“For Tommy, I think what it did was- he lost all faith”: When Cillian Murphy opened up about Tommy Shelby’s transformation in Peaky Blinders 

Cillian Murphy's portrayal of Tommy Shelby in Steven Knight's Peaky Blinders is one of the most nuanced performances of his career. The actor breathed life into the Birmingham gangster throughout the six seasons, capturing every nuance of his being to perfection.

Tommy Shelby cannot be labeled into a category because he is so much more than just a gangster. When the BBC crime series premiered, Tommy Shelby (along with many other men) was a war veteran who had just returned from France.

In a 2019 interview with the BBC, Cillian Murphy discussed how the horrors of the war changed Tommy's perception of the world, and he became a nihilistic individual in Peaky Blinders:

''I think what it [WWI] did was- he lost all faith. Religion was just a joke, Authority was just a joke, the establishment is just a joke...''

More on Tommy's transformation in Peaky Blinders in our story.

Peaky Blinders: Cillian Murphy breaks down Tommy Shelby's transformation after WWI

While the BBC series explored the journey and eventual transformation of Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby throughout the six seasons, the character went through a significant change even before we met him in Season 1, because of World War I.

While the real Peaky Blinders were on the rise in the 1880s, Knight deliberately chose a post-war world (1920) to set his story in, as it gave him a chance to explore the effects of that catastrophic event on men.

While we enter Season 1 in a post-war Birmingham, the general hopelessness and pessimism fill the air, and Tommy Shelby carries that spirit throughout the season. As Cillian Murphy aptly categorized Tommy Shelby:

''I always use the First World War as a line and there was a Tommy before the First World War then that happened and then there's a Tommy Shelby after the First World War and he's the one that we meet at the beginning of series one.''

As vocalised by Aunt Polly to Grace in one of the scenes from Peaky Blinders Season 1, the war changed men, and no man returned the same. She remembers how Tommy used to smile and was happy before the war, but that dark historical event changed him, and those echoes of his past still haunted him in the present, as the show explored.

While other characters like Danny Whizz-bang and Arthur Shelby were more visibly shell-shocked and had public episodes of PTSD, Tommy Shelby maintained his tough exterior and suffered in solitude.

Peaky Blinders Season 1 saw him lying on his bed alone on many occasions, doused in alcohol and drugs, and having night terrors about the WWI tunnels. Cillian Murphy further discussed how Tommy's job during the war changed him for the worse:

''Tommy was a clay kicker in the First World War which is basically a tunneller. They tunneled under enemy lines and set explosives and so it is the most claustrophobic horrific dark job you could've possibly have, like the worst of the worst...''

He added:

''He seems to turn that trauma into this kind of relentless ambition because he could have died at any point there, he's not afraid of death. So every day is just like for free...so why not?''

There are many occasions in Peaky Blinders where Tommy had near-death experiences, but he emerged triumphantly. As Cillian Murphy discussed, Tommy's experiences in the war were dark and horrific, which transformed into this relentless passion and unchecked ambition we see in the show.

He struggled and made efforts to have social mobility for his family throughout, and even when he had a chance at happiness and love with Grace, that was taken away from him, marking his second transformation.

While Tommy was still struggling with war PTSD, he met Grace, and his suffering transformed into love, and the two eventually got married. However, the love eventually changed into suffering again because Grace took a bullet meant for him.

These two catastrophic events changed Tommy for the worse as Peaky Blinders progressed. While he seemed to have found some peace in the series finale, Tommy will return for one last adventure in The Immortal Man, set in a post-WWII world.

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