Peaky Blinders The Real Story review how a pop crime sensation became a network-hopping brand

"This week, that anticipation secures a pay-per-view release for this hour-long meat-and-potatoes primer, fashioned by Sophie Ellis-Bextor's dad, Robin Bextor, out of much the same combo of talking heads, drone shots and fair-use clips you would normally encounter on free-to-air Channel 5. Uppermost in the edit is a recognition that Steven Knight's creation was one of those peak TV shows that blurred the televisual and cinematic."

"Heaven's Gate, The Godfather and Rio Bravo provide contextualising material; critic Michael Hogan positions the show as Knight's answer to Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, the 2002 Shane Meadows comedy. The talk is widescreen, at least, even if the delivery format remains small screen. Bextor's most illuminating inquiries come early on, addressing how Knight expanded on stories bequeathed by his parents, which inspired first a concerted attempt to recreate Birmingham's working-class past and thereafter a modern pop-cultural phenomenon."

"Production designer Grant Montgomery recalls recycling sets in the show's formative BBC days; Hogan hails the show's rebel music the anvil-smashing rock and pop that helped to catch ears as well as eyes. Peaky Blinders was a popular sensation before it developed into a network-hopping brand, a subculture endorsed and sustained by the undercut sported by Cillian Murphy becoming visible everywhere from Balsall Heath to Buenos Aires."

A Netflix-backed film offers an hour-long pay-per-view primer directed by Robin Bextor using talking heads, drone shots and fair-use clips similar to Channel 5. The edit foregrounds how Steven Knight's series blurred televisual and cinematic forms, with references to Heaven's Gate, The Godfather and Rio Bravo for context. Critics frame the show as Knight's reply to Once Upon a Time in the Midlands. Early segments examine how stories inherited from Knight's parents led to a deliberate recreation of Birmingham's working-class past and then to a modern pop-cultural phenomenon. Production design, rebel music and visible fashion helped turn the series into a global subculture.

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