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Peaky Blinders movie puts city in the spotlight

Dyson Media A canal at night with redbrick warehouse-style buildings on either side. There are large professional studio lights installed on a balcony and pointing at a group standing on a towpath. A fire has also been created on one side of the canal.Dyson Media
Filming took place on canal paths in the Gas Street Basin area on Monday evening

He had us glued to our TV screens for six series. And now Tommy Shelby's silver screen debut is well on the way - with Birmingham taking centre stage.

Parts of the city centre became film sets on Monday for scenes being shot for the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie.

The hugely successful TV show, which ran from 2013 to 2022, starred Oscar winner Cillian Murphy and followed a Birmingham crime gang in the years after World War One.

The show’s creator Steven Knight, from Birmingham, is also at the helm for the film, which will see Murphy reprise his role as Shelby, as confirmed earlier this year.

BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd./Matt Squire The actor Cillian Murphy dressed as Tommy Shelby, the character he plays in the drama Peaky Blinders. He is wearing a black and white tweed flat cap, black jacket, white shirt, and maroon scarf, and a tie. He is standing inside a dark building with wooden beams.BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd./Matt Squire
Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy will reprise his role as Tommy Shelby for the film

Filming took place on the canal in Gas Street Basin area on Monday evening, after other action was shot in Cornwall Street, which is part of a network of streets with impressive redbrick buildings near Snow Hill station.

Jo Becket, location manager for production firm Oblik, said in a letter to businesses that the canal towpath in the area around Gas Street basin was due to be closed until 18:00 BST on Tuesday.

Daniel Russell-Ahern A street with a large colourful mural painted on a redbrick wall. The mural shows a close-up of Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders, a man wearing a black and white tweed flat cap, a black jacket and a white shirt. The mural uses yellow and orange tones on Shelby's face and has fire in the background.Daniel Russell-Ahern
Sutton Coldfield artist Daniel Russell-Ahern is working on a Peaky Blinders mural in Digbeth

Knight has been vocal about boosting the West Midlands as a hub for TV and film production and opened Digbeth Loc. Studios, in Digbeth, earlier this year.

Sutton Coldfield artist Daniel Russell-Ahern, known as Mr Murals, has been commissioned by Knight to paint a large Peaky Blinders mural on the outside walls of

Mr Russell-Ahern, has already attracted almost 900,000 likes for the ongoing work in an Instagram video.

He told BBC Radio WM that the level of reaction to the mural had been “wild”.

Peaky Blinders’ six-series-run on TV was shot at locations across the UK, including the Black Country Living Museum, in Dudley.

The show has become a strong part of Birmingham’s identity, with themed walking tours and references to the series in the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, which took place in the city, in 2022.

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