More than a decade ago, Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) rode a horse bareback through the streets of Birmingham, England, and — in his enigmatic wake — an obsessive fandom was born. So obsessive, in fact, as to warrant the deepest of deep dives into the six-season run and its sequel film, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, streaming now on Netflix.

Below you’ll find vital information unearthed about the franchise, from Tommy’s impeccable suits to the many, many locations that served as a backdrop for Birmingham. Ever wonder what Peaky quote Murphy hears most from passersby when he walks his dog? Or how many cigarettes were smoked throughout the run of the series? And just how much edible mud was used while filming the film’s brutal pig scene? 

Read on for every important number you’ll ever need to know when it comes to the vast Peaky universe. It’s the most important order you’ll ever receive. 

THE CLOTHES, HAIR, AND PROPS

Are you even a true member of the Peaky Blinders if you don’t own an unbelievably smart suit, rock a cropped haircut, and have a cigarette at the ready? Time to dive into all things fashion and hair. 

How many hats were designed for Tommy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man? 

Four hats were made for Tommy, three of which were designed for Murphy, and the fourth for his stunt performer. Supplied by Herbert Johnson Hatters, a cap-making company in London, the process began with costume designer Alison McCosh taking a 360-degree photo of Murphy’s head.

“There’s one person who makes all the hats by hand,” McCosh tells Tudum. “It’s about Tommy looking mean, pulling that cap down, and getting the intensity of the eyes and the cheekbones. [We really focused] in on that, taking some of the volume out, adjusting the brim ever so slightly.”

The hat is lined in red quilting, and McCosh made sure that Tommy’s initials were stitched in gold thread. 

How long does it take to make Tommy’s signature suit? 

Eight weeks before filming for the movie began, a tailor in Ireland — who was given the sole task of designing Tommy’s suits — got to work. Multiple versions of the suit were made for production, and each was dipped, dyed, and painted. 

Look closely when you watch the film — there are a few extra special touches added to Tommy’s ensemble when he emerges in full Peaky attire. “We put more swing in his coat so we could get that shot,” McCosh notes. “We drew the vent [vertical slit] up a little higher to get more movement.” The costume designer opted for midnight-colored outerwear with silk velvet rather than Tommy’s usual solid black. “It started to feel like a superhero coat,” she says. “It’s iconic, so the pressure was on to really deliver it.” 

The process of cutting Duke’s suit, meanwhile, started six weeks before filming, and he needed multiple versions of his ensemble for that messy pig pen scene. The leather jacket he wears is vintage, and a vent was built into the back to create more movement during fight scenes. 

How many items does Tommy carry in his suit pockets?

Two. Tommy always has a pocket watch on him when he wears his waistcoat and a cigarette case, which is typically in his left breast pocket. McCosh sourced the watch from a vendor in London who sells historical pieces for films. “There was a scene in the movie where the pocket watch was going to have a strong focus, so I really wanted to get something with a beautiful cut,” she shares.

How long does it take to cut and style that iconic Peaky haircut?

Nadia Stacey, the film’s hair and makeup artist, estimates it took her around 30 minutes to create the signature Peaky Blinders chop. She only used one product: an old-fashioned pomade to style it into place. 

Stacey evolved the new generation of Peaky haircuts, pivoting them away from the pristine style of the earlier generations. “I wanted to move the new breed of Peakys on from what we had seen before because they were being run very differently,” she says. “The general feeling and look is that they are much more disheveled and rough around the edges.”

Barry Keoghan, who plays Tommy’s son Duke, had his hair cut in several stages. “It was longer at the back at first as we were trying to find our new Peaky [style], but then we realized that the haircut is so iconic you have to lean into it,” says Stacey. 

How many cigarettes were used over the course of filming the Peaky Blinders series?

Buckle up for this one: 3,000 cigarettes were used during the filming of each season, Murphy shared in an interview with Birmingham Live. 

The fake cigarettes had a tendency to stick to Murphy’s mouth, so he developed a technique which involved rolling the cigarette along his lips. “It became a Tommy thing,” said Murphy during an episode of the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man companion podcast. “That’s what happens if you play a character for a long, long time. These things develop.” 

THE LOCATIONS

Here’s your chance to follow in the footsteps of Tommy Shelby and experience the gritty world of Peaky Blinders. Plus, more on filming that grotesque pig scene.

How many locations were used during the filming of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man? 

Production shot in eight cities and towns: Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Goole, Derby, London, and Birmingham. Filming also took place in the Lake District and the Peak District. 

A number of locations stood in for Small Heath. The Garrison exterior, for instance, was filmed in Manchester, while the interior was filmed in Birmingham. The exterior of the factory was filmed in Leeds, and its interior in St. Helens, a town in Liverpool. 

“What we did on Immortal Man was literally travel the length and breadth of the country as though it was [all] in one place,” Jacqueline Abrahams, the film’s production designer, tells Tudum. “We had to keep our eye on the visual style and not forget it, because we were in so many different places pretending to be in one place.”

Want to take your own Tommy Shelby-themed trip through England? Check out our filming location guide to all six seasons of the show. (Hot tip: Tommy’s home is open to visitors!) 

How long did it take to build the Garrison for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man?

It took roughly six weeks to build the Shelby family’s favorite watering hole. For inspiration, Abrahams cycled to work every morning, and would document different details from various pubs she passed. She was particularly taken by a bar on the corner of Caledonian Road, in London, which served as a key creative reference point. “It was really inspiring to me,” she says. “I love the finish of it, it’s like tile painted over this kind of grimy dark blue paint.” 

