Nowadays, Peaky Blinders is a world-renowned Netflix series. However, the popular TV series created by Steven Knight started on the BBC before it went anywhere else. With talk of reduced funding to the broadcaster over the next decade, Knight told The Digital Fix about the BBC’s importance.
“The BBC nurtures and fosters brave and daring content. The BBC should be strutting across the world,” Knight told us. “In this age of American streamers, they are fine, but the BBC – name another broadcaster that had a good Second World War. It’s got roots, it’s got depth. The BBC is our Coca Cola.”
Discussion around Britain’s national broadcaster was spurred by the announcement in January, that the licensing fee was being abolished, and overall funding reduced by 2027. This created a lot of conversation around viewership of the BBC compared to other platforms, and what the company offers people paying for a license. All of which is valid, but when it comes down to it the BBC has a history of creating great television that stands the test of time.
Besides Peaky Blinders, you have Doctor Who, Line of Duty, Call The Midwife, Top of the Pops, Blue Peter, and on, and on, and on. Between these numerous productions, you’ve all sorts of to-be stars, from Cillian Murphy, who’s about to lead Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, to the MCU’s Doctor Strange Benedict Cumberbatch, and many more besides.
The BBC has provided a lot of great entertainment to people around the world, and it would be a mighty loss if it ceased to be. Knight is promoting Peaky Blinders season 6, the final batch of episodes of his hit drama following the Shelby family through the 1920s and ’30s. Thought this is the last season, it’s not the end, with a thriller movie on the horizon when all is said and done here.
For now, you can catch Peaky Blinders season 6 from February 27 on BBC One.