Steven Knight is a prolific writer for film and television whose latest movie, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, is out on Netflix on March 20. Before becoming a screenwriter, Knight worked in television and was one of the creators of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. His films as a screenwriter include Dirty Pretty Things (directed by Stephen Frears), Eastern Promises (directed by David Cronenberg), Allied (directed by Robert Zemeckis) and Spencer (directed by Pablo Larrain), and he directed his own screenplays for the films Locke starring Tom Hardy, Redemption with Jason Statham, and Serenity, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. On the small screen, he has created and written many TV shows, including Peaky Blinders, SAS: Rogue Heroes, A Thousand Blows and House of Guinness. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Netflix.)
Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the March 20 release on Netflix of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the cinematic conclusion of creator Steven Knight’s beloved crime series starring Cillian Murphy, screenwriter Knight shared some of the things that give his life meaning. — N.D.
Birmingham City Football Club
Growing up, my whole family supported Birmingham City. During the Battle of the Somme in the First World War, all the soldiers were given a blank card before the whistle blew in the morning for them to go over the top. They were to write a message to their loved ones in case they got killed, and the first thing my granddad wrote was, “Give the Blues a shout for me,” so he obviously shared the love. Supporting the team is a family thing and a constant that will always be there in my life. When I was a kid, I used to go to games with my dad, brothers, cousins and uncles, and then my mum started going as well. No matter what else happens in life, Birmingham City is always there and I always check on the results with friends who I’ve known since I was three years old.
Unfortunately, Birmingham City are not very good and historically haven’t been very good, either. Even though Blues lose a lot, they are so important to me. I think they were the only team in Europe who failed to score a single goal during the reign of Pope John Paul I, who was pope for only 33 days. So, we’ve had our ups and downs; but when we are playing well, it’s incredible.
I grew up in a strongly Aston Villa area, and there were only about five of us in my school who supported Blues, and that created a camaraderie between us. Being a Blues fan does require a sort of perverse loyalty. My kids grew up in London and when one of my sons was about seven years old, someone came up to him in the playground and asked, “Who do you support?” He said, “Birmingham City,” and this kid said, “There’s no such team.” So, it’s not just that Blues are rubbish, they don’t even exist!
If I smell cigarettes, beer and chewing gum, it’s like I’m instantly back at the match, because those were the pervading smells of going to a Birmingham City game. The very first game I went to was against Carlisle. I was about six, and I remember there was snow on the ground; I just loved the snow and the green grass and the blue of the scarves. I remember a Carlisle player coming to take a throw-in and my dad saying, “Throw a snowball at him!” I also have many memories of the team winning the League Cup in 2011, when my kids were quite young, and me saying to them, “This never happens. We never do this. This is amazing. We’re actually going to win!”
Every August, I always feel a lot of optimism about the season ahead. I mean, without hope, I couldn’t be a fan. The experience of going to games is great, but of course I want them to win. The team has now got new owners who are ambitious Americans with money, so hope springs eternal. The dream is that we will have a Man City-like resurgence, but who knows where it’s going to go!
Cuban Cigars
I used to smoke cigarettes a lot, and I remember when I was planning to give up, about 28 years ago, I thought, “I’m going to have to find a different job, because I can’t write without smoking!” But when I found out that I could, I gave up … and then somehow discovered Cuban cigars and wrote a play about them. It was called The President of an Empty Room and played at the National Theatre. For the play, I did some research into how the cigars are made and how to set up a cigar factory in Cuba, and it really gave me an insight into that whole world.
If I’m going to smoke a cigar, it has to be a good Cuban cigar and I have to have time for it. I will find somewhere nice outside and have a moment to reflect. With a cigarette, you can do something else while you’re smoking, like writing, but with a cigar, you can’t do anything else. It’s like having company, because you have to apply yourself to this thing that you’re doing. It’s the perfect writer’s recreation, because you’re stationary, but the imagination is still active and engaged. I’ve found smoking a cigar on my own to be an incredible way of switching off during the writing process, as my mind goes to places it wouldn’t normally.
Oscar Wilde said that cigarettes are “the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied.” But when I finish a cigar, I feel like it’s enough and I can go back to my life. A cigar is like a punctuation, a full stop before the next sentence.
Writing
And that brings me to my third thing, which is writing.
Following on from the cigar, in the fallow moment after you’ve smoked, that’s often when inspiration comes. For me, writing is like dreaming; I will sit at the keyboard, switch everything else off and just see what happens. I’ve got the characters in my mind and they just speak to each other; I know something’s going to happen, so I just let it go and then read it back to myself.
For me, writing is an essential part of life. Even if I wasn’t commissioned to write anything, I would still write, because it’s just something I look forward to doing. It’s just the pure flow of imagination, which I can’t imagine being without. As soon as I wake up, I go to the keyboard and start writing. Usually it’s before other people are awake, so there aren’t any interruptions. I’ll run out of fuel at a certain point, but I tend to leave off the script at a point where I know exactly what I’m going to write next. That means when I pick it up the next morning, I can go bang, bang, bang, and I am already into it.
For me, writing is quite a mysterious thing, and very absorbing. Sometimes I’ll be shaving and realize, I’ve just done this – this is my second shave … , because I’m thinking about my work so intensely that I’ve forgotten what I’m doing. Sometimes driving can be quite hazardous; a couple of times, I’ve found myself going around a roundabout multiple times because I’m thinking about what I’m writing. People have also told me that I speak out loud when I’m writing. I’ll start saying the characters’ lines, which my kids find very funny.
Featured image, showing Cillian Murphy and Steven Knight on the set of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, by Robert Viglasky / Netflix.
