When Peaky Blinders opens, we meet Tommy Shelby (Murphy) and his brothers, Arthur, who is older, Johnny, who is younger than Tommy, and Finn, the youngest brother, who is still in his early teen years.
Tommy also has a sister close to his age, Ada, and an aunt, Polly (the late Helen McCrory). This family of mixed Irish and Romani descent, lives in Birmingham, England, in 1919, just after the First World War has ended.
Tommy runs a local street gang in this ghetto of sorts, called the Peaky Blinders. They run their small operation from a local bar, and they have the respect and admiration of their neighbors, who they work to protect.
Tommy, though not the oldest of the Shelby clan, is the leader of the gang, due largely to his cunning mind and ambition. He has his eyes set on growing the fortune of the family, which is currently rooted in taking illegal gambling bets.
