On which BBC channel did Peaky Blinders first air?

Peaky Blinders first aired on BBC Two. The channel broadcast the show’s first four series before the programme moved to BBC One for its fifth and sixth series.

The series was created by Steven Knight and premiered in September 2013. Its early BBC Two run helped establish the drama as a stylish historical crime series centred on the Shelby family and their gang in post-First World War Birmingham. The show’s success eventually gave it a larger BBC One platform.

This channel history explains a common quiz mistake. BBC One did broadcast Peaky Blinders, but it was not the original home of the programme. BBC One became the show’s broadcaster only from series five onward. BBC Three and BBC Four were not the channel on which the drama first launched.

The programme was also distributed internationally through Netflix, which led many viewers outside the United Kingdom to associate the series primarily with streaming rather than its original BBC broadcast. Its first UK broadcast channel, however, was BBC Two.