How Old All 5 Shelby Siblings Are In Every Season Of Peaky Blinders

Warning: This article includes MAJOR spoilers for the movie Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man!

Peaky Blinders spans decades of the 20th century, and the five main siblings in the Shelby family aged quite a bit over its six seasons. The Shelby family tree is quite complicated as it is, and part of the reason it’s so hard to tell who’s in the family and who isn’t is that the show constantly includes time jumps.

Each season of Peaky Blinders has a multi-year gap, and one season even moves forward half a decade in one go. The show started out in 1919, but by Peaky Blinders season 6, it had already reached 1934. The timeline was only complicated further by the movie Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man and the upcoming sequel series, both of which feature more drastic time jumps and cast changes.

Part of the reason Peaky Blinders moves forward so much is that it needs to. Many of Tommy’s (Cillian Murphy) plans require years of planning, and the show understandably wants to drop audiences right into the middle of everything coming together. Peaky Blinders is also inspired by a true story, and it includes fascinating historical moments, from the aftermath of World War I to Oswald Mosley’s rise to power, which means it has to jump around a bit.

Despite the narrative benefits, the decision to jump forward in time so often makes it hard to tell how old each Shelby sibling is in every season of Peaky Blinders. Here is the breakdown of all five OG family members.

Arthur Shelby Jr. Was 32 To 47 Years Old

Actor: Paul Anderson, Born On February 12, 1987

The oldest Shelby sibling, Arthur (Paul Anderson), was born in 1888. Since Peaky Blinders season 1 takes place in 1919, Arthur was 32 years old for the duration of the season. Despite being the oldest, Arthur had several immature qualities, like his impulsivity and naïveté. Arthur’s age also played a significant role in his development throughout Peaky Blinders, as he decided to settle down and marry Linda (Kate Phillips) in season 3, when he was 37 years old. After marrying Linda, he dedicated himself to becoming more mature and also ceasing his drug use.

Interestingly, though he plays the oldest brother, Paul Anderson is actually almost two years older than Cillian Murphy, who plays Tommy Shelby. While Anderson simply looks older than Murphy, his in-universe appearance can partially be explained by his drug and alcohol use, which was significantly higher than Tommy’s. When the TV show ended, Arthur was 47 years old, and his appearance almost matched Tommy’s. At the time of the Peaky Blinders movie, Arthur would have been 52, but he didn’t appear in it.

Initially, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man says that he died by suicide. Then, the story changes to Tommy accidentally killing Arthur when his brother asked for money for drugs. Later on, it’s revealed that Tommy intentionally killed Arthur in a drunken moment because he wanted to be free of his older brother.

Thomas “Tommy” Shelby Was 29 To 50 Years Old

Actor: Cillian Murphy, Born On May 25, 1976

Tommy Shelby was born just two years after Arthur, in 1890. His aging is probably the most noticeable of all the Shelby siblings. In Peaky Blinders season 1, Tommy was just 29 years old, and he still had many youthful features. By Peaky Blinders season 6, however, Tommy was only 44 years old, yet he had gray hair and glasses that made him appear much older. Much of Tommy’s aging is probably attributable to stress, as he was the leader of the Peaky Blinders, the Shelby Company Limited, and a prominent member of Parliament.

Tommy’s aging also has a fairly significant impact on the plot of Peaky Blinders. In the earliest seasons, Tommy was still suffering from very acute post-traumatic stress disorder due to his service in World War I. He gambled with his life fairly often and put himself into highly dangerous situations for the chance of a massive gain. As the show progressed, however, Tommy’s plans and goals became more nuanced, and he was more focused on protecting both himself and his family.

When the movie picks up in 1940, Tommy is in self-imposed exile at the age of 50. However, he’s brought back to Birmingham when his sister is murdered. At the end of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, he gets fatally shot. Rather than suffer, he asks his son, Duke, to mercy kill him and take leadership of the Peaky Blinders.

