The China Mail - 'Peaky Blinders' stars hit Brum red carpet for movie premiere

Murphy was joined by fellow acting A-listers Tim Roth and Rebecca Ferguson, rockers Fontaines D.C. and a host of Premier League footballers for Monday's glitzy unveiling of the hit TV series' spin-off film.

Irish actor Murphy told AFP that Birmingham -- nicknamed Brum in Britain -- was "the only place it could ever happen" given the city was "a character" across the cult show's six seasons and new big-screen offering.

The 49-year-old "Oppenheimer" star said getting compatriot Barry Keoghan -- who features for the first time in the gritty historical crime drama as his wayward son in the movie -- was "always the only choice".

"I sent him a text on Father's Day apparently -- I'd forgotten it was Father's Day! -- and asked him did he want to be in it," Murphy revealed on the red carpet. "We know each other... he's just unbelievable on camera."

Hundreds of fans, many dressed in the show's beloved 1920s and 1930s attire, gathered near Birmingham's famous canals for the premiere of "Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man", which lands in cinemas Friday and on Netflix March 20.

Pulsing music by Fontaines D.C., which helps soundtrack the movie, blared out as the cast posed for photos in front of a "Peaky Blinders" sign set ablaze with pyrotechnics.

The city station's famous mechanical bull statue boasted one of the series' emblematic flat caps, as locals and visitors also wearing them had their pictures taken by photographers dressed as show characters.

- 'Fitting' -

The BBC series, which first aired in 2013, helped put Birmingham -- and the working-class flat caps donned by its characters -- back on the global map.

The name "Peaky Blinders" comes from the city's notorious street gangs of the late 19th and early 20th century who apparently kept razor blades in the headwear.

The show's six seasons chronicle the exploits of crime boss Thomas Shelby (Murphy) and his clan between the two world wars.

The film -- written by series creator Steven Knight -- picks up the story during WWII, with Shelby returning to Birmingham from a self-imposed exile in the countryside as his estranged son Duke runs wild.

"I really wanted it to be set in the war," Knight told AFP.

"In that time, when the bombs are falling, people become very hedonistic because they don't know if they're going to be alive the next day, so almost the Peaky Blinders ethos becomes a general ethos."

The movie's director, Tom Harper, said throwing Cillian Murphy's character back into war-time drama felt "fitting", given he had been moulded by "the violence and the trauma of the First World War".

"Just having that kind of explosive nature of the Second World War, echoing the explosive nature of the narrative, feels fitting," he added.

The film -- which boasts several new characters including Roth's Beckett and Ferguson's Kaulo -- could be the final chapter in the "Peaky Blinders" saga.

Northern Irish actor Packy Lee, an ever-present as Johnny Dogs, said it had been an incredible "rollercoaster ride".

"I've enjoyed every minute of it," he told AFP. "It's been almost 14 years of my life playing the same character!"

Murphy said he had not yet "fully processed" that it was over. "I think it'll take a bit of time for me, you know."

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