Jessie Eden

A trade union organiser in Birmingham's factories, Jessie Eden meets the Shelbys as a force to be reckoned with rather than a romantic prospect, though she becomes both. She's sharp-tongued, politically committed, and unimpressed by gangster money or charm, fighting for the women on the factory floor and refusing to be bought or intimidated.

Charlie Murphy plays her with a steady, amused defiance that never curdles into cliché — she matches Tommy Shelby's calculation with her own, and the show is smart enough to let their attraction run through argument rather than despite it. She gives the series a rare voice speaking for people the Shelbys usually exploit.