EXCLUSIVE: British actress Annabelle Wallis is headed home to UK television to star opposite Cillian Murphy in the six-part BBC Two drama series Peaky Blinders. Created by Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight, an Oscar-nominee for Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, the series is set in 1919 Birmingham where a ruthless family of gangsters, led by Murphy’s character Tommy, rules the lawless post-war slums. Wallis, whose credits include X-Men: First Class and W.E. along with TV programs The Tudors and Pan Am, will play a mysterious new arrival in the neighborhood who peaks Tommy’s interest. The Tiger Aspect/Caryn Mandabach Productions crime saga is produced by Katie Swinden, with Otto Bathurst directing. Writers include Knight, David Leland, Stephen Russell and Toby Finlay. Principal photography has just gotten underway in Birmingham and Leeds. Peaky Blinders is expected to air in 2013 in the UK. Wallis is repped by ICM Partners, United Agents and Untitled Entertainment.


Thank the lord. Just for a moment there I thought we were going to go a whole five minutes without yet another gangster show.
Except it’s set in 1919 Birmingham, has a great writer behind it and a very talented lead actor. This is really exciting.
You had me at Eastern Promises.
Great to see Annabelle getting another series. She was the best thing going at Pan Am last season. Nothing against the other lovely and talented actresses on that show [who were fine], but if Pan Am had focused upon her and her character and made her the lead role on the series, I think Pan Am would have made the numbers and been renewed for this fall. She was that good and that believable as a 1960′s era stewardess. I wish her the best on this new UK series.