Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I should be able to watch a show on the BBC on a Sunday night?

70 replies

TinklyLittleLaugh · 02/09/2019 17:18

I love Peaky Blinders I really do and I love Arthur. But last night I had to actually get up and leave the room when he was battering the Quaker guy.

It’s an exciting, stylish show; is there any actual need for it to be so gratuitously violent? Am I some kind of snowflake? Surely a skilled director can create an atmosphere of violence and fear without being so graphic?

Of course it’s not the only show like this. I just think we are all getting desensitised to this sort of nasty stuff. There’s no need for it. Who actually enjoys it?

OP posts:
Tigerty · 02/09/2019 22:03

I thought using silhouette in the scene was really good. Made it worse despite not actually seeing the detail. I didn’t enjoy it, I felt horror.

Tommy said at one point that he and Arthur are the same person but in that scene Arthur is conflicted. He says something like there is good in his heart but his hands are the devil. He wants to be good, religious like his wife but he isn’t.

It also suggests Tommy’s and Arthur’s perception of their relationship differs which may well cause strife between them.

Tigerty · 02/09/2019 22:07

Aberama Gold pouring hot tar on someone was awful. Really shocked at that. Also shocked he survived.

Original poster
TinklyLittleLaugh · 02/09/2019 22:38

I think Aidan Gillen is doing a great job as Aberama Gold. He is very believably unhinged by grief.

Hmm, like I said, I left the room once the battering scene started, so from what people have said, maybe in the end it wasn’t as awful as I was anticipating.

It sounded pretty awful though, even from the kitchen.

OP posts:
StCharlotte · 02/09/2019 22:40

I'm with you OP. I know it's always been a violent programme and I've slways loved it but I too had to leave the room last night.

On the plus side, it's good to know I haven't been totally desensitized.

Original poster
TinklyLittleLaugh · 02/09/2019 22:52

Indeed, I watch Peaky for the great production and the lovely clothes, for lovely Cillian Murphy and the frequent moments when DH and I yell, “Yes those bastard ruling classes, 90 years on and they are still oppressing us”. (I do think the writer has a bit of an agenda and an eye to current affairs).

I could do with out the bludgeoning to death and pouring tar on people.

Think I would like Peaky Lite; Polly and Ada open a dress shop and have passionate affairs with lots of handsome and unsuitable guest stars whilst wearing gorgeous clothes, while Tommy retires and trains lovely racehorses and sponsors orphans.

OP posts:
StCharlotte · 02/09/2019 22:55
Grin
beestripey · 03/09/2019 02:21

I stopped watching after series 2 because of the violence - also something involving Arthur, then Tommy getting buried or something. I get the situation they live in, but such graphic violence is horrible. It would be bad enough if dealt with less visibly.

But, then thinking about it, I suppose it makes it harder to pretend they are harmless and heroes of some sort. So yeah, if I don't want to see what gangsters really do then I shouldn't watch it! But then I worry about who does actually want to see that?!!

I'd like to watch it for Polly and Ada though.

StillCoughingandLaughing · 03/09/2019 02:58

It’s a show about a notorious gang of gangsters. It’s not Heartbeat or Last of the Summer Wine.

holdmybutterbeer · 03/09/2019 03:11

I watched half an episode once. I can do without that as entertainment.

BadLad · 03/09/2019 04:49

Isn't it a show about gangsters? Did you think they were going to sit barefoot in a circle and talk it out?

Yes, it wouldn't have been very believable if the writer had used this suggestion from the "police were out of order" thread.

If someone was coming towards me with a sword, in a situation where I had responsibility for de-arming them, I'd do my best to establish a rapport with them, try to understand how they came to be in that situation and get them to put the sword down.

My instinct would have been to talk him down

shearwater · 03/09/2019 05:09

What annoys me slightly about PB is that it has been on for 5/6 years on BBC2 and suddenly it's on the 9pm Sunday slot BBC1.

Which is usually reserved for newer drama or stuff you can just pick up without having watched previous series (Poldark). And stuff that isn't very violent- or at least not gratutious - doesn't show everything. Baptiste was the exception previously, it was good but not very Sunday evening.

On Sunday night, I would just like to watch a couple of easy viewing programmes slide over me before I go to bed, not something that will stay with me and have me up half the night before a new work week. Yes I know, other channels, Netflix etc, but BBC1 used to be quite reliable to just leave on, om a Sunday night.

