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Tim Roth, Steven Knight, and director Tom Harper all caught up with Kyle Meredith to talk about Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the long-awaited cinematic finale to the Shelby saga. With the story jumping into World War II-era Birmingham, the film serves as both an ending and an escalation — bigger stakes, bigger canvas, and a final reckoning for Tommy Shelby. Roth enters the world as a new antagonist, while Knight and Harper bring the series’ long-promised endgame into focus. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
For Roth, stepping into the Peaky Blinders universe came less from fandom and more from friendship, as he admits, “I knew about Peaky, but I’d never watched it… I was just off doing my stuff.” That changed with a text from Cillian Murphy: “He said, ‘Do you want to make a movie?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And it was the Peaky Blinders movie.” From there, Roth helped reshape his character into something more unsettling, explaining, “I said, ‘Can we flip it? I’d like to play him as a sort of school teacher… very reasonable and very nice until the mask comes off.’” The result is a villain that feels disturbingly grounded — something Roth notes feels “more appropriate… in these times.”
Meanwhile, Knight reveals the film’s existence was never a last-minute idea but baked into the DNA from the beginning: “After the very first series… I said, ‘I’m going to take this up to the Second World War and it’s going to be a movie at the end.’” As for how it all ends, he’s blunt: “Tommy Shelby don’t retire.”
Harper, tasked with translating that vision to the big screen, leaned into physical realism, recalling a brutal fight scene where “the mud turned into like a swimming pool… the pigs busted through… and it was day one of filming.” Still, the actors committed, with Harper noting, “They just got so caked and it’s so heavy… I’m much more interested in action that feels real, that feels painful, because they’re humans. They’re not superheroes.”
Listen to Tim Roth, Steven Knight, and Tom Harper talk about Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
