The Express & Star talk to Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight during his visit to Shelby & Co bar at Birmingham Airport.

Express & Star

Transcript

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.

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