John Shelby

John Shelby is one of Tommy's younger brothers and a Peaky Blinder through and through — quick-tempered, quick with a razor, and quicker still to prove himself. A widowed father raising his children amid the family business, he wants respect, loyalty repaid, and a life that feels less precarious than the one he's inherited.

Joe Cole plays him as the family's raw nerve — all impulse and unguarded feeling where Tommy is calculation. That volatility makes him funny, dangerous and touching almost in the same breath, and gives the show a warmth it otherwise keeps carefully hidden. He's the brother who still believes love and violence can coexist without cost.