Ada Thorne Was 26 to 47 Years Old

Actor: Sophie Rundle, Born On April 21, 1988

The middle sibling and only sister of the Shelby siblings, Ada Thorne, was born in 1893. In 1919, she was just 26 years old when she married Freddy Thorne and became pregnant with her first child, Karl. It wouldn’t be until Peaky Blinders season 5, which took place in 1929, that Ada would have her second child, Elizabeth Younger, when she was 36 years old. Despite being younger than both Arthur and Tommy, Ada also displayed much more maturity than they did on several occasions, and she always had a better sense of right and wrong than her brothers.

Despite not having as much appetite for violence as her brothers, Ada took a much more involved role in the Shelby Company Limited as she aged. By Peaky Blinders season 3, when she was 31 years old, Ada had become Head of Property and Acquisitions, and seemingly left her Communist sympathies in the past. By Peaky Blinders season 6, when Ada was 41, she had essentially taken Polly Gray’s (Helen McCrory) place as the matriarch and sole voice of reason for the Shelby family.

Ada returns in the cast of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, at which point she is 47 years old. However, halfway through the movie, Ada is shot dead by John Beckett in the streets when her nephew Duke refuses to kill her.

John Shelby Was 24 To 30 Years Old

Actor: Joe Cole, Born On November 28, 1988

John Shelby (Joe Cole) was born in 1895, making him the last Shelby sibling born in the 19th century. John also started his adult life much earlier than his brothers or sisters, as by the time he was 24 in Peaky Blinders season 1, John already had four children.

By the time he was 29, in Peaky Blinders season 3, John had an additional three children with Esme Lee (Aimee-Ffion Edwards). Sadly, John was gunned down by Luca Changretta’s (Adrien Brody) men in Peaky Blinders season 4 because of the feud he created between the Italian Mafia and the Peaky Blinders. John died at the age of 30. In the real world, actor Joe Cole asked to leave Peaky Blinders to pursue other opportunities, and the writers gave his character a fitting ending.

Finn Shelby Was 11 To 26 Years Old

Actors Harry Kirton, Born On July 17, 1998; Alfie Evans-Meese, Born In 1997

There’s a large age gap between Finn Shelby (Harry Kirton) and his next-older sibling, John, as Finn was born in 1908. Finn’s age is actually the easiest to determine of the Shelby siblings, as his first introduction to Peaky Blinders season 1 saw him tell Tommy he was about to turn 11 just a week later. Finn is also unique for another reason: he’s the only Shelby sibling to be portrayed by two actors. Harry Kirton took over the role from Alfie Evans-Meese in Peaky Blinders season 2, when Finn was 14 years old.

Finn’s age is also among the most important to the Shelby siblings. In the earlier seasons of the show, Finn was treated as a child who couldn’t be trusted with the more important plans and operations of both the gang and the Shelby Company Limited, as he wasn’t even 18 until Peaky Blinders season 4. Then, his age worked against him in the opposite direction, as his brothers and sister began wondering why Finn wasn’t taking more responsibility even as he reached 26 years of age in Peaky Blinders season 6.

At the end of Peaky Blinders season 6, the Shelby family banished Finn for his lack of loyalty, and he doesn’t return in the Peaky Blinders movie. However, Steven Knight confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Finn is still alive. He would have been 32 at the time of the film. His absence left storylines unresolved, but they could still be explored if the youngest Shelby sibling comes back for the upcoming Peaky Blinders sequel series, which will focus on the younger generation of Shelbys. That show will take place in 1953, making Finn Shelby 45 years old if he isn’t dead at the start.

If he does come back, though, it will likely be with a third actor. Harry Kirton told Metro that he loves Peaky Blinders but would like to respectfully move on from the franchise so he isn’t pigeonholed in his career. That said, it wouldn’t be completely unreasonable, as the Peaky Blinders sequel already revealed the recasting of Charlie and Duke.

Release Date

2013 – 2022-00-00

Network

BBC One, BBC Two

Showrunner

Steven Knight

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