PEAKY

BLINDERS
How has your chosen
Media text attracted its
audience?

How has an audience
responded to your
chosen media text?

The first thing you
must define is context
and audience.
Context/Intro

Set in Birmingham in
1919, Steven Knights
Peaky Blinders is a
crime drama which
follows former world
war one soldiers who
have returned home
and formed a criminal
gang.
Placement/Target audience.
Peaky Blinders was aired on
BBC Two. BBC Two's remit
historically was screening
programmes targeting the arts,
culture, drama and some
comedy. Texts should be
appealing to audiences not This successful
already served by BBC1 or placement has helped
ITV. Over its first thirty or so attract its intended
years the channel developed a target audience.
reputation for screening highly
praised and prestigious “High
Brow” drama series.
A highbrow text is
intellectually and
culturally rich.

Peaky Blinders has
elements of a
highbrow text but also
contains various
mainstream
conventions.
Incidentally a criticism
of BBC 2.
Peaky Blinders has been complemented for its high
production value and cinematography. A gratification
of an active audience.
Boardwalk Empire VS Peaky Blinders?
 Boardwalk Empire VS Peaky Blinders?
A negotiated audience enjoyed the text but thought it lacked
originality and often seemed to mirror some of the key
narrative themes of Board Walk Empire, a American text set
in the same era. The text was also accused of sacrificing its
artistic merit and realism for mainstream convention. Others
thought its failure to meet the heights of Boardwalk were down
to budget.
 Audience Response

The points of comparison between Peaky

Blinders and HBO's Boardwalk Empire
are conspicuous. Both are set immediately
after the first world war in a gangland in
which the future is up for grabs; and both
feature a returning soldier shattered and
embittered by his war experiences.
"Tommy is one of those men who came In the end, Peaky Blinders flattered to
back from this war horrifically damaged, deceive. Ultimately, it only served to
who were spat back into society without prove that, when it comes to truly
any counselling," says Murphy. "And, of great shows, British TV still can’t
course, a lot of them brought their match American television.
weapons home with them. There were a Partly, this is down to scope and
lot of guns around at the time. Tommy has budget.
a huge disdain for authority

Audience Response – Underdeveloped?
A oppositional response to
the text was that it was all
style no substance. Again
some critics put this down
to budget. Most highbrow
TV series have 12 episodes
per season. With Peaky
Blinders only including 6,
Jim Shelly, the Daily Mail
critic, felt the series was
rushed with characters and
plots often under
developed and lacking
complexity.
Attracting an audience. Audience response.
One way Peaky Blinders
attracted an audience and thus
gained a positive audience
response was via breaking the
stereotypical representation of
regional identity, in this case the
Brummie.
A study was conducted in
2008 where people were asked
to grade the intelligence of a
person based on their accent
and the Brummie accent was
ranked as the least intelligent
accent.
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Cillian Murphy
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Cillian Murphy
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Cillian Murphy -
Tommy Shelby
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Sam Neil
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Sam Neil
Sam Neil -C.I. Chester Campbell
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Helen McCroy
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Helen McCroy
Attracting an audience – The use of the film star

Helen McCroy – Aunt Polly