Peaky Blinders' 10 Main Villains, Ranked Worst To Best
Peaky Blinders told many gripping stories throughout its six seasons of prestige television, with each unique arc having a different antagonist at the helm. Several of the show's most beloved characters even become villains in their own right as tensions boil over and relationships are broken, which is exactly how Peaky Blinders managed to run for so long without becoming stale. There are many shows with similar stories to Peaky Blinders, but very few that managed to remain popular for so many years.
The secret of Peaky Blinders is that it found an ideal balance between recurring villains who appear throughout the show's six seasons, and guest villains who only show up for a few episodes at a time. This keeps all the conflicts feeling fresh and timely, never letting Tommy Shelby's (Cillian Murphy) dangerous business slow down for too long. Many of these one-off villains also account for some of Peaky Blinders' best performances, and they are the characters that audiences remember despite their limited screen time.
10 Jimmy McCavern
Played By Brian Gleeson
Although Jimmy McCavern's actions in Peaky Blinders' fifth season allow for some of the show's most engaging rivalries, the villain ultimately failed to make much of an impression. He mostly existed to spark tensions between Tommy and the IRA, which had been an ongoing plot thread since the beginning of the show. Admittedly, McCavern's cold-blooded murder of Bonnie Gold (Jack Rowan) is one of season 5's most shocking moments, but the writers ultimately didn't allow the character to reach his full potential, and he is preemptively killed in the season finale.
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9 Jack Nelson
Played By James Frecheville
Jack Nelson is another example of a Peaky Blinders villain with enormous potential who was underused because the writers weren't totally sure how to fit him into the story. The Irish-American mobster is Tommy's contact in the United States, serving as his liaison between the family business in Birmingham and his clients across the Atlantic who benefit from his whiskey trade. The Peaky Blinders character was inspired by true events in 1960s America, but despite Frecheville's excellent performance and the figure's historical accuracy, he just didn't fit neatly into the story that season 6 was trying to tell.
8 Archduke Leon Petrovich Romanov
Played By Jan Bijvoet
While Tommy's ongoing feud with the Russians is one of Peaky Blinders' most compelling subplots, it's hard to label any of the oligarchs as the "main villain" of this story. Tommy's conflict is with the whole family, and much of the drama comes from his dealings with Father Hughes (Paddy Considine) — not the royalty he represents. That being said, Archduke Leon Petrovich Romanov is certainly the most memorable face in this dangerous family, with Jan Bijvoet's ominous performance leaving a lasting impression among fans.
7 Billy Kimber
Played By Charlie Creed-Miles
Billy Kimber was one of Peaky Blinders' first villains, and his local rivalry with Tommy Shelby provides much of the conflict and drama of the show's early episodes. This English gangster is the head of the Birmingham Boys, and quickly takes issue with the Shelby family when their business grows to be more successful. Many aspects of Peaky Blinders' first season have aged very well, and the rivalry between Tommy and Billy is certainly one of those. The stakes are much lower than the conflicts that would arise in later seasons, but this is what makes it so engaging.
6 Father Hughes
Played By Paddy Considine
When it comes to Peaky Blinders characters who are completely irredeemable, Paddy Considine's Father Hughes has to be one of the first that comes to mind. He is the mastermind behind Tommy’s feud with the Russian oligarchy in season 3, using this conflict to fan the flames of war between the Soviets and the UK. His subplot marked one of Peaky Blinders' first ventures into politics, injecting these fictional characters into a very real period of British history. Considine was a surprising standout of Peaky Blinders' cast, and it's a shame that the show didn't keep him around for longer.
5 Michael Gray
Played By Finn Cole
Michael Gray is one of Peaky Blinders' most interesting characters, and while many audiences weren't happy with the direction that his story took in the show's final season, his road to villainy was actually established very early in his arc. Despite initially seeming like a close ally to Tommy and the family, his loyalties always lay with his mother Polly (Helen McCrory) — so when she was killed because of Tommy’s political ambition, it was inevitable that Michael would distance himself. Still, the long-standing history between Tommy and Michael makes their rivalry in season 6 all the more painful.
4 Oswald Mosley
Played By Sam Claflin
Sam Claflin's performance as Oswald Mosley is arguably the best thing about Peaky Blinders' fifth season, with his demanding screen presence immediately cementing him as a force to be reckoned with. His introduction marked the beginning of the series' interest in British politics, particularly the rise of fascism in 1920s England. The fact that Mosley was based on a real-life figure makes him even more compelling, giving Peaky Blinders a much more grounded and authentic storyline following the sensationalized Changretta conflict in the previous season. There are very few Peaky Blinders subplots with higher stakes than those about Mosley.
3 Luca Changretta
Played By Adrien Brody
The revelation that Adrien Brody would be playing the main villain in Peaky Blinders' fourth season was an understandably surprising one, but he managed to create one of the show's most frightening and unforgettable antagonists in just six episodes. His story is very simple, but Brody delivers an excellent performance that ensures audiences are always on the edge of their seats. He plays Luca Changretta, the leader of an American-Italian crime family who seeks revenge on the Shelbys for the deaths of his father and brothers.
2 Alfie Solomons
Played By Tom Hardy
Alfie Solomons is Peaky Blinders' most well-known villain and the one who appears most frequently throughout the show's six seasons. He is initially introduced as a potential ally to Tommy, before viewing his Birmingham counterpart as an external threat that needs to be squashed. From there, the pair has a very turbulent relationship as Solomons comes to terms with his inability to defeat Tommy and learns to live with their constant rivalry. Their dynamic is one of the show's most engaging aspects, to the extent that Solomons was even brought back from "death" at the request of Tom Hardy.
1 Inspector Campbell
Played By Sam Neill
Despite only appearing in the show's first two seasons, Inspector Campbell is Peaky Blinders' best villain. The way he's introduced as a powerful figure of authority and gradually revealed to be just as corrupt and immoral (perhaps even more so) as the criminals he hunts down was genius storytelling, and Neill's performance really focuses on these complex aspects of the character.
The cat-and-mouse chase between Tommy and Campbell is deeply compelling throughout the show's first season, with Neill and Murphy both delivering some of their most nuanced and powerful work. Their back-and-forth dynamic kept the show interesting even when the writers struggled to find the story's true purpose, making the first season worthwhile as the truly captivating subplots were beginning to blossom in the background. It's a shame that Campbell had to leave Peaky Blindersso early, but it's much better than keeping him around needlessly and letting the character fade into obscurity.
Peaky Blinders
- Release Date
- 2013 - 2022-00-00
- Showrunner
- Steven Knight
- Directors
- Otto Bathurst, Tom Harper, Colm McCarthy, Tim Mielants, David Caffrey, Anthony Byrne
- Writers
- Steven Knight
Cast
Annabelle Wallis
Ian Peck
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