Radio Times 2-8th April 2022

SO THIS IS IT. The final farewell of Tommy Shelby and his Peaky Blinders on the BBC, nine years after they first exploded onto our screens in a hyper-stylised blur of gangland violence, suits and flat caps, set to a soundtrack of David Bowie and Nick Cave, that both mythologised the past and set fire to a new generation’s imagination. It’s been a riveting ride. Yet all good things come to an end… or do they? Television was a very different place when Peaky Blinders began on BBC2 in 2013. The broadcasters held the whip hand, shows fought for a spot in the schedules, programme creators were largely at the mercy of management, Netflix was a bright idea ahead of its time, and the thought that a drama might have a…

Television Your TV guide starts on p39 ▶ 1 Peaky Blinders Sunday 9.00pm BBC1 The super-cool costume drama that conquered the world plays its last bloody card. We’ve seen Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) go from bookie to international power broker: now, in a feature-length finale, he faces a showdown with fascists, Boston gangsters — and his own family. FEATURE P8 ▶ 2 The Fall of the House of Maxwell Monday 9.00pm BBC2 A three-part series charts a family saga steeped in scandal. New tapes and evidence cast light on the barely believable story of 1980s press mogul Robert Maxwell’s operatic rise and fall, but they also root it in his family’s tragic past. FEATURE P18 ▶ 3 Benjamin Franklin Wed & Thur 2.15pm/7.45pm PBS America In Britain we don’t learn about Franklin at school, but as this handsomely crafted two-part series from…

DAVID QUANTICK “I’m watching Twenty-Five Twenty-One on Netflix,” says the writer, comedian and poet. “It’s a funny and moving South Korean drama with a unique and poignant central theme and some brilliant moments.” Where do ideas come from — page 113 JANE SEYMOUR “Mostly I binge-watch,” says the actor. “Recently I’ve loved Euphoria, HBO’s drama about high-school students and their experiences of drugs, love, sex and friendship. The actor Zendaya is in it and it’s frightening – the drugs! – but it feels so realistic. And I also love The Crown.” Introducing Harry Wild — page 36…

CAN YOU HAVE too much choice? If choice is a good thing, then more choice is an even better thing, isn’t it? If you know what show you are looking for, Netflix is an unalloyed gift. But have you ever spent half an hour flicking through the hundreds of options only to end up watching… something you’ve already seen, because you can’t decide which new thing to watch? Consider the way you use the internet without ever planning to. The next time you lose an hour to clicking through links, ask yourself if you are happier for it. I doubt the answer will be yes. Perhaps when you complicate people’s lives with choice, instead of being liberated by all this freedom, we end up paralysed by it. “Help!” we think, when confronted…

WHAT WE WATCHED Having initially been dismissed in the press as “Heartbeat in the Highlands”, BBC1’s Hamish Macbeth went on to charm ten million viewers on a Sunday night. This week the rural police constable returned in a new series that would see him resolve a romantic cliffhanger as Alex (Valerie Gogan) and Isobel (Shirley Henderson) fought for his affections. The show’s star, Robert Carlyle, summed up Hamish’s appeal when he commented to RT: “The character that Daniel Boyle [the show’s principal writer] put on the page was someone with no ambition whatsoever. There is a tremendous contentment in the character of Hamish.” WHAT YOU SAID A change of pace for Birds of a Feather star Pauline Quirke had paid dividends, with Joyce Brunt of Swindon praising her latest role. “BBC1’s The Sculptress…

‘It doesn’t feel like the end, but it is the end of how it came into the world’STEVEN KNIGHT Peaky Blinders Sunday 9.00pm BBC1 QUICK, DROP THIS magazine. Run from the room. Steven Knight, the man who created Peaky Blinders, is wondering – out loud – how it might all end. “I think Tommy’s spiritual side represents a desire to go back to a pre-technology, free-spirit world,” Knight says of Tommy Shelby, violent gangster and, latterly, Labour MP. “It’s his only solution. His only way out is if he fully embraces it and lives on the road.” So, Tommy is going to leave as he arrived nine years ago, on a horse? Knight leaves a beat. “I don’t let him off the hook that easily.” Whichever exit Tommy takes in the final episode –…