Gangs of Birmingham

In Birmingham just after the Great War trenches veteran Thomas Shelby leads his gang, the Peaky Blinders, so named as they carry lethal razors in their peaked caps, who make money from illegal betting and the black market. Thomas, by mistake, appropriates a consignment of guns which have been stolen from the local arms factory and hard-nosed Inspector Campbell arrives from Ireland, charged by war minister Winston Churchill to recover it. Thomas's aunt Polly urges him to return it but he sees the opportunity to use it to his advantage. Thomas also quarrels with his elder brother Arthur as Thomas has devised the 'powder trick', a means of fixing horse races and Arthur is nervous as Thomas has not involved Billy Kimber, who runs the race-courses and their rackets. Thomas's sister Ada is in love with Freddie Thorne, who saved her brother's life in the war, and is now a Marxist, encouraging workers to strike over a pay cut. As far as Campbell is concerned Freddie is as much the enemy - in the wake of the Russian revolution - as the Peaky Blinders, as he looks for the missing guns.