Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: Peaky Blinders, TV And Film, BBC
Lucy Devine
Sophie Rundle, who plays Ada Thorne in Peaky Blinders, will wear clothes made for the late Helen McCrory, in Season 6 of the drama.
Peaky Blinders returned to our screens on Sunday evening for a sixth season - and viewers mourned the absence of Helen, who portrayed Shelby matriarch Polly ‘Aunt Pol’ Gray. The screen legend died aged 52 in April 2021, after a private battle with breast cancer - just months before filming started on the final season of the hit BBC series.
In a bid to continue Helen's legacy, costume designer Alison McCosh has revealed how the team "didn't want to let Polly go" and so for the final season, decided that Ada will wear some of Aunt Polly's clothes.
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Speaking to Metro, Alison said: "It was really difficult because [Helen] was one that I had started [designing costumes for] very early on. Helen loved her costume fittings, I loved the fittings with her. They were exciting and engaging.
"It was hard because I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want to let Polly go. I said, 'I think it would be really interesting that Ada would want to step in and step off into Polly’s shoes, use some of these pieces that I’ve created and designed for Polly if we can have Ada wear them, I think it would be really interesting visually to show that, [Ada] trying to step into Polly’s shoes'.
"So we did that, Sophie loved that idea and that was a way for me to have Polly move on through Ada."
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Episode one of the final season was dedicated to Helen with a poignant tribute in the rolling credits.
Speaking to Tyla, Sophie explained that filming the scene felt like a goodbye of sorts.
“It was a really moving thing to have to do,” she said. “It was real and there was a real sadness there, and not something anybody wanted to be doing. It didn’t feel right to be there without her, but that whole sequence was really moving.”
Speaking about Helen’s absence on set, Sophie added: “Helen was really loved by people as well as her character. It’s heartbreaking, really, what happened.
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“But she stays a fundamental part of the show and she helped make the show what it was.”
Peaky Blinders airs Sundays, 9pm on BBC One and will be available on iPlayer.