The production designer used the looming size of the Garrison to help tell the story of Duke, Tommy’s heir apparent. “I wanted to get the scale to be much taller and bigger, so that — when Barry sat on a little seat — he looks like a kid. That was, to me, the only important thing — to make Barry look like a child in this pub, his dad’s pub.” 

How much fake mud did they pack into that pig pen?

Still haunted by that brutal pig-pen scene? Same, same. Shot at the Hartley jam factory, Abrahams estimates that 16 square meters of edible mud were used for that set. “They made up this special edible mud — loads of it — to match the color of the mud that had been put in there,” she says.

There was chocolate mixed in, and Keoghan, who spent plenty of time in that pen, recalls the mud tasting like “chocolate pig-shit cake.”

THE PEOPLE

By order of the Peaky Blinders, it’s time to learn more about the franchise’s classic catchphrase and the many — many, many — deaths. 

How many times is “by order of the Peaky Blinders” said throughout the series’ six seasons? 

The iconic phrase has been uttered 10 times throughout the series, with an F-bomb thrown in here and there for good measure. You can watch every single one of those scenes here.

Steven Knight, the show’s creator, first came up with the catchphrase while writing the pilot episode, when Tommy directs Charlie (Ned Dennehy) to stash away guns he stole from the government. “It just came to me in that moment,” the showrunner tells Tudum. “It has the authority of the organization, and from then on, that’s what it became.” 

(For the record, Knight’s favorite use of “by order of the Peaky Blinders” comes in Season 2, Episode 1, when Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson) informs patrons of the Eden Club that it’s “under new management.”) 

How many times does a Nick Cave song appear in the Peaky Blinders soundtrack?

The singer has contributed 16 tunes to the Peaky Blinders soundtrack, including the playful and haunting theme song for the show, “Red Right Hand.”

Cave returned to perform “Red Right Hand” for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man — with a twist. “When we ran the scene with Nick Cave singing the original version of ‘Red Right Hand,’ it didn’t really work because it was too sort of swagger-y,” Knight explains. “We asked Nick to re-record, which he did, and he re-recorded it with the weight of experience and loss and love and regret and grief that the real people have all experienced.” 

How many deaths happen over the course of the series?

A whopping 120 deaths occur in the Peaky universe. The largest body count was in Season 4, when 26 people were killed, including John Shelby (Joe Cole) and Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody). 

THE HISTORY

There’s plenty of truth to the dark, violent stories told throughout the series and film. Here’s the reality behind the fictional universe.

How many years span from Season 1 to the Peaky Blinders film?

An impressive 21 years. The first season of Peaky Blinders begins in 1919, and we return to the world in 1940. 

How many years did the real-life Peaky Blinders operate in Birmingham?

The real-life Peaky Blinders held a tight grip on Small Heath, a neighborhood in southeast Birmingham, for nearly 20 years, with their first illegal activities popping up in a newspaper clipping from 1890. (Par for the course, they had brutally beaten someone up.) 

To better understand the world he was writing about, Knight turned to his own family for details, down to the exact haircuts the gang members once sported. “Most of this comes from stories told to me by my parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts who lived at that time,” he says. “[They told stories about] how impressive the men were and how scary they were.” 

How many real-life people exist within the fictional Peaky universe? 

Peaky is gripping entertainment with a side of a hearty history lesson. Nine real-life figures populate the otherwise fictional universe.

How many fake banknotes were printed during Operation Bernhard?

In the opening moments of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, we see prisoners at a concentration camp being forced to print forged pounds. That scene is based on a real-life counterfeit operation called Operation Bernhard. The Nazi-run scam — the largest counterfeit operation in history — involved flooding Britain with fake pounds to cause inflation and crash the economy. 

Prisoners of concentration camps were made to forge the money, with printing beginning in 1943 — producing nearly one million counterfeit notes forged per month. “I always try to find pieces of history that have been forgotten or were never known in the first place,” Knight shares. “Operation Bernhard was a bit of both. It was deliberately kept secret by the British government because they didn’t want there to be a panic about currency.”

THE FANS

Can you guess the line most commonly shouted at Cillian Murphy?

How many people have streamed Peaky Blinders on Netflix? 

75 million people have tuned into all six seasons of the series. To loosely paraphrase Tommy Shelby, there’s no rest for Peaky fans. 

How many awards has Peaky Blinders won?

Over the course of six seasons, Peaky Blinders was nominated for 56 awards and nabbed 25 wins, with nods at such ceremonies as the BAFTAs, the National Television Awards, and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. 

How many fans have yelled “no fucking fighting” at Cillian Murphy? 

Countless people have shouted Tommy’s beloved line from Peaky Blinders at Murphy, as seen in Season 3, Episode 1. “I’m just like walking the dog or something,” he says. “I have no intention of getting into a brawl.”

How many celebrities are fans of Peaky Blinders? 

Again, countless. Among them: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, A$AP Rocky, and Samuel L. Jackson. Snoop Dogg, also a fan, even reached out to Knight for a meet and greet. “My agent got a call saying Snoop’s coming to London, he wants to meet two people, and you’re one of them!” the showrunner shared in an interview with Radio Times. 

Watch all six seasons of Peaky Blinders and Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man on Netflix now.

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