Flick a spent cigarette in slow motion at almost any scene from the period gangster series “Peaky Blinders,” and you’re bound to recall a moment that helped make the show the hit it is today. That’s what happens when a nearly perfect series spanning six seasons is filled with talent portraying corrupt, criminal, and deeply complex characters. But in a world where Cillian Murphy’s glacier-blue eyes were cutting down men with a single stare as Thomas Shelby, and Tom Hardy was snarling his way through scenes as Alfie Solomons, the late Helen McCrory played the family’s matriarch and peacemaker, Polly Gray. That was until, in one of the series’ rarest moments, a blood-chilling warning was delivered with a smile and a needle drop.
During a visit to an orphanage that the Shelbys have been funding, Tom and Polly tell the nuns working there that they’ve learned about the mistreatment of children, which has even led to a suicide. The Mother Superior (brilliantly played by “Game of Thrones” star Katie Dickie), while clearly intimidated, tries to argue that their sins cannot be judged by a family of sinners themselves, which only makes things worse. Murphy’s signature simmering rage surfaces as Tommy slowly rises across the table at Dickie, smashing her glasses and assuring her the Peaky Blinders are much closer than God. It’s McCrory, though, who does so much more with so little, having the final word in a moment that’s feels like an unmatched series highlight.
Aunt Polly’s warning is one of the greatest Peaky Blinders moments ever
In a show with a predominantly male cast, there was always something special about McCrory’s Polly Gray. As one of the oldest members of the Shelby family, she felt like a Mother Superior herself, watching out for the boys as if they were her own. By this point in the show, she’d also adapted to life after reuniting with her son, Michael (Finn Cole), whom she thought she’d lost. It’s because of this that there’s so much more maternal fury crackling under her encounter with the nuns, even shedding a tear as she recites the horrific treatment children have experienced. It’s also why her closing statement to Dickie’s supposed servant of God is so precise, lethal, and hair-raisingly effective.
“If I come for you — and I still might yet decide to come for you — I will wear high heels so you can hear my approach on the cobblestones and have time to repent,” she warns. “You listen for my footsteps.” Up until now, it’s always been the men with low-tilting flat caps that have been ones to be feared, but it’s Polly’s self-declaration as the angel of death that is so gripping, rare, and brilliantly delivered by McCrory. It also proves that the show has never been the same since her passing, a sentiment some cast members have echoed.
Helen McCrory was fundamental to the success of Peaky Blinders
Helen McCrory passed away in 2021, ahead of the sixth season. “Peaky Blinders” eloquently paid respect to a star that Cillian Murphy called “the beating heart of the show” in Season 6, Episode 1, revealing that Aunt Polly had passed away off-screen.
“The loss of the human being, the loss of Helen, is the tragedy. That’s the thing. The loss of the character is infinitesimal compared to that. However, it’s our job to deal with that,” the show’s creator, Steven Knight, explained to the Radio Times. “And then you have to first of all deal with the consequences in terms of the story, taking a moment to deal with the loss of the character, but then knowing that that has a reflection in the real world with the loss of the person. So it was trying to balance all of that, and I think we’ve done it right.”
Speaking about the loss of her co-star, Sophie Rundle, who played Ada Thorne on the show, said, “I really believe that she was fundamental to making ‘Peaky’ what it is and elevating it to be more than just the script, so it was a huge loss and it was just incredibly sad. I don’t know if that sounds oversimplified to say, but it was just incredibly sad and we missed her.” For “Peaky Blinders” fans, it’s a loss that’s still felt in the lead-up to the feature film, The Immortal Man but one softened by a presence that can always be revisited in the original show. Just listen for her footsteps.
