The Express & Star talk to Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight during his visit to Shelby & Co bar at Birmingham Airport.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00All good. Nice to see you today.
00:01Nice to be here.
00:03Just wondering, just your initial reaction to the pub.
00:06If we can just study a snap of your reaction.
00:07It's brilliant. I mean, the fact is that you can go lots of places around the world
00:11and you'll see Peaky Blinders bars, which is great.
00:14But I'm just so glad that back in Birmingham,
00:18an officially sanctioned one is so good and sort of better than the others.
00:22So yeah, I think it's brilliant.
00:24I'm hoping that people actually buy tickets to go abroad just to come here on the way.
00:29Yeah, I was speaking to another lady just a moment ago,
00:33and one thing we touched on was it being Peaky Blinders, but being subtle,
00:38not being too sort of Americanised, if you like.
00:40It's not a theme park.
00:41She mentioned stuff about the leather binders and the offcuts and things like that.
00:45Are you happy with sort of the way the show has been sort of memorialised in this pub?
00:50Yeah, it looks great.
00:51I mean, I was, you know, consulted quite a lot along the way,
00:56and it just looks so great and it looks so real.
00:58And we all know that airport bars are not usually the best places to be,
01:03so obviously people can come here and have a bit of fun.
01:06Sure. If you don't mind me asking, how much, say, you know,
01:10in terms of communication, were you sort of able to offer insight?
01:15Just a few thoughts, yeah.
01:16But I mean, luckily, we've got really good people who are doing this and making it happen.
01:22And so, you know, there was no conflict or anything.
01:25It was, we were all on the same page.
01:27We all wanted the same thing, which is cool.
01:29And how does it feel with the show itself?
01:31Again, another question we had before, but it's about how it's really become a part of culture,
01:35sort of in Birmingham and the wider Westminster and even, you know, across the country.
01:39How does it feel to sort of be at the...
01:41I mean, you've probably been asked this question a hundred times,
01:43but to be at the centre of that and then to see things like this happen
01:46that sort of prove how much a part of culture it's now become, is it a bit of a moment?
01:50It is. It's amazing in that it's still going on and it's actually getting more and more
01:57and, you know, we haven't, the series is finished, we've just shot the movie,
02:03but it seems that people are still discovering it.
02:06I mean, all around the world.
02:07I'm talking about China, South America, all over the place.
02:09People are discovering the show and it's just getting bigger and bigger, which is great.
02:14In terms of the sort of the pub itself,
02:17is it something that you're hoping could perhaps even go further afield?
02:20So not just in Birmingham, we could have them in different airports?
02:22Since I've been here, I've been talking to the people who did it and saying,
02:25we should do this everywhere.
02:26You know, we should do this in lots of them, not airports, I'm sorry, but anywhere.
02:29This is what, because we're in an airport.
02:36So just going on that again, just in terms of it going into other places,
02:40I know you've said you've spoken to people about it,
02:42but is it something you would like to see?
02:43I'd love to see it. I mean, if it's done properly and it's done well,
02:47then absolutely, why not? You know, it's great.
02:50I'm a big fan of pubs and anything that, you know,
02:55increases the number of pubs there are in the world, then great, absolutely.
02:59The uniform in particular, it's really, again, subtle, but really, really sort of on brand.
03:05I'm hoping there's a rule where if you forget your hat, you've got to go home and get it.
03:08I'm hoping there's something like that.
03:09They've probably got some spares.
03:12We'll soon find out, I'm sure.
03:14Just on that, in terms of uniform, in terms of things like that, again,
03:19just with it being on brand and being sort of
03:24appropriate in terms of what they're trying to do here,
03:27did you envision it to be like this?
03:29Did you expect something different or is this better than you expected?
03:32No, no, this is great because it just exactly hits the right note where,
03:36you know, it's a functioning bar, it's a pub,
03:39but it's got that feeling to it,
03:40which I think people are attracted to this sort of
03:45a look that's before a lot of stuff happened.
03:48You know, this is the old days, this is when things were simple,
03:50this is when things were analogue and I mean, I love it and I think a lot of people do.
03:55And just finally, can you tell us everything that happens in the movie?
03:58Yes, I can.
04:00No, I can't tell you anything.
04:01I mean, it happens in the Second World War, that's it.
04:03Okay, thank you very much.
04:04Thanks for your time, mate, appreciate it.