'Peaky Blinders': Fans recall the iconic opening scene where Thomas Shelby was introduced to us

'Peaky Blinders': Fans recall the iconic opening scene where Thomas Shelby was introduced to us

'Peaky Blinders' is already creating quite the buzz even before the show resumes for a fifth season in late Spring. The Steven Knight created-show starring Cillian Murphy (as Thomas Shelby), Paul Anderson (as Arthur Shelby), Helen McCrory (as Aunt Polly) and Sophie Rundle (as Ada Shelby) follows the infamous Birmingham gang who use their blinder caps to slit the eyes of their enemies. Set in the earlier decades of the 1900s 'Peaky Blinders' is an adapted tale of Knight's ancestors who were notoriously known as the Peaky Blinders for their fabled bohemian lifestyle and their disreputable actions such as murder and theft. 

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As the fifth season is set to release in Spring next year, fans are looking back at the first scene of Season 1 which for the first time had introduced the audience to the war-hero-now-turned-gangster, Thomas Shelby. As the head of the Shelby clan and the second son of the family, Thomas Shelby is probably one of the most beloved anti-heroes on the screen right now. A charming middle-aged man who has suffered the consequences of war when his family was almost washed out by poverty, the first scene introduces him as a tall man with a serious face, riding a horse in the dingy corners of Birmingham as he sought blessings from the gypsies. 

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🐎 That opening sequence of Peaky Blinders and first encounter with Tommy Shelby. This is a short edit, watch the full scene on the 📺IGTV Channel now (link @ofycm homepage). The Australian Review had the most brilliant description:⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ The opening is one of the best in recent TV drama: an ethereally handsome figure of mysterious origins, dressed in an elegant Edwardian three-piece tweed suit and newsboy cap, sits bareback on a steaming black horse. Slowly, he rides through a period urban wilderness; he is a man, from the way he rides, with a close association with the spirit of nature. In a few wonderful moments we’re given a figure with some archetypal power that reflects that seemingly universal need for heroes of a certain kind.⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ And when Nick Cave starts singing about a tall, handsome man with a red right hand riding through the slums and the ghettos, we know we’re in for something special. The scene is suggestive of some kind of western, though the setting and the cinematic look suggests Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York but, at the same time, there’s a Sergio Leone Once Upon a Time in America feel about it. Then a graphic tells us we are in Birmingham in 1919 and the man — he turns out to be Tommy — trots his horse into an industrial seaside wasteland of spewing fires, mills and derricks; uniformed coppers nod at him, doff their helmets, bid him good morning. It’s breathtaking…⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ·⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ #cillianmurphy #peakyblinders #tommyshelby #nickcave

A post shared by Cillian Murphy (@ofycm) on


 

 

In a post shared on Instagram, we see Thomas riding his horse across the streets towards the port as Nick Cave's iconic song, 'Red Right Hand', plays on the background. The very scene sets the mood of the show by defining Thomas as a "tall handsome man, in a dusty black coat with a red right hand". Fans are completely doting upon the scene, as one fan commented, "I was hooked after the first season. Especially that profile shot of Tommy riding past the Garrison and along the road." The scene had not only defined the head of the Shelby clan but it had also left us clues of what can be expected from the story. 

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A fan mentioned, "When I started watching it and the episode started with this scene, I knew I was hooked to this show for a long time." The first scene in the series had given us sufficient glimpses of what consisted of Thomas' world. A slum inhabited by gypsies who were the outlaws, a bunch of taverns and bars- all mostly owned by the Shelbys- and the most important part of the Shelby family, the Shelby automobile company surrounding which Thomas plans all his plots and schemes, solely to keep the company which runs on the money of gamble afloat. Certainly, Cave's song served as the impersonation of the character who is both a favorite and the worst for fans. 

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Watch the scene below:

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 Peaky Blinders Fans recall that iconic opening scene from the first season