<\/p>
Peaky Blinders is back, but without an invaluable member of the Shelby family \u2013 the late Helen McCrory, who played matriarch Aunt Polly.<\/p>\n
Following the star\u2019s death from cancer in April 2021, it was known that the formidable aunt of the main character Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) would somehow be missing from the series.<\/p>\n
And minutes into season 6, the tragic details of Polly Gray\u2019s exit storyline<\/a> were revealed.<\/p>\n Tommy discovered his aunt was murdered off-screen by Captain Swing of the IRA in retaliation for his attempts to kill their fascist leader, Sir Oswald Moseley, at the end of season 5.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve made changes to the structure of your organisation,\u201d Swing told Tommy. \u201cYou\u2019ve had a crutch to lean on, we kicked away that crutch. From now on it\u2019ll be us you lean on.\u201d<\/p>\n She went on to tell Tommy that his aunt\u2019s death was \u201chis own responsibility because he consistently failed to understand his own limitations\u201d.<\/p>\n In honour of her Romany gypsy heritage, the entire Shelby family held a memorial for Polly, where a carriage holding her body was burned along with her photographs and paintings.<\/p>\n The memorial also featured a three-minute silence to honour the actor<\/a> and character, before the camera panned up and Polly\u2019s eyes were seen in the smoke.<\/p>\n Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com,<\/a>\u00a0Charlene McKenna, who plays Captain Swing in the hit BBC drama, said of the events of the episode: \u201cI was like I\u2019m going to be the most hated person in England because I would hate me because I, like every other fan, adore Polly\u2019s character and Helen McCrory the actress.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p> \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think they handled a very sad, very difficult thing very beautifully. I think someone counted and it was basically a two-minute silence. Anthony [Bryne] did that so beautifully. And it\u2019s a very hard thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Discussing her role as IRA boss Captain Swing in season 6, the star continued: \u201cBut yes, I\u2019m bearing the brunt of being the reason that Polly is no longer with us. And everyone hates me, which is great.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cMy role in that is to be as cutthroat as possible. It\u2019s up for me to take the role and be the bad guy, take it on the chin \u2013 and hope that people remember that I am an actress. We\u2019re two different people.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Abby Robinson.<\/em><\/p>\n Peaky Blinders season 6 airs on BBC One, and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door. For more from the biggest stars in TV, l<\/strong>isten to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Molly Moss Published: Sunday, 06 March 2022 at 12:00 am Peaky Blinders is back, but without an invaluable member of the Shelby family \u2013 the late Helen McCrory, who played matriarch Aunt Polly. Following the star\u2019s death from cancer in April 2021, it was known that the formidable aunt of the main character Tommy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11794,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist.jpg",1200,675,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist-1024x576.jpg",800,450,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist.jpg",1200,675,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/03\/peaky-blinders-star-on-being-most-hated-person-after-polly-twist.jpg",1200,675,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Molly Moss Published: Sunday, 06 March 2022 at 12:00 am Peaky Blinders is back, but without an invaluable member of the Shelby family \u2013 the late Helen McCrory, who played matriarch Aunt Polly. Following the star\u2019s death from cancer in April 2021, it was known that the formidable aunt of the main character Tommy…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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