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Peaky Blinders makes a ruthless return, Andrew Davies has his wicked way with Jane Austen, and a nation turns for sanctuary to the Bake Off tent
Peaky Blinders (BBC One)Sanditon (ITV)The Great British Bake Off (Channel 4)A Black and White Killing: The Case That Shook America (BBC Two)The Affair (Sky Atlantic/Now TV)
Five series in, Peaky Blinders, dubbed the “Brummie Scorsese”, has become a global cultural phenomenon, with young men everywhere sporting that hairstyle (resembling a melting Pontefract cake), and celebrity fans from Brad Pitt to Snoop Dogg to David Beckham (Beckham has produced a Peaky Blinders-themed clothing range). After a two-year hiatus, the challenge for creator Steven Knight was to resist lapsing into self-parody. Any concerns that the move from BBC Two to BBC One would result in a mellowing or a sanitising were put straight with director Anthony Byrne’s righteous two-episode eruption involving bloodshed, duplicity, the stirrings of fascism, a horse funeral and a bloody crucifixion. Continue reading...