‘Tickna mora o’beng’: Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight explains meaning of Ruby’s Romani premonition

Tommy was told that his daughter was repeating the words: ‘Tickna mora o’beng’

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has broken down the meaning behind Ruby’s premonition at the end of episode one.

*Spoilers for episode one below*

The BBC historical drama returned on Sunday (27 February) with Tommy (Cillian Murphy) heading to America in hope of finding new business opportunities.

At the end of the episode, Tommy’s wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) tells her husband over the phone that their daughter Ruby had caught a fever and had been repeating the words in Romani: “Tickna mora o’beng.”

Lizzie explained: “[She] kept saying these gypsy words, ‘Tickna mora… tickna mora o’beng, o’beng’ over and over.’”

Tommy looked on in horror and asked if his daughter had seen anything, with Lizzie saying that she had mentioned “a man with green eyes”.

Speaking to Digital Spy, Peaky Blinders showrunner Knight has revealed the meaning of the premonition, saying: “It’s difficult to translate from the Romani, but it means ‘devil’.

“It means a bit more than that, but yeah. So it’s not good. It’s not a good thing.”

In another recent interview, Knight toldDen of Geek that Tommy’s “biggest fear” was that he was the devil.

“Tommy in series six, and to an extent series five, discovers that he’s a good man when he comes across something more evil than him,” he said.

“And when he does come across that evil – which is fascism – he discovers that actually, he will do things against his own interest, to prevent that from happening, which I think is one definition of being good.”

Peaky Blinders continues Sunday at 9pm on BBC One.