Cillian Murphy has spoken out about the latest series of Peaky Blinders ahead of the final series airing on Sunday, February 27.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Murphy, 45, said he struggled to transform himself into the character of Tommy Shelby. 

 “I do not share one thing with him. There’s no iota of commonality between the two of us," he said.

The actor said he made lifestyle changes to physically transform himself into Shelby, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. 

He also talked about the difficulties of changing his Cork accent into that of someone from Birmingham. 

He said he went into the Garrison pub in Birmingham with the show's creator Steven Knight to hear locals speaking and singing. 

“I hung out with Steve, and we went to the actual Garrison pub in Birmingham with his Brummie mates.

“And we’re just drinking Guinness there, and they’re singing Birmingham City songs and telling all sorts of stories, and I was recording on my iPhone, and then I took that home, and used it to try and track the accents, you know.

“And then I would call Steve and just leave voicemails on his phone in the accent and see how close I was to it.”

Murphy has also spoken about the death of Helen McCrory, who died of cancer in April 2021 aged 52.

McCrory played the Shelby family matriarch Polly Gray.

“She was a remarkable human being and a remarkable actor. And I feel very privileged to have got to know her so well and to work so closely with her.

“She really was on a different level, and our scenes were my favourites.

“We got into the swing of it where we didn’t seem to need to rehearse or anything; we would just put the two characters up, and they would pop.”

The sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders airs at 9pm on February 27 on BBC One.