Peaky Blinders star reveals Aunt Pol was included in alternative season 6 script

Peaky Blinders actor Charlene McKenna has revealed that season six’s original script was entirely re-written ahead of co-star Helen McCrory’s death.

In a recent interview, McKenna, who plays IRA commander Laura McKee on the British crime drama, explained that McCrory’s character Polly “Aunt Pol” Gray was included in the first version of the script.

However, once McCrory fell ill, the script was revised to have Aunt Pol murdered by the IRA. The actor later passed in April 2021, aged 52, after a what her husband Damien Lewis described as a “heroic battle” with breast cancer.

Production for the final season carried on shortly after.

“By the time we came to shooting, I only had the version [of the script] that was without Helen because she was ill at that stage,” McKenna told Tyla.

“I know that they had another version that we didn’t get, had it gone the way we wished it had with her in it. But we never got to see it. I mean, it’s [creator Steven Knight], so it would have been wonderful,” she added.

The first episode of season six included a funeral scene, not only providing an emotional resolution for her character but a proper send-off for McCrory as well.

“It’s difficult enough just to kill off a great character without adding the extra layer of how you deal with the sadness and sensitivity of the real and the fictional,” McKenna said.

Peaky Blinders continues on Sunday, 27 March at 9pm on BBC and is scheduled to release on Netflix on 10 June.