Out of control?

Cillian Murphy and Sophie Rundle on the thrilling final series of the hit period saga…

- SEAN MARLAND

PEAKY BLINDERS NEW SUNDAY / BBC1 / 9PM / EP 1 of 6 / DRAMA

Epic gangster series Peaky Blinders has become a cultural phenomenon since it burst on to our screens in a hail of bullets in 2013, and this week the acclaimed drama begins its last stand on BBC1.

A spin-off movie is due to begin filming next year, but this sixth season will be the Shelby clan’s last appearance on the small screen, and it promises to be quite a ride!

Boss Tommy Shelby and his Birmingham crime outfit were left reeling at the end of series five when their plan to assassinate fascist politician Sir Oswald Mosley went horribly wrong. The story picks up four years on, in 1933, with Tommy building an opium empire between Birmingham and Boston, America.

We caught up with stars Cillian Murphy, 45, and Sophie Rundle, 33, who play Tommy and his headstrong younger sister Ada, to find out more…

Season five ended with Tommy holding a gun to his own head – what happens next?

CILLIAN An awful lot will be revealed in the very first 10 minutes of this week’s opening episode, which becomes the engine driving the rest of the story and the rest of the whole series.

When we left Tommy at the end of the fifth series, it felt like he had finally lost control and that for once in his life he wasn’t ahead of everybody else.

But [the show’s creator] Steven Knight is amazing at writing these cliffhangers where you think, ‘How can the character possibly continue?’ Or, ‘How can Steve write himself out of this one?’

And he always manages to do it in a very unexpected way. He’s done it again with this.