Peaky Blinders season five: Helen McCrory teases "disgusting" violence in episode one

McCrory, who plays the shrewd Aunt Polly, defended the BBC1 show's more disturbing scenes against the suggestion that the series may normalise violence for younger viewers.

"I think the reason that it is very violent and it's really horrible and you should look away," she said in an interview with Digital Spy.

"I've only seen episode one, and there's a whole bit... so I look away from the screen. I, as Helen, can't watch it. I think it's disgusting, gratuitous violence. It is… no, not gratuitous. Disgustingly violent. But it is. And it should be."

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She continued: "I think it's much more disturbing than somebody slashes somebody's face or somebody shoots somebody and it’s all just the end of it.

"It should be horrifying and you should have the people who are responsible for the violence either unable to self-medicate or having mental health problems, or all the things that do happen to people, if you kill other people – because it is not a natural state of affairs.

"And anybody who looks at the violence of Peaky Blinders and some sort of gun slashing scheme and thinks, 'That exactly is what I want to do'…I mean, sick."

Series four of Peaky Blinders ended with the defeat of the Italian Changretta family and the election of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) as MP for Birmingham South — but the Shelbys look to set to take on even greater threats in the new season...

Peaky Blinders series five will premiere on BBC1 on Sunday 25th August at 9pm