Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight regrets killing off one major character
The writer says he wishes Aberama Gold had only been wounded rather than killed
The BBC's Peaky Blinders hasn't always been shy about killing off fairly major characters - and series boss Steven Knight has expressed regret about one character who met a grisly end in the show's fifth series.
Knight said that he wished he hadn't written out Aberama Gold, the gypsy gangster character played on the show by Game of Thrones star Aidan Gillen.
Aberama was killed off in particularly brutal fashion at the hands of a violent mobster in the employ of Oswald Mosley - just shortly after Polly Gray had agreed to marry him.
And during a watchalong of the episode in which Aberama met his demise, Knight told Esquire, "I should have kept him alive, I could have just wounded him."
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It turns out Aberama isn't the only character Knight wishes he hadn't been so trigger happy with, with the showrunner claiming that he reckons minor character Barney, who appeared in two episode of the fifth series played by Cosmo Jarvis, had a lot more to offer as well.
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"There’s him playing Barney Thompson who’s just brilliant and I really wish I’d kept him alive now because he’s such a good actor," he said.
Going back further, several other important characters failed to survive the events of previous series - notably Tommy and Arthur's brother John Shelby (Joe Cole) who was assassinated by the New York mafia, and former nemesis Major Campbell (Sam Neill) who was killed by Polly.
And Knight says that it's always tough to write out characters, claiming, "It’s a funny position where you create these people and then you have to kill them. It’s not nice.’
Peaky Blinders is available on BBC iPlayer and Netflix. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV guide.
