Peaky Blinders series four: Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory on what to expect

So it was with some excitement I sat down with a brace of period Brummie gangsters: actors Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory.

Fans will know that this pair – second cousins-ish – run the crime family, sometimes while battling with each other at the same time.

In this new series Cillian must refocus on an old foe from “across the water” while Helen is dealing with old demons, too.

We’ve just watched an explosive, high-tension first episode and McCrory says: “It made me want to watch the next one! I was just so excited seeing it. Because you read the script and you have no idea if it’s going to work.

“Just because it works on paper – God knows, casts have destroyed stuff before (not ours of course!) – but you just don’t know. I know you’re not supposed to say it about something you’re in but, it’s just fantastic.”

She’s right. The first instalment of the fourth series lacks none of the energy, pace and style of the previous seasons.

It also includes an extraordinary, blood-soaked scene in which Murphy’s Thomas Shelby deals with a dodgy employee.

Was that done in one take, I tentatively ask Murphy.

“Throwing him across the table was, yes,” he replies.

“The thing about that scene is that violence needs to look ugly and messy, and unpleasant. It’s got to make you want to shudder, or it should do.”

McCrory admits she couldn’t watch it.

“The writer has always said that the violence in this has consequences. One particular character was assassinated in season three so revenge is imminent. But it’s not an easy thing for him [Thomas]; to deal with him in that way. That’s why it looks the way it does. And as for the gun violence [later in the episode], it’s just a reality that these people returned from the First World War with their guns. It happened. And look, it’s a gangster show.”

Because of the brutality of that scene, and similar ones in the show, Murphy says he “conditions a bit” during preparation.

“I do hate going to the gym, I hate that stuff. But in order to give him some sort of physical presence you need to do a little bit of work on it.”

McCrory’s Polly is again in a very dark place; again doing another gritty, emotional performance.

Did she struggle to find her character this time?

“Well, not really, because he’s written her so differently and he’s actually looking at her in a completely different way,” explains McCrory.

“Until now she’s always been this very tough matriarch, who even after being raped will go and shoot someone; and constantly pushes forward despite her limbs hanging off her.

“But now, she believes she’s living among spirits. It’s up to the audience whether you think she is, or whether she is mentally ill. But she believes she’s in that situation, so she’s completely changed by it. Also, her rock, who is Tommy, is no longer with her. So you start this series, as an audience, thinking, ‘Are all the rats going to bite the dog, or are they going to bite each other?’

“It’s back to the streets and the whole series has got that sort of feeling about it.”

The “streets” in question are in Small Heath, Birmingham, where the Shelbys gravitate for solidarity.

All we need now, one presumes, is a rapprochement between Polly and Tommy after the betrayals of the last series.

“I mean, you know it’s going to happen,” Murphy begins, “and I think for Tommy, he thinks he can resist a fight with Polly but he can’t.

They need each other, if you know what I mean.” Why is that?

“It’s her strength and her support. He never really sees it in this way but it is a profound thing for Tommy.”

Adds McCrory: “And if you have that situation that they’ve set up over three seasons and then one betrays the other, how do you rebalance that? A betrayal in the sense that they go to the gallows. How is that redressed? How is that rebalanced, when their pride has been hurt that much. “It’s over in one scene, let me tell you that much!”

While McCrory and Murphy are the outstanding turns in this season, they’re supported by the quality of Aidan Gillen (Game Of Thrones), Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel) and Tom Hardy (Mad Max).

But this is still an awful crime family, peddling violence and corruption. Yet it seems the audience is rooting for them. “It’s one of those unknowable things,” says Murphy.

“The alchemy of the series connects with audiences in a sort of zeitgeisty way. I asked Steve [Knight, the writer], why the show connects in the way it does. He replied, ‘I don’t know’. But ifyou knew you’d sell it to other writers!”

McCrory reveals that fans have had Cillian’s face tattooed to their bodies, such is their devotion.

“He’s got hardcore fans, that’s for sure,” she says. However, Murphy is more concerned with how his character is impacting on him personally.

“Well, yes, he’s exhausting. It’s draining. I never feel like I can complain about it because it’s a privilege to play him, and to be in this world and to have this great long-form story. But the immersive workout that comes with playing him… You just can cancel reality.”

But Polly, McCrory suggests, is slightly easier to have in her life: “Well, she tends to come in and out really. It’s quite interesting to come and see Cillian in this series, especially compared with other seasons when the family was more united. Not now. For me, it’s tougher if you’re not constantly having all the family there for each scene because there’s a comfort in that; and a familiarity in that. I think definitely in this season, Cillian has to hold the tone.”

Which brings McCrory to her favourite subject: “I want you to start the article with a plea to give Cillian Murphy a Bafta. He’s never even been nominated. Can you do something about it?”

Is Murphy aggrieved about not having a Bafta? “No, I’m not!” But McCrory continues: “He’s not but I’m furious for him! It’s outrageous.”

So one Bafta in place then. Maybe. What about another series?

There were rumours that a fifth series is the last.

Murphy says: “We’re definitely making five and there’s also talk of a movie. In theory I would love to do a film, of course.”

And McCrory? “Yeah, I’m in. And if we get to series eight or nine, someone from Bafta may finally have watched it!”