Which actress portrays the real-life union leader Jessie Eden in Peaky Blinders?

Charlie Murphy portrays the real-life union leader Jessie Eden in Peaky Blinders. Murphy plays Eden as a determined Birmingham organiser whose labour activism brings her into the Shelby family’s orbit during series 4 and 5.

Jessie Eden was a prominent British trade unionist and communist activist associated with Birmingham. She became known for organising workers and for her role in industrial disputes, including campaigns connected with women workers and pay conditions in the city’s manufacturing industries.

Murphy is an Irish actress whose other television roles include Ann Gallagher in Happy Valley, Siobhán Delaney in Love/Hate and Queen Iseult in The Last Kingdom. Her performance as Eden earned her the Irish Film and Television Academy award for Best Supporting Actress in 2018.

The programme takes substantial dramatic liberties with Eden’s private life and her relationship with Tommy Shelby. Historians and people who knew Eden have criticised those invented elements, so the fictional romance should not be treated as established biography.