'Peaky Blinders' Season 5: Love may be on the cards for Aidan Gillen's Aberama Gold and Helen McCrory's Polly Gray
Follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow. 'Peaky Blinders', a BBC series set in the aftermath of World War I, sets to breathe life to the saying on screen. Amid all the action and drama, season four saw the entry of a new character Aberama Gold. Aidan Gillen, known for his portrayal of Littlefinger in 'Game of Thrones', joined the cast as an ally to the Shelby clan.
A Romany hitman-for-hire, he is approached by Cillian Murphy's Thomas Shelby in the show when his rival Luca Changretta creates trouble for the family. Gold is a dangerous criminal with little regard for rules. In the show, he agrees to help Tommy but wants him to help his son Bonnie Gold be the boxing champion in exchange for his deed. Soon after, he begins a romantic affair with Polly Gray (Helen McCrory). When their eyes first lock, he gives her a flirtatious glance. During their second meeting, Thomas describes her aunt as a "witch".
Gypsies, widows and criminals, a real connection seems to brew. He is the one to lend support to Polly to take Michael Gray out into the woods. When they're alone in woodland, there is sexual tension and their chemistry is on fire. While walking together, in a scene, Aunt Polly asks him:
Aunt Polly: Do you know a longer way back, Mr Gold?
Aberama Gold: I know ways back that take forever.
Even though he has a bad reputation, Aberama treats Polly with utmost respect. The two wander off to a lakeside spot and he impresses with a fresh-caught rabbit as the two share their life secrets about Polly's witchery, her near-death experience and his late wife.
Aberama Gold: I heard that you have got second sight. I heard that you speak with the dead.
Aunt Polly: Yes. Your wife's often around you. She watches you.
Aberama Gold: Is she watching me now?
Aunt Polly: No.
Gradually, they fall for each other and make love. Immediately after the sexual intimacy, she puts a knife to his throat saying, "If any harm comes to Michael, you will have me as your enemy. None of your knives can kill me." Even in that tense moment, he understands her and says: "A beautiful ghost you are, and free."
The fourth season makes the best attempt so far to unravel who Polly is beneath her guise as the matriarchal leader of the Shelby family. Talking about her character development, McCrory told NME, "In this series, you start seeing the women around the Peaky Blinders starting to draw parameters. With the men, they feel like everything is boundless and limitless. You know, ‘I’m going to go there, I’m going to do what I want, etc’. That’s very attractive and wonderful, but it’s a total f**king fantasy. The women are saying, ‘No you can’t, because you’ll get my son’s fucking head cut off if you do that’, or ‘you’ll never see this if you do that’,"
"The women started turning round to the men and saying, ‘These are the limits’. You see that in this series. There’s also sexual freedom. Mentally, women having parity with men and f**king just because they wanted to, that started around here,” she adds.
Considering that Aberama and Polly are ideal for each other on the show, it is likely that love is on the cards for the two. Confirming the speculations around whether romance is in the air, McCrory told Digital Spy, "I can’t remember if I’m not supposed to tell you or I am supposed to tell you but yes there is."
What's more, Aberama seems to be getting a new makeover for the new season. Shedding light on his new look, he told Digital Spy, "It's three years. I think it's three years after we left after the end of season four. Is that right? So it gives the characters an opportunity to have a haircut and to grow a mustache and to get a new suit made."
It is quite "interesting" for Gillen personally too. "I personally thought a physical change might be quite interesting for a character like Aberama Gold, who is a man of mystery, and an evader of the law, like a lot of characters in this. But if you're a professional hitman and you don't like to be recognized or even noticed, it's probably not a bad idea to change how you look every now and then," he added.
As 'Peaky Blinders' seasons 5 returns to BBC One on Sunday, August 25 at 9 p.m., there is a strong hope that the relationship between Aberama Gold and Polly Gray will be explored with a fresh dynamic between the duo.