Birmingham 2022: Peaky Blinders writer to produce opening ceremony

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is named among the creative team that will deliver the opening ceremony for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The event will take place at the city's Alexander Stadium in front of capacity crowds of 30,000 people on 28 July.

The team also includes Birmingham-born theatre director Iqbal Khan, rapper Joshua 'RTKal' Holness and novelist Maeve Clarke.

The same team will also produce the closing ceremony on 8 August.

A cast of 1,200 is set to take part in the opening ceremony which will see the return of the Queen's Baton following its 300-day relay around the Commonwealth.

Executive producer Mr Knight said he wanted to tell the story of Birmingham "the past, the present, the future".

He is joined on the team by:

• Production designer Misty Buckley, recently nominated for a Bafta Award for Stormzy's performance at Glastonbury Festival

• Artistic director Iqbal Khan, a globally-renowned theatre director

• Novelist and short story writer Maeve Clarke, also from Birmingham, whose credits include Whispers in the Walls, an anthology of new Black and Asian voices

• Music director Joshua 'RTKal' Holness, a rapper who co-created a project offering music education and recording facilities to youths and underprivileged groups

• Bafta Award-winner Hamish Hamilton, who has directed and executive produced ceremonies, award shows and concerts worldwide

Mr Knight said he wanted the spectacle "to be better" than the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony

Mr Knight stated there was a potential live television audience of 1.5 billion people and also said: "We're saying to the world... this is what this city is about.

"A lot of investment is coming in, a lot of financial investment, a lot of industry. I think there's never been a better moment for Birmingham to tell its story."

Asked if the spectacle of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony put the pressure on, he said: "It does, but that's good because we want it to be better than that.

"We're not London and it's not Olympics, it's Commonwealth, so there is a slightly different emphasis."

The team was brought together by the Games' chief creative officer Martin Green, who led the Olympic and Paralympic Ceremonies in London 2012.

RTKal said he was a "very, very proud Birmingham native"

Birmingham-born RTKal said his main job was to represent it and "really show the musical identity of the city, old and new and everything in between".

The music director said: "A lot of our stories and histories [are] actually hidden in the music.

"Our history hasn't always been super commercial with music... but when it comes to creativity and actual culture here I think we're one of the leading [places] in the world."

Writer for the Birmingham opening ceremony Maeve Clarke said there were "lots of ideas milling around".

The novelist added: "Birmingham is so rich in its history and not just the stuff that you tend to read about in the history books. It's more than the Industrial Revolution."

Maeve Clarke said people were at the "really, really early stages" of planning

Mr Khan said: "It's an extraordinary privilege to kind of try and make the biggest statement you can make about the place [where] you were born, to create something that's a love letter, a celebration of Birmingham, the West Midlands."

Tickets go on sale for the opening ceremony from 8 September.

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