Peaky Blinders director Anthony Byrne has revealed that Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have contributed some new and original music to the upcoming sixth and final season of the show.
The Birmingham period crime-noir drama will premiere its final season this weekend (Sunday February 27), and, as usual, fans are eager to hear what music will feature in the show.
Alongside Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds‘ theme tune of ‘Red Right Hand’, the show has famously featured music by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie, PJ Harvey, Iggy Pop, Royal Blood, Laura Marling, IDLES, Savages and Foals – as well as an original score by Anna Calvi on the last season.
With Radiohead’s music having previously featured in key scenes, it has now been revealed that bandmates Yorke and Greenwood have penned new pieces for the upcoming series.
“Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood contributed some original stuff,” director Anthony Bryne told NME. “I’m over the moon about all of that. The music has always been really important historically, and I was really keen to bring a dramatic score into it. We’re using that much more in this season. It’s a much heavier season so the score is taking things in a very different direction.
“It’s always about Tommy and his headspace. That’s what I keep going back to.”
Speaking to NME back in 2019, lead actor Cillian Murphy (who handpicks the music alongside Byrne) told us: “You just know when a song is ‘Peaky’. The artists are outsiders. They have resisted the tyranny of the mainstream, shall we say?”
For this season, Byrne revealed that songs by the likes of Patti Smith, Joy Division and Sinead O’Connor also make an appearance.
“Sinead O’Connor was a big one for me because she’s so fucking talented,” Byrne told NME. “It feels like she’s not part of a conversation at the moment, and she’s got such a body of work that’s amazing. She’s so Peaky but for whatever reason she just slipped through. If you’ve got [show creator] Steven Knight in watching it and he’s in tears, then you know you’ve done the right thing.
“Also Patti Smith is another one. She hasn’t been in Peaky [before], but she should be. It felt so natural for her to be there. That was a big get for us.”
Calvi also returns to pen the score for season six, but this time she’s teamed up with Bad Seeds producer Nick Launay.
“It’s still the dreamscape that allows certain emotions to happen, while at other times it’s contrasting with what’s going on,” Peaky‘s creator Steven Knight told us. “It’s the bridge between a period drama and a modern audience. It gives you that emotion that you recognise. The people who were living then have the same emotions that we do now, but just in different clothes.”
Read our full interview with Byrne and Knight here, where the pair also tell us about what to expect from the new season, new and returning characters and what’s coming from the feature film and spin-off series that will follow after.
Peaky Blinders series six premieres on BBC One this Sunday (February 27) at 9pm.
Meanwhile, Yorke and Greenwood’s new band The Smile – completed by Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner – recently revealed the singles ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again‘ and follow-up ‘The Smoke‘.
They also played a trio of livestreamed London gigs, and will be heading out on a full UK and European tour later this year.
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