Peaky Blinders · Season 1
Will you go looking for her?
She's in the past... and the past is not my concern. And the future is not my concern either.
What is your concern, Tommy.
The one minute. The solider's minute. In a battle that's all you get. One minute of everything, at once. And anything before is nothing. Everything after, nothing. Nothin in comparison in that one minute.
Didn't you get enough minutes over there?
Seem's not, doesn't it?
There will be others.
To the others. [they cheer] All of them.
Imagine riding away, Thomas. Living the real life, you know? Your Gypsy half is the stronger. You just want to ride away. France is a new place for us, they say. Lot of metal lying around still. Guns and trucks and spent shells and things. Then you go south. Saintes-Maries, where the Black Madonna is. My brothers go sometimes for the fair. It's like a home for us. They still let you get lost there.
I've been to France, Esme. So has John. Now get your coat and go with your husband. [takes her face in his hand] If you ever talk about getting lost again, I'll cut you... from this family.
[looks around] What family?
I've been a fucking idiot. I haven't appreciated nothing, John.
Are you fucking repenting or something?
Drawing. I used to be good at drawing.
Arthur, please. For God's sake, I don't need this-
I should've listened more in class.
What fucking class? You were never there.
I used to draw horses.
Arthur-
Stallions. Great, big ones.
Arthur.
They looked real-
Not stallions, not now.
What are you doing, Tommy?
Shoveling shit, Curly. Just like you.
Why are you doing that?
To remind myself of what I’d be if I wasn’t who I am.
Well, the Lees will be there, captain.
Tommy: Captain?
Johnny Dogs: I’ve promoted you. Well, the boys say that you’re no longer like a sergeant major. Fucking those rich women and using those fancy words. I’d say you’re more like captain these days.
So fucking close. Ohhhh, and there’s a woman too. Yeah. A woman... who I love. And I got close. Nearly got FUCKING EVERYTHING!
Today... this is my fucking wedding day.
Yeah. And you said there'd be no bloody uniforms.
Nevertheless. Nevertheless, John. Despite the bad blood, I'll have none of it on my carpet. Now, for Grace's sake, nothing will go wrong. Those bastards out there and our family. And if you fuckers do anything to embarrass her, your kin, your cousins, your horses, your fucking kids... IF YOU DO ANYTHING TO-
Tom.
WHAT!?
What about snow?
Yeah, their women are sport, I'd say that.
No, no, no. [points to Isiah] No cocaine. No cocaine. [points to John] No sport. No telling fortunes. No racing. [grabs Finn's jaw and slaps him] No fucking sucking petrol out of their fucking cars. And you, Charlie, stop spinning yarns about me, eh?
I'm just trying to sell you to them, Tom.
But the main thing is, you bunch of fuckers, despite the provocation from the cavalry, no fighting. Oi! No fighting. No fucking fighting. No fighting. NO FUCKING FIGHTING! Good.
[A waiter comes and bumps into him.]
Thomas [pushes the waiter]: Get the fuck off me!
[Arthur throws a carrot at him.]
I heard you had trouble. It's good of you to see me.
You just came from Paris, eh?
You know Paris?
I left Paris in a cattle truck. And they said you were French.
Well, I came here from Paris. That does not mean I'm French. Guess where I'm from?
Well, in that cattle truck, in Paris... There were American soldiers who played cards. They sound like you.
Yeah. Did you win?
You didn't come on a train. Your suit is pressed, your shoes are clean. Where you'd get your suits made?
I've a tailor, in New York City. Look. Funacci, Italian. He's my uncle. Makes suits in a basement in Madge street. He is my uncle, so every stitch, stitched with blood. I heard you dressed well, Mr. Shelby, but now I see, not so well as me.
You know, I have uncles as well. But they're not the sort of men who would, who would work in a basement with a needle and thread, Mr. Changretta.
I am surprised how easy it was to get into a room with you.
[Draws his gun] And now?
And now? And now you should know that during the trouble you had earlier on your factory floor, I sent an accomplice into your office in overalls. He found your gun. And unloaded it. [Takes out the bullets]
[Places the bullets on the table with each name]. Arthur Shelby, Polly Gray, Michael Gray, John Shelby, [flicks bullet] spent. Ada Thorne. And finally, Tommy Shelby. None of you will survive. Your level of security is pitiful and we are an organization of a different dimension. I could've killed you when you walked through the door. But you see, I want you to be last. I want you to be alive after your entire family is dead, 'cause my mother says, that is what will hurt you the most. You people have traditions of honor, as do we. Instead of sending you a black hand I could have you killed in the night. You don't know why? But I want you to know why, and I wanna suggest to you that we fight this vendetta with honor.
No civilians, no children.
No police.
Welcome to Birmingham, Mr. Changretta
Grazie
It starts when you stop. When you rest. Could be nerves. The War. Might be the alcohol. Blue devils, they call that.
Yeah, well yeah, yeah. It's the fucking booze. It's the booze, the booze got hold and the booze got in me bones.
