Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight defends show’s violent themes

The screenwriter argues that computer games where children are ‘battering the hell out of each other’ are ‘more pernicious’

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has defended the gangster drama’s violent themes, saying that he believes it is a “deterrent” against violence rather than “making it attractive”.

The writer was speaking at the London premiere of the show’s fifth season, which sees Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby entering the realm of politics amid the rise of fascism in the late 1920s.

Defending the hit series’ themes of violence, Knight said: “There’s a grown-upness about television now that wasn’t there before. You do know you’re doing stuff for adults who can tell the difference between right and wrong, well hopefully, and make judgements about violence.

“And with Peaky, always if there is an act of violence, there is a consequence. So if somebody gets injured, they’re injured for a long time, they stay injured. It’s not like what’s more pernicious is when you watch over the shoulders of your kids as they’re playing a computer game and they’re battering the hell out of each other and there’s no consequence.”

Knight added that he actually believes the show will deter people from using aggression: “With this, not only does someone who’s hurt stay hurt but in the next series or episodes along there will a consequence to what happened in that moment of violence,” he said.

“It’s about gangsters so obviously [violence is] going to be there, but I think in a way that is a deterrent rather than making it attractive.”

Peaky Blinders season five will air on BBC1 later this year.