10 TV Shows Influenced by Peaky Blinders | From Gangs of London to Taboo

Steven Knight’s iconic British crime drama Peaky Blinders gets its first big-screen release this year on March 6. Meanwhile, the various other shows it’s inspired over the past decade are available to stream in the meantime. Fans of Tommy Shelby’s escapades will soon recognize elements of Small Heath’s most notorious gang in these series.

Peaky Blinders will deliver a Netflix movie quite unlike any other, yet there’s no question that this seminal gangster franchise has left its mark elsewhere on television. From historical depictions of social upheaval to similarly significant period action thrillers, from neo-noir crime dramas to more recent Steven Knight series – Birmingham’s answer to The Godfather has influenced them all.

Overall, there are probably too many period crime shows like Peaky Blinders to count, but a smaller selection of series proactively set out to be the successor to this modern classic of British television. Still, none of them has yet managed to take its crown as the best gangster show ever produced outside of the United States.

It’s now over 12 years since Peaky Blinders first aired on the BBC, and 11 years since the show made its Netflix berth. In that time, cities from Dublin to San Francisco have seen their own versions of the Shelby family reach our screens.

Rebellion

2016

A Netflix-produced war show about the 1916 Easter Rising that effectively began the Irish Civil War, Rebellion owes more in stylistic terms than in narrative terms to Peaky Blinders. Nevertheless, the brooding early 20th century period setting of this hit-and-miss miniseries certainly looks and feels a lot like Tommy Shelby’s Birmingham.

If that’s not enough, there are no fewer than five Peaky Blinders cast members in the series. In addition to Lizzie Shelby and Jessie Eden actors Natasha O'Keeffe and Charlie Murphy, we see appearances in Rebellion from Brian Gleeson, Simone Kirby, and The Immortal Man star Barry Keoghan.

Animal Kingdom

2016–2022

As well as being a hidden gem of the gangster subgenre, Animal Kingdom is possibly Netflix’s most underrated show. This contemporary drama series about a family building their violent criminal enterprise in Southern California is just as captivating as Peaky Blinders, albeit in a very different setting.

Apart from the upward trajectories of the gangs they’re each primarily concerned with, the biggest thing that links the Animal Kingdom and Peaky Blinders is their portrayal of specific characters. Cody family matriarch Smurf is every bit as formidable and sharp-tongued as Polly Gray, while there’s little to separate Finn Cole's performances as J Cody and Polly’s son, Michael.

Taboo

2017

Steven Knight’s first TV creation after Peaky Blinders, Taboo features Tom Hardy in his element as rogue adventurer James Keziah Delaney, whose return to London from Africa places him at the heart of the city’s 19th century criminal underworld. Knight has recently suggested that Taboo season 2 has every chance of being made at some point.

Until it is, Tom Hardy fans will have to content themselves with a single season of his excellent lead performance, which couldn’t be more different from his portrayal of Alfie Solomons. Nevertheless, Taboo’s interaction with its period London setting is vintage Steven Knight, straight out of the writer’s Peaky Blinders playbook.

Bad Blood

2017–2018

Another period crime drama charting the spectacular rise and catastrophic fall of a family of mobsters, Bad Blood is among the few shows on Netflix with a perfect ending. Kim Coates is utterly spellbinding in the lead role as ascendant mob boss Declan Gardiner, giving Cillian Murphy a run for his money.

Mixing grit and brutality with gorgeous cinematography and beautifully executed plot twists, Bad Blood is more than worthy of being dubbed the “Canadian Sopranos”. Ultimately, though, it’s Peaky Blinders that the series has more in common with, whether in terms of plot, characterization, or its stylized period aesthetic.

Warrior

2019–2023

HBO’s Warrior was originally conceived by Bruce Lee, but there’s no question that the way the show was produced signals a respectful nod in the direction of Peaky Blinders. This visually breathtaking depiction of San Francisco’s 19th century Tong Wars is every bit as graphically violent as its Birmingham-based counterpart, but just as thrilling, too.

Warrior leans into dramatic intense and evocative atmospherics to deliver a swashbuckling tale of life and death in an urban jungle. Arguably the best series on this list, it’s also a masterpiece in martial arts choreography, warranting comparisons with Bruce Lee’s own cinematic Kung Fu classics.

Godfather Of Harlem

2019–Present

Godfather of Harlem stands alongside Peaky Blinders as one of the best gangster TV shows of modern times. Both series blur fact and fiction by working historical figures effortlessly into their plotlines. Yet, this East Coast crime drama goes a step further, making historical events the entire basis for its semi-fictional narrative.

Starring Forest Whitaker as title character Bumpy Johnson, Godfather of Harlem portrays a black crime boss mixing it with the Five Families of New York’s notorious Sicilian-American mafia. It’s a masterclass in historical storytelling onscreen, akin to HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Nevertheless, Peaky Blinders was the show from which it took up the mantle as TV’s best gangster series.

Gangs Of London

2020–Present

Starring John Shelby actor Joe Cole in his first role after leaving Peaky Blinders, this modern gangland action thriller set in the criminal underbelly of Britain’s capital is every bit as explosive as the series Cole left behind. Gangs of London might be based on Playstation game The Getaway, but it’s far closer to Peaky Blinders in spirit.

Cole’s main reasoning for trading Birmingham for London after three and a half seasons of his breakout role was telling about just how similar the two shows are, once cosmetic contrasts are stripped away. Peaky Blinders belongs to Cillian Murphy, and Cole wanted to play the lead gangster in his own version of the series.

Mayor of Kingstown

2021–Present

Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown has been cancelled against the will of its creator, but this mob drama behind bars has certainly been fun while it’s lasted. Much like Small Heath is the company town of the Peaky Blinders, Kingstown, Michigan is the fiefdom of corrupt prison magnates the McLusky family.

Jeremy Renner’s MIke McLusky is Tommy Shelby with the law more overtly on his side, although in many ways there’s little to choose between their respective modes of operation. Taylor Sheridan is nothing on Steven Knight as a storyteller, but he still knows how to pack the punches into scintillating hour-long episodes of crime drama.

A Thousand Blows

2025–Present

Even if it exists in a separate TV universe set within a different century, A Thousand Blows is effectively the perfect sequel to Peaky Blinders. Steven Knight’s boxing drama swaps Tommy Shelby’s family out for the Forty Elephants, a real-life troupe of female thieves fronted by Erin Doherty’s protagonist Mary Carr.

A Thousand Blows makes the most of its colorful backdrop in London’s East End during the late 19th century. But it’s ultimately the performances of Doherty, Malachi Kirby and Stephen Graham, among others, which make this Peaky Blinders companion sparkle as much as it does.

House Of Guinness

2025

House of Guinness deservedly earned the best Rotten Tomatoes score of any Steven Knight debut season last September, beating out even Peaky Blinders itself. This fictionalization of the crisis that befell the Guinness brewing company in the mid-19th century plays like a period version of Succession.

It also has much the same swagger and visual aesthetic as Knight’s first TV drama. For better or for worse, Peaky Blinders will always be the show the rest of his pseudo-historical creations are compared against. So far, however, the long shadow it casts has proven to be more of a blessing than a curse for its creator.