Lizzie wants to see you.
No.
Tom she's showing.
I don't want to see Lizzie, Pol.
Shit, maybe it's in us? Cause were Shelbys. It's in our gypsy blood. We live somewhere between life and death. Waiting to move on, and in the end, we accept it. We shake hands with devils, and we walk past them.
Arthur asked, whose side I was on. [Tommy sits down] There will be a war, and one of you will die. But which one, I cannot tell.
Hmm. He's gonna do it anyway.
Yeah.
You should know. If Aberama takes his side, I will kill him.
And what about me?
[pause] I'll do what I have to do, Pol.
Kill, and kill.
The only way to make people listen.
[approaches his desk] Soon, you will have a stage to stand on. Millions of people will listen to you. And you will run the country, like you run this family.
It appears to be what people want.
But not me. Not anymore. [drops a letter on the desk] My resignation. [leaves]
Mother. They let you pass through. They wouldn't let me pass.
I was angry with my friend. I told my wrath. My wrath did end. I was angry with my foe. I told it not. My wrath did grow.
My name's Hayden Stagg. I hear there's some men here from Birmingham looking for me. I was in the banana warehouse playing football with the boys. [Throws his football, which is shot by Isiah]. I'm guessing you gentleman aren't here to kick footballs.
No. We're here about other business. We like to call it 'Black Star Business.'
'Black Star' a pub, is it?
'Black Star'- Yeah, 'Black Star's' a pub. Last pub you'll ever fucking drink in.
Peaky Blinders take you to the 'Black Star', and all your troubles are done.
But the pub you drink in, Mr. Stagg is called 'The Dolphin', right? Every night, you're in there. Not to drink. You're there divvying up the day's takings, ain't ya? And there's a woman there. She sings out "Opium for Sale." [Guns are drawn on the dock workers].
Sit down, boys. The rules says the king puts his head on a block and the game is up.
Your'e stealing from the Shelby Company Limited. You're stealing from the Peaky Blinders, man. Therefore, punishment is a visit to the 'Black Star' pub. Hmm? But out of kindness, of my heart, your sentence has been commuted. Praise the fucking Lord! And our lovely Ada, eh? Instead...Instead, Mr Hayden Stagg, it's just a beating for you.
Well, before I take this beating. Arthur Shelby is it, yeah? You know comrade, beneath your sleeves lies the truth. The marks on your arm. Yeah. The stories about you come up the canal. You know, where once you walked fine alone, now you need a stick.
Let's just fucking do it, Arthur.
You know, for me, it was the morphine they gave us in France. I got a taste for it Arthur. 1924 before I realized the fucking war was over. There's a warehouse full of it just across the yard there. Where the boys play football. And they steal it. Just roll around laughing. And it floats in the air. But I'm strong, comrade.
Arthur, let's just fucking do it.
Liar.
It's me that's due a beating. But it's me who feels sorry for you, Mr Shelby, because you take your beating every hour of every day. Your own blood betrays you because it demands dilution. Sometimes you want to cut a doorway in your arm so your blood can escape and leave you to blessed peace. Yeah.
Fuck you man.
I was once where you are now, Arthur. If you're going to do it, do it. But look at me as a man you can be. You've tried Jesus, yeah? Yeah he looked you up and down and he shook his head. Your loved ones. Your wife. Your kids. Jesus and your wife and your kids can't help you. Only you, Arthur Shelby. Only you. Don't count the days. Futile. You get to a hundred and then you wake up and its fucking one again. No, don't build mountains, walk like it's a flat plain. Easy step, by easy step. [Isiah punches him]
Arthur just give me the fucking word and I'll fucking do it!
He's your stick, Arthur. Give him the order.
Arthur, I'm not gonna ask you fucking twice!
Isiah, leave him alone.
Remember The January, Arthur? The family boat?
Yeah.
A whole family living on something the size of ten of these fucking barrels.
Hmm.
Remember that night at Tile Cross? Sixteen of us sleeping on the boat. The coppers come. We all swim like rats. Except for Arthur. Arthur holds them off with a boat hook, all on his own. And I remember. I climbed back up on the lock and I looked back, and I saw you waving that fucking boat hook in the coppers' faces...
[Laughs]
On your own. That's when I realized, when I had on you on the ground, all those years ago, it's cause you let me win.
[Laughs]
You wanted me to win. You've wanted me to win ever since.
What chance do I have if you... start doing that again [motioning to the wine]? Eh?
You'll stop. You'll stop because the family needs you to. It's like that long tunnel on the Dudley stretch. Remember Dudley Canal, line number one, 3,172 yards of fucking pitch blackness? And rats swimming.
Yeah
And then we come round the corner and there'd be a shaft of light, and then we'd know. And then, you and me, we'd both know it was nearly done. That's where we are now Arthur. Just a few more yards to go. And then you will change your ways. And I'll change the fucking world.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Peaky Blinders pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
