"Teeth Will Be Provided"

Anything worth watching on Netflix seems to spread by word of mouth and so it was with Peaky Blinders, referred to me by a co-worker.  Set in post WW1 Birmingham, it deals with wanna-be gangsters, blundering cops, the IRA, Bolsheviks, family in-fighting... in short nothing that has not been done before.  However, Peaky Blinders is executed in a manner that is stylishly different, fresh and is thoroughly enjoyable.

The cast is excellent. An interesting part is that we have an Irish actor (Cillian Murphy) playing the lead role of Tommy Shelby, born and bred in England; an English actress playing Grace from Galway and a Kiwi-type (Sam Neill) playing the hard ass cop from Northern Ireland.   No stereo-types here!

Actually Sam Neill was born in Omagh but emigrated to New Zealand when he was seven.  His Chief Inspector character sounds like Ian Paisley with rocks in his mouth.

An apocryphal tale of Paisley: delivering a hellfire and brimstone sermon he described the End of Days and included there would be "gnashing of teeth".  An elderly pensioner piped up that she had no teeth.  Paisley thundered back "TEETH WILL BE PROVIDED!"

Anyway, Peaky Blinders is well worth watching.

Sidebar: one of Nick Caves many brilliant compositions "Red Right Hand" is the theme music and there are other Cave numbers interspersed throughout.  Another reason to watch!