Peaky Blinders fans are convinced Tom Hardy’s Alfie Solomons will come back from the dead in series finale

Did Cillian Murphy’s character Tommy Shelby just drop a major hint about his enemy’s return?

Peaky Blinders fans are convinced Tom Hardy’s character Alfie Solomons will come back from the dead in the series finale, after Cillian Murphy’s gangster Tommy Shelby dropped a hint in Sunday night's episode.

Tommy seemed to suggest that Alfie could still be alive despite the character having been shot in the face in the previous series.

In the closing scenes of series five’s penultimate episode, which aired Sunday (14 September), Tommy visited Jimmy McCavern (Brian Gleeson) at the docks to discuss who would be controlling the north and south tracks.

When Jimmy asked who would be in charge of the south tracks, Tommy named Alfie, saying: "Well, I would suggest the most competent organiser of men in the south is Alfie Solomons.”

Jimmy replied: "He's dead and he's Jewish, and I'd say as far as our boss is concerned, him being dead would be less of an obstacle than him being Jewish."

Tommy simply responded with a knowing smirk, leading fans to speculate that there may be more to Alfie's story than previously thought – after all, viewers were never shown a close-up of Alfie’s corpse.

One viewer wrote: “OH MY F***ING GOD IS ALFIE ALIVE??!”, while others pleaded with creator Steven Knight to bring the character back.

The Peaky Blinders series five finale will air on Sunday 22 September at 9pm on BBC One.