Peaky Blinders' Paul Anderson Had Morbid Predictions For Arthur In Season 2

"Peaky Blinders" might often focus on Cillian Murphy's tough Tommy Shelby, but the crime drama isn't exactly short on important members of his extended family. One of them is Tommy's tormented big brother Arthur Shelby Jr. (Paul Anderson), who ranks among the most recognizable and prominent protagonists of the series. 

Anderson plays Arthur as a troubled, seething man who has rage to spare but can't quite match his younger brother's wits. Especially early in the series, the character's hot-headed nature, weaknesses, and personal demons make him an unlikely candidate to see the end of the show. This is something Anderson was extremely well aware of while filming the sophomore season. As such, he and John Shelby actor Joe Cole took to the habit of making their own grim predictions about the plans series creator Steven Knight might have for them. In 2015, Anderson shared some of their discussions with Interview Magazine:

"We're fed the scripts maybe two, three at a time. On our journeys to Liverpool, Birmingham, or Manchester where we shoot, Joe Cole and I have this conversation about who's going to die. We're convinced that it's either me or him. We go through the cast and it always comes back to that it's probably going to be me, and he goes, 'No, no. It will be John.'"

At the end of the day, of course, both men were mistaken. Arthur and John not only survive "Peaky Blinders" season 2, but the former also remains an important character throughout the series — all while retaining his characteristic and often risky combination of impulsiveness and vulnerability, no less.

Given Arthur's increasing unpredictability and the fact that the actors were kept in the dark about the big picture, it's understandable that Paul Anderson was preparing for the sudden death of his character around season 2. However, Arthur's survival wasn't the only thing that surprised him by the time the season came to a close. As he stated in the interview, he and other cast members were also caught off balance by the surprising death of Sam Neill's nefarious "Peaky Blinders" character, Chester Campbell: 

"Last season, we never saw that whole thing with Sam Neill and Polly coming. I was actually convinced that Arthur was going to get killed in season 2 because he'd left such a trail of destruction behind him."

A key antagonist of the show's first two seasons, Neill's devious detective chief inspector enters the picture when Winston Churchill (Andy Nyman) himself unleashes Campbell upon the Peaky Blinders when the series begins. He soon proves to be as ruthless as the Shelbys and twice as twisted. Driven by Neill's imposing performance, Campbell's sadistic, intimidating presence looms large over the show ... that is, until Polly Gray (Helen McCrory) shoots the not-so-good inspector after a tense phone booth confrontation in the season 2 finale.

Since "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight intentionally keeps his characters off the road to happiness, he soon replaced Inspector Campbell with an even more despicable antagonist — Paddy Considine's Father Hughes. Still, it's understandable that Anderson and others were taken aback by the sudden departure of such an integral character.