Radio WM

[Darlo Dave]

I don't recall any direct Villa references, but Benjamin Zephaniah plays a reoccurring character, and he's obviously one of us.

[damon loves JT]

I don't recall any direct Villa references, but Benjamin Zephaniah plays a reoccurring character, and he's obviously one of us.

He's about the only one who can do the accent. The rest - with the exception of Cillian Murphy - are just indescribable.

[OzVilla]

One of the episodes I watched had a dark haired women in it, played the mother of someone and her so called Brummie accent was dreadful - sounded like a Cockney pronouncing class "clarse'. And she wasnt the only one either. Where was this Brummie writer then?

As a drama it just wasn't all that good.

[kippaxvilla2]

Well I think it is superb television.

[The Edge]

I haven't had the chance to watch any Peaky Blinders yet. I'm just wondering if there is any reference at all to Aston Villa?  On the one hand I think it's great that the BBC - for once - has commissioned something based on Birmingham culture...yet, on the other hand, the fact that it is written by a Small Heath fan leaves me wondering if the depiction of Birmingham life is wholly authentic when it comes to matters of football?

Good point about the BBC. I'm just surprised they found their way out of fuckin Manchester. No i dont think there has been ANY mention of Englands most successful club at the time-  The mighty  Villa! Bit of an oversight eh? I was enjoying the series, apart from the awful accents,I mean why fuckin bother if your so shit at something?  Once they shoe horned references to the sty into the show I binned it quicker than my collection of Gary Glitter records.

[pauliewalnuts]

I thought the accents improved in the second series.

The absolute low point, though, was when that Helen Mcrory's character said "France" and pronounced it "Fraahnce"

Never in my entire life have I heard a Brummie pronounce it that way. I can't even bring myself to do it if I try, and my Brummie accent is pretty faint.

It's just not right.

Cilian Murphy to me sounds very much like John Lennon.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

I haven't had the chance to watch any Peaky Blinders yet. I'm just wondering if there is any reference at all to Aston Villa?  On the one hand I think it's great that the BBC - for once - has commissioned something based on Birmingham culture...yet, on the other hand, the fact that it is written by a Small Heath fan leaves me wondering if the depiction of Birmingham life is wholly authentic when it comes to matters of football?

Good point about the BBC. I'm just surprised they found their way out of fuckin Manchester. No i dont think there has been ANY mention of Englands most successful club at the time-  The mighty  Villa! Bit of an oversight eh? I was enjoying the series, apart from the awful accents,I mean why fuckin bother if your so shit at something?  Once they shoe horned references to the sty into the show I binned it quicker than my collection of Gary Glitter records.

"Paul Gadd"..... Where he is now!

[tomd2103]

I've just watched Peaky Blinders for the first time and it was a pile of shit.

Agreed, it's shit. I switched it off as soon as they mentioned the Sty.
It also spawned a generation of chav hard men wannabes in flat caps which is just unforgivable in my book.

It also spawned a particularly dodgy looking pub in Dale End!!

[paul_e]

I watched the first episode, decided the accents were generally shit and that the whole thing seemed to be an attempt to romanticise a gang of violent thugs and decided I wasn't all that interested, nothing I heard since has made me think I made the wrong call.

[brian green]

According to my Auntie (by marriage) Peg well into her nineties and living in Castle Vale, not far from BE's mother I believe, the real life PB crew lived originally behind The Crown in Digbeth and spread from there up Heath Mill Lane to Garrison Lane. They were noses to a man and their big earner was the BSA and the jackpot was the vast amount of war work wages earned there by men and women with nothing to spend it on but to gamble. Billy (William) Hill was the Kingfish with Auntie Peg's brother in law Albert my late father in law his army dodging partner. A REAL scene from Birmingham bookmaking's criminal history was Albert's funeral at Robin Hood Lane cemetery. Not a fake Brummie accent to be heard on that occasion.

[Brend'Watkins]

Peaky Blinders is great.  It's as authentic and as close to historical fact as much as those Blues diaries and their list of honours from a few years ago.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

I've just watched Peaky Blinders for the first time and it was a pile of shit.

Yes, it's bloody awful.

Thought the way it was shot was good but the rest was shit.

Just like the bollocks about them having razors in their caps

[stuart r]

From what I read the real Peaky Blinders were petty crooks and muggers based around Digbeth. The writer of Peaky Blinders transposed the 'real' gangster story of Aston's Billy Kimber and that onto the fictional Peaky Blinders gang to make them more interesting and 'big-time' than the bunch of grubby street youths robbing folk around Digbeth they really were.

The tv drama was all style over content for me. Tried too hard to be dark and brooding. Too far up the backside of Boardwalk Empire or Sopranos.

I'd rather see Dave Lee Travis play Macbeth.

[brian green]

Pedant alert footnote but my last boring word on the subject.
No bookmaker worthy of the name on a racecourse would wear a cap. A proper hat with a brim, a trilby, fedora or homburg type hat was the bookmaking dress code. The racecourse slasher gangs were real but the big fish carried the blade of a cutthroat razor tucked in their hat band.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

bunch of grubby street youths robbing folk around Digbeth

Sounds like the Zulus in the 80's