Samcro · 03/09/2019 07:12

it only has 6 episodes. so 3 to go. no doubt then the BBC will put on a nice boring drama

Kitty1184 · 03/09/2019 07:15

I was more offended and upset by the terrible Glaswegian accents.

PookieDo · 03/09/2019 08:18

It’s a show about a notorious gang of gangsters. It’s not Heartbeat or Last of the Summer Wine.

This! I would not want to watch a TV show about Polly and Ada

Polly threatened to kill a nun where do you get the impression she is any different to the boys? Ada is into politics. It would be dull from her end Grin

longwayoff · 03/09/2019 08:21

Yes, it's horribly violent but we don't have to watch it. Arthur is a character who is seriously damaged with psychological problems exacerbated by prolific use of drugs and alcohol. He's not calm. Watch something else.

MorrisZapp · 03/09/2019 08:25

Decent writing and acting could convey the horror and brutality without having to show the actual mechanics. Sure, it's a violent setting but if they usually rely on more subtle methods then sudden graphic violence will be shocking.

Samcro · 03/09/2019 09:53

PookieDo the nun was terrible. she had be abusing children.

Bookworm4 · 03/09/2019 10:15

A show about Polly &Ada running a dress shop? Cmon OP, want better than them confirming to nice womanly roles.
They are both ruthless, independent women don’t dumb them down.
Polly is the one who has ran the Shelbys, Tommy is the front man.

Mousetolioness · 03/09/2019 11:14

In an ideal world there'd be an option on tv programming that I could select so that picture and sound were blanked out during scenes of violence even at the risk of the plot being rendered unintelligible by missing key info imparted by, say, someone being tortured. Though good screen writing could get around that.

I switch off or over and rarely bother resume watching a programme as I find scenes of graphic violence live in my head for ages and I resent it. I don't want to know all the ways in which pain and suffering can be inflicted on another.

Having said that I watched the scenes showing the effects radiation wrought on the firefighters in Chernobyl in horror (incredibly good makeup artistry) because that was not conceived purely with the intention of adding shock, suspense or drama. It reflected a very real event, an accident, and was not gratuitous.

I wouldn't want to watch someone having their head chopped off or being hung drawn and quartered even if it were depicting an actual historical event because, again, that would be one human acting on another.

I'd just like the option to choose.

PookieDo · 03/09/2019 20:16

Blanking out parts of the show? Use a cushion? Fast forward it?

WaggingKnife · 03/09/2019 20:18

There is something wrong with this country that the nation is so obsessed with endless male violence. Both watching it and excusing it. It’s never ending.

Phineyj · 03/09/2019 20:26

I agree. I find there's very little mainstream stuff I can watch, for this reason. I don't mind so much in book form, because you can put it down. So I read the Game of Thrones books but didn't even bother trying to watch the TV versions.

Therefore even though I like period/historical/fantasy stuff, nearly all of it's too violent for me.

StCharlotte · 04/09/2019 12:55

Blanking out parts of the show? Use a cushion? Fast forward it?

Way back in Series 2 I think it was, the Peaky Blinders entered someone's prison cell. I did indeed use a cushion but the conversation went thus:

Me: Have they slit his throat?
DH: How can you possibly tell??
Me: I can bloody hear it!

I also wondered what the Poldark crowd would make of it, especially as it started in the Poldark slot while Poldark was still going. It's not your usual Sunday night comfort fare is it?

It was big and it was clever. Not any more.

Original poster
TinklyLittleLaugh · 04/09/2019 14:40

Well I’m gratified to find I’m not the only person who watches it with cushion in hand.

But I still don’t think I should have to, not on a Sunday night on the Beeb. Something like Being Human, for instance, was stylish and funny and frequently very scary, without having to be so overtly violent.

OP posts:
PookieDo · 04/09/2019 17:47

This is 6 weeks of your life. 6 episodes. You can watch another channel if you really don’t like this show you do not have to watch it.

I personally do not usually choose to watch anything horror myself and am bored to tears by endless cop dramas. I don’t tend to watch murder who dunnits which is usually what is on the BBC, a dark dreary female cop show with a secret pervert they are trying to track down. I didn’t watch GOT (I read them) but I am invested enough to watch this one.

BBC iPlayer has plenty of options, as does Amazon prime, Netflix and now TV. Personally I am really into Stath Let’s Flats on C4. It’s great. I also like Bake Off.