Cillian Murphy has curated a playlist of tracks that capture the essence of Peaky Blinders, timed with the release of the film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
The Oscar-winning actor reprises his iconic role as Thomas “Tommy” Shelby, the Birmingham gangster emerging from exile to face his inner demons and aid his son, played by Barry Keoghan. The movie also features Tim Roth and Rebecca Ferguson, hitting Netflix on March 20 after a limited cinema release.
Murphy’s Handpicked Tracks
Filmed for the official Peaky Blinders Instagram account, Murphy selected seven songs tied to key themes from the series and film.
‘War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath
Murphy starts with this Birmingham classic, calling it “a phenomenal, blistering piece of music.” He draws parallels between Tommy Shelby and Ozzy Osbourne, noting, “Kind of rebels, both of them.”
‘You Want It Darker’ by Leonard Cohen
As his favorite from the series, Murphy praises this track for distilling “the essence of Peaky Blinders and Tommy Shelby.” He describes it as “so dark, and so brilliant.”
‘The Eraser’ by Thom Yorke
For getting into character, Murphy turns to this song, which inspired him during filming. “It’s the atmosphere of the song, but there’s a lyric in it which is, ‘The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.’ That felt to me very much like Tommy Shelby, like you can’t get rid of him,” he explains.
‘Mandika’ by Sinéad O’Connor
Murphy dedicates this energetic track to Polly Gray, Shelby’s fierce sister portrayed by the late Helen McCrory. “She was such a punk and a rebel, and she spoke truth to power… Polly Gray had that same ferocity and fearlessness as a woman that Sinéad O’Connor embodied,” he says.
‘Lazarus’ by David Bowie
Bowie’s music permeates the show, as he championed it early on. Murphy selects this Blackstar track, recalling, “David Bowie was a very early advocate of the TV show. He loved it from the start… I worked with him briefly in the year before he died and we’d spoken about it.” He treasures a photo Bowie sent while wearing Murphy’s series-one cap with its razor blade.
‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti
Set against World War II and Tommy’s World War I trauma, this poem—recited in the series during burials—fits perfectly. Murphy calls it “so bleak and dark and massive. It’s just beautiful.”
‘All The Tired Horses’ (Lisa O’Neill cover of Bob Dylan)
For the rebel anthem, Murphy chooses O’Neill’s version, which closed the series at creator Steven Knight’s request. “We couldn’t get the Dylan version, but that was actually a blessing because we got Lisa O’Neill to do a version of it. It’s one of the most remarkable cover versions I think you’ll ever hear,” he shares.
Murphy has explained song choices for the series by saying, “You just know when a song is ‘Peaky.’ The artists are outsiders. They have resisted the tyranny of the mainstream.”
