We’re exploring the opening 10 minutes of Season 1 Episode 1 of Steven Knight’s superb historical crime drama Peaky Blinders.

We explore each scene minute by minute, shot by shot. The purpose? To help us see how the writer of Eastern Promises and Locke uses his precious opening ten minutes. We’ll learn how Steven uses his time to introduce the hero’s character by seeing how he reacts to others and how others react to him.

We’ll see that he introduces the main antagonist visually, with no dialogue.

And we’ll see that the opening 10 minutes is very carefully structured, ending with our hero – Thomas Shelby – center screen.

I hope you learn as much as I have from these posts.

Scene 1. Do your tits still have milk?

Scene 2. Introducing the Hero.

Scene 3. Revealing the story world.

Scene 4. Revealing the hero’s character.

Scene 5.

Scene 6. Introducing youngest brother Finn.

Scene 7. Introducing younger brother John.

Scene 8. Introducing oldest brother Arthur.

Scene 9. Introducing the Main Antagonist part 1.

Scene 10. Setting the Political Context.

Scene 11. Introducing the Main Antagonist part 2.

Scene 12. Centering the Hero.

Extra posts:

Length of Each Scene.

Transcending the genre.

3 Important Facts about Scene Length.

A Personal Story in a Political Context.

What do Dexter and Thomas Shelby have in common?

Theme: The Rise of a King.

5 Facts about Scene Length.

Absence of a Woman

Which Characters Do We Meet in the Opening 10 minutes?

3 Opponents: Personal, Social and Political.

Revealing Character.