The Peaky Blinders Crew Wanted Tommy's Office To Feel Like The Godfather
From the jump, the folks behind the hit BBC/Netflix period crime series "Peaky Blinders" aimed high. Creator Steven Knight aimed to tell the story of a Birmingham street gang's ascension in post-WWI England as robustly as possible from its first episode, as we follow Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his fellow Peaky Blinders weather storms of PTSD, politics, and family life.
Throughout the show's six seasons, the gangster series trod lightly when it came to references to gangster movies that came before, like "The Public Enemy" and "Once Upon A Time in America." On TV, the show shared genre space with predecessors like "The Sopranos" — a show that, like "Peaky," would get its own follow-up feature film. But sometimes, the connection to classic crime cinema was explicit.
In season two, the Peaky Blinders have advanced beyond penny-ante bookkeeping. Tommy expands to London and gets his own office at the Shelby Company to oversee daily operations. The work digs were designed by the series' production design team, led by Grant Montgomery, who included direct references to one of the greatest mob movies of all time. Speaking with Den of Geek, Nicole Northridge — production designer for seasons five and six — confirmed that as early as season two, Montgomery had Tommy's office "very much modeled on The Godfather," going so far as to dress the set with a bowl of oranges, the fruit-harbinger of death in Francis Ford Coppola's trilogy.
The oranges would return in season five. As Northridge told it, "When the journalist got shot in the lift [in the series five opener], he walked in carrying a paper bag. That bag was full of oranges. We wanted to bring it back to 'The Godfather' again, without being too obvious about it, because it was that sort of violence."
Apples and oranges
Modeling Tommy's desk after the one seen in the Corleone office in "The Godfather" is fitting; the desk of the film is a pivotal bit of furniture. It's one of the first things seen after the movie's opening line, "I believe in America," is uttered to patriarch and mob boss Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). Watch the scene here:
Later, Corleone's desk is the place where the crown is handed down to Vito's son Michael (Al Pacino). It sits in a shadowy realm, dimly-lit with the blinds often drawn to match the shady dealings of the family business. The desk is made of rich, dark wood and is sparsely populated by writing tools and a phone — the basics of running a business and exacting submission from all who come to see the Godfather. Tommy's desk likewise reflects his position as head of the Shelby clan, while carrying the occasional sly clue as to his character, like the tin box he kept from his combat days.
Production designer Grant Montgomery looked back on his work on season two with pride, successfully helping Cillian Murphy further sink into his role:
"I think it's really important that they feel like they're in a living environment. It was really lovely that when Cillian walked into Tommy's office, he said it made him feel powerful, and I think that's quite key. If it makes the actor feel that the character's powerful, then it really infuses the performance. I think that's so, so important, that they feel it's real."
From the first episode to the last, the Shelbys are exalted as outlaws of their time, the result of a coordinated effort to ensure that every frame would buttress the characters and their motivations, right down to the last stick of furniture.