Peaky Blinders star hints his character was actually a ghost and no one realised

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man at times hints at supernatural goings on that are surprising for a show that has always been rooted in (mostly) realistic drama, but now one of the film’s stars has hinted at a plot point that would take things even further.

Peaky Blinders as a show is pretty grounded, even if it takes a few liberties with real life history and essentially presents Tommy Shelby as the Forrest Gump of 20^th Century Britain.

The Immortal Man however has small sections where this appears to be challenged, with Rebecca Ferguson playing Kaulo Chiriklo, the twin sister of Duke’s mother Zelda in the film.

In the movie she shows a spooky ability to ‘give’ her body to her twin sister from beyond the grave, allowing Zelda to speak through her and repeat knowledge that only her late sister would know. This is shown to be somewhat real from the fact that Rebecca Ferguson is credited as Kaulo/Zelda in the credits of the movie.

Apparently though she may not be the only supernatural being in the Peaky Blinders world.

The actor who plays Johnny Dogs, Packy Lee, has said his character may have been a ghost

Could he have been a ghost? According to the actor that's partially how he played him (Netflix)

Packy Lee plays Johnny Dogs, the good friend of the Shelby family who is a distant Romani cousin through marriage.

Speaking on the official Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man podcast Packy Lee said: “If someone was to say Johnny Dogs has been a ghost the entire time would you believe it. Could you believe it?

“He has never been there, ever, there is no Johnny Dogs, imagine that for one minute, how would that fit how would that feel.

“We realise there is a Johnny Dogs and it is through the seasons but there was a lot of that going on through the movie. I tried to pay as much respect to the actors who aren’t with us and the actors who are no longer in the show to say if this why I think Johnny Dogs is still here.”

Not everyone on social media is convinced, but there are moments in the movie where he may be right

One fan quoted a tweet of the clip of Packy Lee discussing this, saying: “It would have been interesting if they had gone for a The Sixth Sense-style plot twist with Johnny Dogs, but he actually interacts with people other than Tommy.”

In addition to this, Johnny Dogs is listed in Tommy’s will read out during his funeral as voiceover by Cillian Murphy, but the theory is more interesting when not taken 100% literally.

Is Johnny Dogs physically in The Immortal Man? Probably, yes. The more interesting question, however, is whether Johnny Dogs is physically there every time we see him on screen in The Immortal Man.

The theory is interesting when you think about what it means for Tommy's mental state when we first see him (Netflix)

Tommy describes having visions of people long gone, including Ada after her death and implied to have previously been Aunt Polly and Arthur.

Many of Johnny’s scenes in the film are one-to-one and could simply have been Tommy’s crumbling mind imagining his beloved old friend still lives with him despite the far more depressing possibility that he is all alone.

Either way: the theory is a fascinating one that could be more interesting than the reality of the film.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is available to stream on Netflix now.