First image of Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton in Peaky Blinders spin-off

By Rosie Shead, Press Association

Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton has been pictured for the first time in the new Peaky Blinders spin-off series.

Set in Birmingham in the 1950s, the new show will follow gangster Tommy Shelby’s family as they navigate the aftermath of the Second World War and the race to rebuild Birmingham.

The 32-year-old plays Charles Shelby who returns from war having spent much of it behind enemy lines and has shed all ties to the violent Shelby gang and their hedonistic lifestyle.

He has not seen his half-brother Duke, Tommy’s eldest son who is played by All Of Us Strangers actor Jamie Bell, for years.

The new sequel series will follow the award-winning TV series, which ended in 2022 and starred Cillian Murphy as ruthless Tommy, the leader of the Peaky Blinders.

It is set 10 years after the events of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, a feature-length film released earlier this year in which Murphy returned as Tommy and Saltburn actor Barry Keoghan starred as Duke.

Also set to join the new series are The Day Of The Jackal star Lashana Lynch and Jessica Brown Findlay of Silo.

The new show, which has been commissioned for two series of six hour-long episodes, will premiere in the UK on BBC iPlayer and BBC One as well as on Netflix across the rest of the world.

The original Peaky Blinders series, starring Murphy alongside Paul Anderson as Tommy’s brother Arthur and Helen McCrory as his aunt Polly Gray, was first launched on the BBC in 2013 and has since become a globally successful franchise.

In 2018, it won the Bafta award for best drama series.