'Peaky Blinders' creator hints show could continue without Cillian Murphy

Watch: Peaky Blinders will come to an end with sixth series

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has suggested the show will likely continue in some form after the story of Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby has been wrapped up.

The climactic sixth series of the BBC crime show — delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic — is currently filming and Knight has plans to further develop the story with a movie.

Read more: Knight defends Peaky Blinders violence

But he has now told Birmingham Live that the planned film will not spell the permanent end of the wider Peaky Blinders world.

Knight said: "It will go on in another form, which will be the film, and beyond that we want to keep the world going.

"In other words, the story of Small Heath and the Shelby family will continue on. I want to keep it going until... whenever."

Knight confirmed that Tommy Shelby's story — and Cillian Murphy's tenure in the role — will conclude with the final series, but said this doesn't necessarily mean the end.

"In the form it is in, it is absolutely impossible for this to work without Cillian," Knight said.

"As it grows and progresses, who knows? There may be worlds that are part of the Peaky world that are about someone else but he is the centre around everything orbits."

In the interview, Knight revealed he plans to shoot the Peaky Blinders movie in Birmingham, where the show is set, rather than the usual filming locations of Liverpool and Manchester.

Peaky Blinders first premiered on the BBC in 2013 and has since become a ratings hit, with the fifth series scoring an average of seven million viewers per episode in 2019.

Murphy leads the cast as crime patriarch Tommy Shelby, with high-profile supporting players including Tom Hardy, Helen McCrory and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Read more: Stephen Graham's Peaky Blinders appearance scuppered by pandemic

Series five also introduced notorious British fascist politician Oswald Mosley, portrayed by Hunger Games actor Sam Claflin.

The sixth series of Peaky Blinders is expected to air later in 2021.

Watch: Everything we know about Peaky Blinders series six