Cillian Murphy has curated a playlist of defining songs for Peaky Blinders to mark the release of the film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Details
The Oscar winner reprises his iconic role as Thomas “Tommy” Shelby, the infamous Birmingham gangster who emerges from exile to battle his inner demons and support his son, played by Barry Keoghan. The film also features Tim Roth and Rebecca Ferguson and arrives on Netflix on March 20 after a limited cinema release.
Murphy’s Handpicked Tracks
Filmed for the official Peaky Blinders Instagram account, Murphy selected seven tracks aligned with key themes from the series and film.
He kicks off with Black Sabbath’s classic ‘War Pigs’, calling it “a song from Birmingham” and “a phenomenal, blistering piece of music.” Murphy draws parallels between Tommy Shelby and Ozzy Osbourne, noting, “Kind of rebels, both of them.”
For a standout song from the series, he chooses Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want It Darker’, explaining it “feels like it’s the essence of Peaky Blinders and Tommy Shelby kind of distilled into a track” and praising it as “so dark, and so brilliant.”
To get into character, Murphy picks Thom Yorke’s ‘The Eraser’. He reveals using it for inspiration during filming, citing its atmosphere and the lyric: “The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear.” He adds, “That felt to me very much like Tommy Shelby, like you can’t get rid of him.”
Murphy dedicates Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Mandinka’ to Polly Gray, the fierce sister portrayed by the late Helen McCrory. He describes O’Connor as “such a punk and a rebel” who “spoke truth to power,” selecting the track for its “classic” energy that mirrors Polly’s “ferocity and fearlessness.”
David Bowie’s music permeates the show, as the late icon championed it early on. Murphy selects ‘Lazarus’ from Blackstar, recalling, “David Bowie was a very early advocate of the TV show. He loved it from the start when many people didn’t… I worked with him briefly in the year before he died and we’d spoken about it. He told me how much he loved it. I sent him the cap I wear in series one with the razor blade in it and everything, and he sent me back a picture of him wearing it, which I treasure.”
Set amid World War II, the film explores Tommy’s lingering trauma from World War I. For this, Murphy chooses ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti, the poem recited in Peaky Blinders funerals. He calls it “so bleak and dark and massive. It’s just beautiful.”
As the rebel anthem, he opts for Lisa O’Neill’s cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All The Tired Horses’. Murphy notes that creator Steven Knight chose the Dylan original to close the series, but O’Neill’s version proved superior: “It’s one of the most remarkable cover versions I think you’ll ever hear.”
Music’s Role in Peaky Blinders
Murphy has previously shared insights on soundtrack choices, stating, “You just know when a song is ‘Peaky’. The artists are outsiders. They have resisted the tyranny of the mainstream.”
In February, composers Martin Slattery and Antony Gennell discussed the film’s indie-packed score, featuring Grian Chatten, Lankum, Girl In The Year Above, Nick Cave, Amy Taylor, and others. Gennell described it as having “a lot of guts and the feeling of the human hand, brought to you by a lot of brilliant human hearts, minds and souls.”
