Cillian Murphy Thinks It's 'Crazy' That People Like Tommy Shelby's Haircut

Peaky Blinders returned to our screens last (Sunday) night as the much-anticipated fifth season got under way.

I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it yet, but it was pretty much a return to business as usual for the Shelbys: violence, psychological demons, struggles for power and those haircuts.

BBC

Indeed, the sharp hairdos sported by the male Shelbys have become a hallmark of the show, but Cillian Murphy - who plays main protagonist Tommy Shelby - doesn't seem to be a fan of the extreme short back and sides look.

Speaking to Woman and Home, he said: "People ask for a Peaky cut. It's crazy that people like it - it hasn't grown on me.

"It's when you get the haircut that people start shouting at ya. When I don't have the haircut I can get the bus quite unmolested."

Fair dos, I suppose it probably is harder to get on board with a haircut if it prompts you to be molested on public transport.

Earlier this year, the 43-year-old told LADbible that the impact the show has had on cultures across the globe is 'mad'.

BBC

He said: "Every country I go to the world over people are interested in this - people are having Peaky Blinders marriages and parties.

"We have amazing costume designers and that sort of Peaky Blinders silhouette is so recognisable now, in a matter of years it's become this thing. It's mad, I don't know how that happened."

But while the dapper look has proven popular across the board, Murphy has his own theory as to why people are particularly attracted to his character.

He explained: "I think the reason people are attracted to Tommy is because he is very, very charismatic; you don't agree with what he does, but you desperately try to understand.

"It's never one or the other, we feel sympathy - I hope - for him sometimes; we feel anger for him and revulsion. But I've never seen him as one or the other, and I wouldn't transpose my set of morals onto a fictional character like that because then I couldn't play him."

BBC

Murphy added that he loved playing the contradictory character - even if it is knackering.

He said: "It's an absolute gift, the character. I never anticipated having the opportunity to play the character for this length of time and to have the privilege of working on such great material, for people to have so much affection for the show, for it to have such reach, culturally and everything else.

"I love it. I mean, it's exhausting, but I would never moan about it because it's an actor's dream really."

Topics: TV and Film, UK Entertainment, Peaky Blinders

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey