No official order is needed to urge fans of great drama and action to watch Peaky Blinders, whether you’re new to the series or getting reacquainted ahead of the upcoming feature film.

Created by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steven Knight (Maria and All the Light We Cannot See), Peaky Blinders takes place in Birmingham, England, in the wake of World War I, and follows the Peaky Blinders street gang, led by Shelby family patriarch Tommy Shelby (Oscar winner Cillian Murphy). For six seasons, Tommy and the rest of the Shelby clan took extreme measures to expand their criminal footprint, all while dealing with powerful fictional allies and true historical events.

Murphy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson, and Finn Cole helped anchor Peaky Blinders throughout, but Tom Hardy, Annabelle Wallis, Sam Neill, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Sam Claflin, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Adrien Brody were among the decorated actors to have memorable runs on the series. That trend continues with the film, which brings back Murphy and adds Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, and Barry Keoghan. Ahead of the Peaky Blinders movie, throw on your scally cap and tune into these essential episodes.

Peaky Blinders

Season 1, Episode 1

Written by series creator Steven Knight, who has penned every installment, the premiere episode introduces former soldier and leader of the Peaky Blinders gang, Tommy Shelby, who immediately finds himself at odds with his troubled older brother Arthur Jr. (Paul Anderson) and his trusted aunt Polly (Helen McCrory). But the real enemies have just arrived. Chief Inspector Chester Campbell (Sam Neill) comes to town on the orders of Winston Churchill (Andy Nyman), tasked with retrieving guns stolen by the Shelbys. But Campbell’s secret weapon is Grace (Annabelle Wallis), an agent for the Birmingham police who has been put undercover as a barmaid at the local pub. The episode ends with Tommy covered in blood — the first of many.

Peaky Blinders

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Peaky Blinders

Season 1, Episode 5 

Welcome back to Birmingham, Arthur Shelby Sr.! A decade after walking out on his daughter and four sons, the true Shelby patriarch (Tommy Flanagan) returns. While Tommy wants nothing to do with him, the con man is able to convince his namesake to give him money for a business plan in America, only to quickly disappear. The betrayal drives Arthur Jr. to attempt suicide — but he’s saved by the rope snapping off the hook. Having earned the Shelbys’ trust, Grace realizes she’s in love with Tommy, and, in hoping to have Campbell leave them alone, offers up the location of the guns and her resignation. Campbell’s counter of a marriage proposal is rejected, and his determination to take down Tommy is further enhanced when he spots the consummation of Tommy and Grace’s relationship.

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Peaky Blinders

Season 2, Episode 6

The first two seasons of Peaky Blinders have been building to the Season 2 finale, which is widely considered the best episode of the entire series. With his possible death looming, Tommy looks to settle all his debts on Derby Day. Tommy strikes an important deal with vicious Jewish gang leader Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy), allowing Arthur to be freed from prison. Things don’t fully go according to plan at the derby, with Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) being brutally attacked. Meanwhile, Polly, whose son Michael (Finn Cole) is now officially in the family business, gets her revenge on Campbell, killing the show’s original big bad. Worried about his own life, Tommy learns that he’s bringing a new one into the world when Grace unexpectedly re-enters the picture and reveals she’s having his child. Literally standing in what is planned to be his grave and resigned to his death, Tommy is saved … and given a message: Expect a call from Winston Churchill.

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Peaky Blinders

Season 3, Episode 2

Now, two years after their reunion in the season 2 finale, Tommy and Grace are married and raising their young son, Charles — but the happiness is short-lived. A new rivalry is ignited between the Shelbys and the Changrettas, an Italian crime family, which began when the Shelbys disapproved of Lizzie’s relationship with Angel Changretta (Pedro Caxade), whose restaurant they subsequently burned down before violently beating him. As payback, Angel’s father, Vicente (Kenneth Colley), hires a man to shoot Tommy at the Shelby Charity Foundation Dinner — but the bullet kills Grace instead. 

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Peaky Blinders

Season 3, Episode 6

Still recovering from the loss of Grace, Tommy’s world is rocked when Charles is kidnapped. In exchange for the boy’s return, Father Hughes (Paddy Considine) demands that Tommy blow up a Soviet train in order to disrupt relations between the United Kingdom and USSR. Against Polly’s wishes, Michael is sent to retrieve Charles and kill Hughes, who assaulted Michael as a child. Word of Michael’s success doesn’t reach Tommy in time, and so he goes through with the train explosion, having also managed to steal valuable jewels. Upon arriving home, he reveals to his family that he’s made a deal, they will all be arrested for the train incident, and assures them that he has a plan. The police arrive and take them away, leaving him as the sole Shelby left on the outside.

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Peaky Blinders

Season 4, Episode 1: “The Noose”

Arthur, Michael, Polly, and John (Joe Cole) are on the verge of being hanged for their crimes (the nooses are literally around their necks), but Tommy proves that his family was the victim of a grand conspiracy. The call to save them comes through just in time. A year later, the Shelbys have spread out, but are brought back together by the emergence of the Sicilian mafia and Luca Changretta (Oscar winner Adrien Brody), who vows to kill them as revenge for the murder of his brother and father. Luca wastes no time executing his threat, with Michael shot and John killed. For the first time, a Shelby brother is taken off the board.

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Peaky Blinders

Season 5, Episode 6: “Mr. Jones”

The Season 5 finale opens with Tommy meeting Churchill (now played by Neil Maskell), who questions Tommy about his relationship with fascist leader Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin). Tommy has been infiltrating Mosley’s circle and plans to carry out an assassination on the dangerous politician. In the meantime, a fracture is developing within the family, as Michael and his wife, Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy), plot their own path for the Peaky Blinders. Tommy’s plan ends up backfiring, with his own men killed. The next day, haunted by the previous night’s events and the ghostly appearance of Grace, he lets out a scream and puts a gun to his own head … with the episode then cutting to black. Sadly, this marked the last episode for Helen McCrory as the beloved Polly, as the actor died before the sixth and final season.

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Peaky Blinders

Season 6, Episode 6: “Lock and Key”

Tommy believes he’s dying, having been told by his doctor that he’s contracted tuberculoma via contact with his recently deceased daughter, Ruby (Heaven-Leigh Clee), and so he looks to wrap things up. After being left by Lizzie and Charles, he makes arrangements for the rest of the family, destroys his own home, and outsmarts Michael, killing his cousin before he can get to him. Preparing for the end, Tommy turns to a life of acceptance and solitude … until a visit from Ruby’s spirit. He realizes that, under the guidance of Mosley, his doctor gave him a false diagnosis. Confronting the doctor at gunpoint, Tommy reasons, “I’m guessing that all you people decided that the only person who could ever kill Thomas Shelby is Thomas Shelby himself.” Tommy opts not to kill the man, but he makes one thing clear: “I am back.” 

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