The family story that became the success of Peaky Blinders: "Seeing it through the eyes of a child makes it more mythological"

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's father

ran through the streets of Small Health, southeast of Birmingham, he did not know that his adventures in this suburb marked by poverty, crime and extortion would end up leading to worldwide success almost a century later.

It only took a few doses of historical perspective and someone from the family who could bring them to the screen under the title of Peaky Blinders, of which Netflix has just released its sixth and final season, waiting for a film to close the cycle. of glory

Poly Gray already warned: "

."

Just that, instinct, was what Steven Knight had left over.

The British screenwriter had it to understand that the stories that his father told him about his uncles when he barely knew how to write would end up years later leading to an unprecedented worldwide success.

The family oral tradition as a source of inspiration.

«

, darker, brighter and better.

I was also a child when I heard the stories and therefore they were doubly mythologized," he himself acknowledged in an interview with the BBC's history portal,

, in 2016.

Those stories were those of his great-uncles, who while engaged in the book business also practiced extortion and illegal gambling.

This explains why the creator's father came home one day to deliver a message from his mother and found "

" .

At a time, the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where money was at a premium in this area of ​​Birmingham.

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The legend had opened the perfect way for fiction to sprout.

Because although the story of

starts from a real situation, sweetened by the imagination of a child, much of what has reached the screen has strong traces of invention.

.

Nor the time in which the series is set, the period between the wars, with what the books on the history of these criminal gangs reflect.

Its origins, according to various historians, go back to the 1870s in a neighborhood of strong Irish immigration that caused a rejection of the English natives.

That and the strong economic recession were a perfect ground for the birth of some gangs that immediately came to be called

, whose meaning alludes to the working class and the tendency to use violence.

.

That led to the arrest of three people, "including two very poor young men with no permanent home."

That documentation is still preserved today at the West Midlands Police Museum.

And it served as ammunition for Steven Knight to delve into the lives of these criminals who precisely became extinct during the 1920s, when the series begins, right at the end of the First World War.

Another of the fictitious licenses that the creator took, who

Because the screenwriter had encounters with various groups of soldiers who had participated in the early 2000s in Operation

and who, upon their return, encountered post-traumatic stress problems and even ended up in prison for various crimes: from fights in a bar to murders.

"

," he explained during the presentation of the third season.

That would end up being one of the fundamental keys to the success of

, the construction of violent characters with marked psychopathic traits, especially in the case of Tom Shelby, who, as tends to happen with this type of profile in all audiovisual products, They are the ones who end up capturing the attention and admiration of all the spectators.

As a paradigmatic example, there will always be Tony Soprano and his war to become the king of the New Jersey mafia from the garbage business.

Something similar to what happens with the Shelbys but with illegal bets.

This is another feature that differs between reality and fiction of these street gangs.

While the protagonists of the series aim to gain control of all of England for the simple fact of holding power, the reality was much more pragmatic.

The

aspired to survive in a context of dire need.

And the shortest path was violence and illegal businesses.

"

," explained historian David Cross, a researcher at the West Midlands Police Museum and one of the foremost experts on these gangs, in an interview with BBC.

But always maintaining his physical appearance and styling as a fundamental feature, which has ended up becoming one of the hallmarks of the series,

-which in some cases in real history were bowler hats too.

In that accessory lies one of the main weapons of these gangs: the blades embedded in the front.

Although some researchers dismiss that line, others like Cross himself confirm it: “They used their hats with razor blades sewn on to rob people.

That was a Peaky Blinder.

When they headbutted someone, it caused temporary blindness."

It was that style that also captivated Steven Knight.

"Just that image: smoke, alcohol and these immaculately dressed men in a poor neighborhood in Birmingham.

That's my mythology."

Although the reality was less idyllic.

«

».

But he wanted to go back.

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