Peaky Blinders Copy Cat Task Background Research

We were set a task to recreate a scene from a movie or TV show of our liking. My partner and I chose a scene from the television programme ‘Peaky Blinders’. Specifically, from Season Three, Episode Three. The scene we chose has the main character ‘Tommy Shelby’ arguing with his brother ‘John’. It is quite a heated scene with a lot of shouting and swearing. Nevertheless, we thought it would be a good scene to perform and act out as the facial expressions are key to the scene. I thought it would be a good challenge but a lot of fun to recreate such an amazing scene.

Click here to see the original scene

I was very lucky that me and my partner, Jeff, had both seen ‘Peaky Blinders’ and loved the programme. So, it was an easy decision to make, the fact that we both knew the TV show really helped because then we already know the characters and what they have been through, so we can show the emotion that the scene needs.

The reason we chose this scene in particular is because we think it has amazing acting already and it is a very dramatic scene that is done so well! We thought if we tried to recreate this scene it would be a brilliant experience to try and live up to the original. I felt we could be really passionate about the characters and be able try our best. Also, we are copying some of the best actors in TV, so we really need to bring our all to even become close to their skills, but it’s still a fun challenge. 

  Below is one of the pieces of the script that we were using for our lines. Luckily we found it on a free website that had the lines of the episodes from ‘Peaky Blinders’. Otherwise, we would have had to write down the lines after watching the episode, this could have led to a few errors and so it was better we already had them written down. However, this script was not the best as it had no names next to the lines, so it made it hard at first. We watched the scene many times, so we knew who was speaking and when and therefore it worked out alright.

In order to prepare for filming we had to take a few things into account. This programme is set in the 1920’s and so nothing we have available is of that time period. We needed to make sure we picked the correct location that looked similar, or we could make it look so, and our costumes needed to be good. This is because everything else wouldn’t be too true to the time period and we have to work with what we’ve got. Our first pick for the location was in black room which had a plain wall with a window, which is really all we needed, so at least we had that sorted. The costumes we needed to sort out ourselves, luckily for me I already had everything I needed, a shirt and some black trousers.

‘Peaky Blinders’ is famous for the amazing cinematography and outstanding directing. It is one of the most acclaimed TV shows the BBC has ever made, even the massive company Netflix has bought the rights to show it on their programming. Making ‘Peaky Blinders’ one of the most highly rated and loved TV shows ever. 

David Caffrey is the director of ‘Peaky Blinders’ who was known before for his work on the TV shows ‘Love/Hate’ and ‘Line Of Duty’. He wasn’t very well known before his success in ‘Peaky Blinders’ but has still done some great work. Another of the directors was Tim Milants who was known for working on ‘Legion’ and ‘The Terror’, two very well acclaimed programmes. The expectations for ‘Peaky Blinders’ was always going to be high. It was when they casted actors like Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Helen Macroy that the show had everything it needed to succeed and make some great television.

To watch Peaky Blinders for yourself Click Here!

Fact – Cillian Murphy was not the first idea they had for the role of Tommy Shelby. They were originally going to cast Hollywood actor Jason Statham. Cillian came a long and they just couldn’t say no and thank god they did because what a phenomenal actor he is and he made the show what it is today.

Cillian Murphy

Jason Statham