I'd love to do a Peaky Blinders movie says creator Steven Knight

He told RadioTimes.com that he would love to to a standalone film of the drama which would come between the BBC2 TV series and take the action on. The series would take off where the film ended.

Of the movie version he said, "People don’t tend to do it but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. We have always talked about it. We have always felt that in these days of the pot being stirred it would be an interesting thing to do. People say you don’t make the film until it is unpopular, but I don’t agree.”

But when will the show end? Knight added that the period gangster show will finish "when the air raid sirens of World War II start". But he wants Cillian Murphy’s Tommy to get knighted first.

“I will keep doing this as long as people want it and as long as people want to be in it. In my mind this story is the story between two wars. The end of the chapter of these people’s lives and this society is when the Second World War begins. Because it all changes after that, after the demolitions and the council estates, it’s a different world.”

Knight says that future series will have to have bigger jumps than the two years gap that came between series one and two and between series two and three.

But it is his imagined end point for Tommy Shelby that will also excite fans of the drama.

"I would love to get to the point where Tommy gets knighted and becomes Sir Tommy Shelby because of the good work he has done. And this is a well trodden path of gangsters," he said.

“He wouldn’t get knighted because people think he’s great, he’d get knighted because he’s done a favour. But even then is he accepted?

“All the time there are things drawing them back. [The drama is about] analysing what it is that draws them back – is it themselves or is it the nature of society? Sometimes you must think that the thing that enables them to make make money so quickly is the thing that will stop them becoming respectable. In some ways getting money is the easy part.”

Knight said that he didn’t know how many series that would take, but stressed that he would not make any more episodes of the drama without lead actors Cillian Murphy and Helen McCrory who plays Polly.

Asked how many more series he would do, Cillian Murphy said, “You would be an awful clown to turn parts down where the writing is this good and it continues to be over three series. I have always trusted Steve’s vision. “

He added that there is a “well trodden trajectory” of the bad guy made good and seeking acceptance in society.

One person who will be pleased about the show’s likely longevity is rap superstar Snoop Dogg, who met up with Knight to discuss the show after becoming hooked after watching it on Netflix.

"My agent got a call saying Snoop’s coming to London – he wants to meet two people, and you’re one of them," Knight said. "I had a meeting with him because he’s a fan. He said it reminded him of how he became involved in gang culture...1920s Birmingham and South Central and Detroit. Just think."

Knight said that he enjoyed the fact it is so popular in the US.

“A friend of mine went to a bar in Santa Monica and the four of them were dressed as Peakys," said Knight, prompting Murphy to interject: "Only with better skin and teeth."

Peaky Blinders returns to BBC2 on Thursday 5 May at 9pm