Tommy Shelby, Cillian Murphy The actor, famous for his roles in Inception and 28 Days Later was born in Douglas, an Irish suburb in Cork, but he masterfully manages to switch his Irish accent into Tommy Shelby's Birmingham lilt.
Since landing the part of Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders, Cillian's 'real accent' has baffled fans. The talented actor has never lost his authentic Cork accent, but his character portrayal of Shelby means he has adapted a strong Birmingham accent for the role.
Tommy Shelby and his kin are Irish-Romani (sometimes spelled Romany) Gypsies, a unique cultural and ethnic group present in Britain since the 1500s. The award-winning Peaky Blinders is directed by Steven Knight and has run for 6 seasons, the most recent hitting U.S. Netflix in June 2022.
In summary, yes - he could be mistaken for a local. Only the pronunciation of the odd word gives the game away. -If a Birmingham born person, say approx .. 1900ish, assuming Tommy is around 30ish at the start, with strong Romany Irish family can post on the Shelby's accent-then I'd read , and consider that.
Throughout the Peaky Blinders Gypsy storyline, Tommy, Aunt Polly, and several other characters speak what they call “Romani,” but the language used in the show is a version of Romanian, whereas the Romani people are believed to come from India.
Gypsy and Traveller languages
Shelta is a language spoken by Irish Travellers. It is widely known as the Cant and De Gammon to its native speakers in Ireland. It was often spoken to exclude outsiders from understanding conversations.
Although Travellers speak English in most situations, they often speak to each other in their own language; for Irish Travellers this is called Cant or Gammon* and Gypsies speak Romani, which is the only indigenous language in the UK with Indic roots.
Tommy Shelby, Cillian Murphy
The actor, famous for his roles in Inception and 28 Days Later was born in Douglas, an Irish suburb in Cork, but he masterfully manages to switch his Irish accent into Tommy Shelby's Birmingham lilt.
Cillian Murphy has revealed how he mastered a Brummie accent for his lead role as Tommy Shelby on Peaky Blinders. The 45-year-old actor admitted that he recorded pub goers in Birmingham, together with the show's creator Steven Knight, to convincingly turn his Cork accent into that of a Peaky Blinder.
Freddie died of "pestilence," likely the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918–1920, before the series begins. At Freddie's funeral, Thomas reveals that he made a promise back in France to speak over Freddie's grave should he pass away before him, which he fulfills.
Shelby is the mother of Thomas, Arthur Jr., John, Ada and Finn Shelby, and sister of Polly.
The Shelby Family is a small and wealthy family of Irish-Traveller descent originating from Birmingham, England. While being a small family, their influence is large and extends over a large portion of Birmingham and London.
Peaky Blinders has been voted the most difficult show for American viewers to understand in a new poll. A survey carried out by Preply researched TV habits from those who use closed captioning or subtitles over hard-to-understand accents, with the gangster drama coming out on top as the most watched with subtitles.
Harry Kirton
Harry was born in Birmingham and has played the role of Finn Shelby - the younger brother of Tommy and Arthur - since he was 13-years-old. Although he is originally from Birmingham, the 23-year-old now lives in London.
When it comes to Peaky Blinders there really is only one person who can take the top spot when it comes to intelligence, and that is Tommy Shelby. The leader of the group and the man behind all of the plans and business ideas, Tommy has a reason for everything he does.
Polly was born and raised in the North of England, which is where she says the bulk of her accent hails from. “But I left when I was very young so maybe there's a touch of London in there,” she theorizes, saying she is “covering a lot of England” with her current accent.
Etymology. The folk etymology of Peaky Blinder is that the gang members would stitch disposable razor blades into the peaks of their flat caps, which could then be used as weapons.
Many of the accents in Peaky Blinders are a bit strange because they are the attempts of actors and actresses who are not from Birmingham, or even the Midlands, to speak with a Birmingham accent. Some of them do it better than others, but most are unconvincing.
What is Tom Hardy's accent in Peaky Blinders? Tom Hardy (Alfie Solomons) speaks does a cockney accent with his own touch. He is famous for his vocal ability in different movies and TV shows. You can see see him in two cockney accents in the movie Legend.
Regardless of the origin theories, Lowland Gypsies are still viewed as a Romani group, with Romani culture being a part of Scottish Lowland Gypsy culture.
There are around 300,000 Gypsy Roma and Irish Travellers in the UK – Roma Gypsies are originally from northern India, whereas Travellers are of Irish origin – and both groups are nomadic.
Irish Travellers are of Irish ancestral origin and have no particular genetic ties to European Roma groups, a DNA study has found. The research offers the first estimates of when the community split from the settled Irish population, giving a rare glimpse into their history and heritage.