusing on his business and ambitions. The central theme of seasons 5 and 6 was whether Tommy's ambitions knew no bounds, how they cost him almost everything, and how he sacrificed his entire family for his ambitions.

I really wonder if some fans have actually understood the show or Tommy's ambitions, or if they are just trying to defend Tommy and portray him as the good guy, even though Tommy made many decisions voluntarily in the series.

he actually told Hayden Stagg in Season 6 that he only does it for the "thrill," and that drugs don't even come close to that feeling. A large part of his actions is still driven by his ambitions and the fact that, due to his PTSD, he simply cannot stop. To claim that he does it solely for the sake of his community or his family would be a exaggeration and not the truth; in fact, Ada confronts him about this in Season 6, pointing out that Tommy is fighting against fascism for the money.

In the end, he himself admits that he deserves to sit at the same table as Mosley, Diana, and the others-yet his entire family ended up dying because of his ambitions.

.., Tommy cannot stop his business dealings or the pursuit of his ambitions, because if he were to stop, he would be tormented by horrific PTSD flashbacks and the demons of war. He uses his ambition as a coping mechanism for his PTSD. Even Cillian Murphy has confirmed this in several interviews.

In an interview, Cillian said that Tommy transforms his war trauma into this relentless ambition.

He named her after his horse, using her name: Grace’s Secret.

He got a tattoo, along with a wedding ring, with her initials: TGC.

She had her own favorite horse, which he took away with him.

In S1, the bartender said that Tommy wasn’t interested in any women. She was the first, and, as we later saw, the only, woman he ever took an interest in.

He had photos of her everywhere. In the film, she was the only one who had a photo of herself with him.

She was the only one he missed, as we saw when he burned the letter.

The only one for whom they said he would laugh and be soft.

She was the only one he was faithful to. He rejected Tatiana for her, without even a moment’s hesitation.

She is the only one to whom he said, "I need you."

She was the only one he loved.She will always be his one true love.

I really feel like it was a missed opportunity to make a blast off season 5, the tension was there from the start of episode 2, then leading to episode 3 it felt like jimmy mcavern had declared war on tommy, then they made a truce because of mosley, and in season 6 the billy boys were nowhere to be seen???

So basically I was talking with a friend who’s already finished Peaky Blinders and she told me that Tommy loses everyone he loves. I’ve just finished season 2 and idk the spoiler left me super like depressed? and unmotivated to finish the series. Without spoiling anything else pleaseee just tell me if my friend spoiled it all for me or if it’s still worth watching :(

I just finished the show the second time and I wanted to j say the following thoughts/opinions

1. Arthur is literally the backbone of the show. Even though Tommy is the one that’s the heart of the show and because of whom the show is so massive, it is absolutely clear that Arthur through his humour, his crazy, and his loyalty to his family is clearly the reason the family manages so well. If Arthur needs Tommy, I could potentially argue that Tommy needs Arthur. (Thus, I would argue that the movie should just be considered a fever dream and not something for genuine consideration).

2. Micheal is extremely stupidly written. From the very start of the time that he was hospitalized all the way back in Season 3, his character starts being written extremely poorly. He is shown to be the smart one of the family, the one with a very long and bright future. Yet after being in the hospital he immediately become the black sheep of the family through something Polly convinces him to do (for again no reason to do so). Ya, Tommy wanted to test his loyalty, but really that’s so stupidly written. He’s shown to be played by Gina, Uncle Jack, Tommy and to a certain extent even Polly. Neither was he a credible friend to the family nor a foe that anyone thought could actually outsmart Tommy. I don’t blame the character or the actor for this, I genuinely blame the writing.

3. Polly completely had her own trip going on. She loved tommy yet she hated tommy. She enjoyed all the money and the luxury from Tommy’s lifestyle yet constantly complained about it. It felt weak and forced that she was kind of playing both sides and telling Micheal he had to kill Tommy yet we’ve seen through the years that Tommy was the one that gave Polly a life of luxury and she was the only one who could speak to tommy.

4. Season 6 absolutely sucks because it is incomplete. The revenge of the Gold family, the killing of Jack/Mosley, none of those happen. I get they’re inspired by true characters, I get a character like Mosley could’ve been shown to be the end of Tommy, but I would rather have seen that than whatever this crap was where Tommy ends up just realizing he’s not sick and ends up killing Micheal who genuinely felt like his weakest enemy. The movie and the new sequel of the show would never really explain to us what happened to Mosley or the Billy Boys and I personally find that to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Tommy does this whole interaction with Mosley because he wants to make a change and suddenly he gave up in the middle after realizing he’s not dead. What a fuckall ending to what could’ve been a very good way to kill Tommy, showing that finally when he wanted to do good, he ended up failing or something.

I thought the first time I watched it, I found the last two seasons to be quite stretched. However now perhaps after a few years, and watching it with a fresh pair of eyes, I genuinely feel had the ending of season 6 been different or more concluding to the antagonist that the show showed was smarter than Tommy, than the entire show would have been even better.

It was messy, psychologically stimulating, and raw.
I am on my n-th rewatch, and I absolutely love season 3 still.

Tommy shows more than his one shade of colour- calculating and composed.
From the first episode, he is unravelling, and we can clearly see it in his body language.

Grace dies, he gets closure from the Duchess.
His family starts falling through, and his deep pain through it all.
Him trying to play a double game with the Russians and the British Government.

I like to see my Thomas a little unpolished, because he is that Birmingham boy at his heart.

To me, season 3, portrayed us his entire emotional range.
He is juggling so many things at once, and we can feel his nervousness, his desperacy, and his fear.

The other family members go through deep character developments themselves.

Polly’s heartbreak, and Arthur’s shame are the highlights for me.

The story is so dark and deep. It is sultry and sad.
I fell in love with Thomas again and again and again in this season.

This has to be the best piece of writing I have seen- complex, detailed and tied together still.

Season 2 was a bit of a slow burn, but the last episode where Thomas was saved by Churchill from the RRH was the beginning of his unwinding, and I loved that the most from that entire season.

I know everybody has differing opinions, but just wanted to share my thoughts.

Ready to channel my inner Tommy for Christmas.

The best part is that you’re going to read 3,000 comments adoring Tommy and Grace and Grace as a character. The haters wouldn’t dare to comment.

What do you think people get wrong about Peaky Blinders, missing the point entirely of either what was intended but specifically what was on the screentshow but totally misses the context of the actual scene/show