"Kind of rebels, both of them." Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy draws parallels between his Peaky Blinders anti-hero Tommy Shelby and Birmingham's true Prince Of Darkness

Tommy Shelby, Ozzy Osbourne — (Image credit: BBC | Lester Cohen/WireImage))

Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy has linked his character Tommy Shelby to real-life Birmingham icon Ozzy Osbourne.

Murphy, who won an Oscar in 2023 for his portrayal of 'father of the atomic bomb' J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, made the link between the fictional crime family boss and the late, much-missed 'Prince of Darkness' in an Instagram post promoting his new film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which will premiere on Netflix on March 20.

In an interview filmed for the official Peaky Blinders Instagram account, Murphy selects a seven-song playlist which he believes defines screen-writer Stephen Knight's crime drama, and chooses Black Sabbath anthem War Pigs as the opening song.

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"A song from Birmingham," says Murphy by way of an introduction to the opening song on Sabbath's 1970 album Paranoid.

"We have Black Sabbath in the show," he continues, "that tune War Pigs, and we lost poor Ozzy Osbourne. It's just a phenomenal, blistering piece of music. I think you could draw some line between Tommy Shelby and Ozzy Osbourne if you so wished. Kind of rebels, both of them."

When the interviewer mentions that War Pigs is very much an anti-war song, Murphy replies by saying that while Tommy Shelby is no pacifist, as he proves time and time again in Peaky Blinders, "but I do believe that he has not much time for authority, and hierarchy, and the class system."

Murphy goes on to mention songs by Sinéad O'Connor, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie and more in his playlist.

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An official Peaky Blinders soundtrack album released in 2019 featured another early Black Sabbath classic, The Wizard, alongside songs by Queens of the Stone Age, Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes, Royal Blood, Idles, Savages, The White Stripes, Joy Division, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more.

A synopsis for the forthcoming feature-length film reads: "Amid the chaos of World War II, Tommy Shelby returns from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet. With the future of his family and country at stake, Shelby must face his demons and choose whether to confront his legacy or burn it to the ground."

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man stars Murphy, fellow Irish actor Barry Keoghan, Stephen Graham, Tim Roth, Sophie Rundle, Rebecca Ferguson and more.

Get Ready For The Immortal Man | Official Peaky Blinders S1-6 Recap - YouTube

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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