North American fans of Peaky Blinders are going to have to wait a little while longer before the sixth and final season of the show lands on Netflix. Fans in the UK don't have to wait so long. They're currently glued to BBC One as the show airs the old-fashioned way. But American fans can only guess what will happen to Tommy and the gang in the end.
This is only fitting given how long it took Peaky Blinders to go from a cult-hit in England to a global sensation. The first two seasons started picking up fans in England as soon as they aired, but it took until the third season for it to become a hit in America. Nobody really knew what it was or where to find it. Nobody except for Craig Ferguson...
Craig Ferguson Turned His Cult-Like Fanbase Onto Peaky Blinders
The former host of CBS' The Late Late Show was a colossal fan of Peaky Blinders from the start. While a late-night host, Craig never shied away from sharing his honest opinion about entertainment... or about anything really. His utterly charismatic authenticity is one of the reasons Craig himself built a strong cult-like following. And he was all about turning his fans onto the things that he enjoyed, whether it was Myth Busters (who built his gay robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson) or Peaky Blinders.
During many Late Late show segments, including his monologues, Craig would rave about Peaky Blinders. Not only would he praise the show's concept, historical accuracy, and its performances, but he would tell his audience exactly where to find it. Slowly but surely, his American fans started to take notice. They could get jazzed about things Craig was excited about. It was part of the culture of his show.
Craig even made Peaky Blinders a thing with his celebrity guests. More than a few times, Craig would ask his interview subjects if they had seen the show. Most of the time they hadn't, it wasn't yet big in America. But this just gave him a chance to pitch it to them. Of course, Craig was always pleased when someone had actually seen it. Instead of doing a conventional interview, Craig tried to get their take on the show. The man was a super-fan.
Cillian Murphy Appeared On The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson was absolutely ecstatic when Peaky Blinders' Cillian Murphy (Thomas Shelby) made his only appearance on The Late Late Show in 2014. It was always obvious when Craig was actually excited about a guest, and he was definitely thrilled that the star of his favorite show was stopping by.
"My first guest tonight is a terrific actor. He is on the best show on television!" Craig said when introducing Cillian. "It's called Peaky Blinders. And it's about a criminal gang in Britain at the end of the First World War. I watched it and I was like, 'What the f***!?'"
After a beat, Craig turned to his frowning producer (who had to bleep out the swear-word) and screamed, "That's how they speak in Peaky Blinders!"
"Cillian, congratulations! I am not kidding. I came in one day and said to everybody before I even knew you were [coming] on, I said, 'You got to see this show, it's amazing!'" Craig said to Cillian when they sat down for the interview. "Were you aware, when you were putting it together, just how crazy this thing is?"
"It's pretty wild, yeah," Cillian responded. "It was so compelling and so unusual and unique. So, I was hooked immediately."
After Craig asked Cillian about the accents on the show, he went on to wax poetic about the series.
"It's such an odd show. It's like The Wire made by [director Akira] Kurosawa in Britain at the turn of the century. It's nuts!" Craig said.
"That's a great description," Cillian said genuinely wowed.
Later in the interview, Craig stated that the third season of Peaky Blinders has been announced (the season that would make the show big in America). As soon as the audience started applauding that, Craig jokingly shamed them for not even seeing the first two seasons. As the interview came to an end, Craig sang the praises of both the show and the star once again:
"I really am taken with it. I think it's the most exciting bit of television that I've seen in years, and you are spectacular in it. And anyone that knows anything about this show knows that I don't do this s*** with actors. But you are really good!"
Craig Ferguson wasn't paid to promote Peaky Blinders, but he certainly plugged the show as if he were. But it was out of deep adoration for the series. There's no doubt that his vocal fanboying contributed to the growing popularity of the series in The United States.