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This series traces the difficulties the Shelbys encounter as they start to make their way up the social scale. Helen, 47, who has also appeared in the Harry Potter films, The Queen and

Skyfall, observes that the drama focuses on how hard it is to, “Go up into a different world.”  “This series asks: if you have ambition and intelligence – which Polly and Tommy have – how

much are you able to assimilate into a different world and how much do you actually want to be in it?” she says.  “If you don’t respect that world, how do you come to terms with moving into

it? Do you, in fact, prefer where you have come from to where you’re going? Throughout this drama, these two classes rub shoulders. But however much you put Polly in white gloves, she still

has the grime of Birmingham under her fingernails.” Steven, 56, who has also written the well-regarded movies Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises, agrees that this series of Peaky

Blinders centres on how hard it is in Britain to ascend the social ladder. “The question that underlies the whole series is: can people from this background escape it and become respectable?

I wanted to dramatise the things that pull the Shelbys back and keep them who they are. Making money is the easy part, but how do you sustain your rise? You can get cash, but respect could

take a lot longer. Can you buy your way to it? “After the First World War, the thought was that maybe the social barriers had gone, but of course they hadn’t. These people could make money,

but could they make the guest list?” So what is stopping the Shelbys from breaking free of their criminal roots?  “Is it nature or nurture? Is it within themselves or the nature of society?”

wonders Steven. “The thing that makes them able to make so much money so quickly is also the thing that will prevent them from moving away. I find that very interesting about our country.

It is the opposite in America, but that’s the way it is in Britain.” The most obvious sign that Tommy is an arriviste is that his stately home is decorated with gigantic portraits of

himself. “It’s very Michael Jackson and Neverland, isn’t it?,” laughs Cillian, who has also starred in The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Inception. “All the shiny, horrible things

in the house are Tommy’s! It is a very nouveau riche thing: ‘What are we going to do now we’ve got lots of money? We’ll put up portraits of ourselves.’ It’s very telling.” The other striking

aspect of Peaky Blinders is that it features very strong female characters. “Everyone’s experience of a family is that the women are in charge,” asserts Steven. “That’s not just in gangster

families, it’s in all families.” The series does not shy away from depicting the bloody reality of the Shelbys’ gangland activities. But the violence is never gratuitous. “It always has a

consequence,” says Cillian. “It’s not meant to look choreographed or slick, it’s meant to look horrible. That’s what makes it so interesting.” Peaky Blinders has already proved a huge hit

all over the world and Steven is not done with it yet. “The ambition is to go on until the first air raid siren of the Second World War. That’ll be the last episode.” He would be delighted

to carry on and he and the cast members are like a family off screen, as well as on, he says. “We’re always within punching distance!” he jokes. _PEAKY BLINDERS, THURSDAY, 9PM,BBC2 _