Peaky Blinders creator tackles Birmingham City FC

Knight is executive producer on the series called Built in Birmingham: Brady and the Blues.

Peaky Blinder creator Steven Knight has said his new series on Birmingham City FC turned into a story when the club's US takeover happened.

The series, which is streaming from Friday, follows the club as it is bought by former NFL quarterback Tom Brady and US businessman Tom Wagner, after a deal was struck in 2023.

Knight, who is also writing the new James Bond film, is executive producer on the series called Built in Birmingham: Brady and the Blues.

He said the story would have been a "tragedy" if he'd made the programme before the takeover, adding: "For most of my supporting Blues career, there's been not a lot to make a film about to be honest."

'Completely different culture'

Knight said: "It would have been a tragedy or a comedy, or both, previous to this. Then when this thing happened, which most Blues fans still can't quite believe, that we are taken over by proper people with real money, and with ambition, then suddenly there was a story."

He said it was about how Brady "who would win and win and win, takes over a team that loses and draws, and (has) just a completely different culture and ethic".

He added: "It was worth everything just to be there when Tom Brady and Tom Wagner entered a pub called The Roost, which is quite a rough Blues supporters' pub, just before a match and to see the two things come together in a really happy way."

Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is a minority owner of Birmingham City

The 65-year-old, who grew up in the Birmingham area, also said he had been struck by the "outpouring of love" for Ozzy Osbourne at his funeral this week – and dubbed the music created by Osbourne and Black Sabbath "the Birmingham soundtrack".

He said: "The music, it's so Birmingham because they were working in factories, and that work was very, very noisy, I worked occasionally in factories, and there is always a rhythm. There's always a dominant machine."

Knight added that the upcoming Peaky Blinders film would be released on Netflix "soon".

The original BBC series followed Tommy Shelby and his Birmingham gang of the series' name, covering topics such as the rise of fascism, Irish republican politics and communism in the years after World War One.