TV & Film
Peaky Blinders star details ‘incredibly sad’ tribute to Helen McCrory in new series
‘It was a huge loss and it was just incredibly sad’
Peaky Blinders actress Sophie Rundle has opened up about the ‘devastating’ tribute the cast paid to the late Helen McCrory in the upcoming new series.
The sixth and final season, which is due to air this weekend on February 27th, will feature a tribute to Helen McCrory, who played the role of matriarch Polly Gray and sadly passed away last year at the age of fifty-two after a battle with cancer.
Actress Sophie Rundle, who plays Ada Shelby in the series, has now revealed that the cast paid tribute to McCrory during filming for the sixth season, noting that filming without her ‘felt wrong’.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Rundle said: “It was a devastating thing for all of us. We’d all been in that same boat for ten years and for her to not be there, it all felt off-kilter and wrong.”
BBC
She didn’t elaborate as to what exactly the tribute was, but said it was ‘real’.
Rundle said: “So in the tribute, that’s all real, that emotion. It really was a moment to think about her and what she had been.
Read More: Full-length Peaky Blinders season 6 trailer launches with first look at Stephen Graham’s character
“And this show wouldn’t have been what it is without her, I really believe that. I really believe that she was fundamental to making Peaky what it is and elevating it to be more than just the script, so it was a huge loss and it was just incredibly sad.”
She added: “I don’t know if that sounds oversimplified to say, but it was just incredibly sad and we missed her.”
BBC
The creator of Peaky Blinders Steven Knight also explained that he altered the script in the wake of Helen’s cancer diagnosis, saying: “To begin with, Polly was in the series and then incrementally bit by bit, it became apparent that there was less and less she would be able to do.
“And so in the end, we’d reached a point where we knew that she couldn’t be in it at all.
“And then you have to first of all deal with the consequences in terms of the story, taking a moment to deal with the loss of the character, but then knowing that that has a reflection in the real world with the loss of the person.
“So it was trying to balance all of that, and I think we’ve done it right.”
The sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders airs this Sunday, February 27th, on BBC One at 9pm.