Did the First World War inspire organised crime in inter-war Britain?
In this episode we talk to Emma Hanna (University of Kent) about the British crime-drama series Peaky Blinders and how the war service of the main characters may have further brutalised the gangsters as they negotiate the harsh realities of postwar life. Along the way we discuss the difference in experience between sappers and infantry, different manifestations of 'shellshock', and whether the series is a love letter to Birmingham.
References
Carl Chinn, Peaky Blinders: The Real Story of Birmingham's Most Notorious Gangs (London: John Blake, 2019)
Emma Hanna, 'Representations of the First World War in Contemporary British Television Drama' in Ann-Marie Einhaus & Katherine Isobel Baxter (ed), Edinburgh Companion to the First World War and the Arts, (Edinburgh: EUP, 2017)
Paul Long, 'Class, Place and History in the Imaginative Landscapes of Peaky Blinders' in David Forrest & Beth Johnson (ed), Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
47 - Oh What a lovely War
46 - Egyptian Encounters
45 - War Hospital
44 - The Grizzled
43 - Women at War
42 - They Shall Not Grow Old
41 - The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror
40 - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
39 - Benediction
38 - In Memoriam
37 - Our Dream Adaptations
36 - Journey's End
35 - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby
34 - National WWI Museum and Memorial
33 - All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
32 - Postcards from the Western Front
31 - Giantpoppywatch - Commemoration and Remembrance
30 - The Thirty-Nine Steps
29 - The Red Baron
28 - The King's Men
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