'Peaky Blinders' fans thrilled by resurrection of popular character in series finale

Viewers said "dreams do come true" as Tom Hardy returned to Peaky Blinders for the season five finale.

The actor played Jewish gang leader Alfie Solomons from series two to series four, when he was apparently shot and killed.

But last week Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) hinted that Alfie might not
be dead after all, and it was confirmed on Sunday when he appeared.

Alfie, now sporting a large scar on his face from being shot, returned to the BBC drama as Tommy sought some help dealing with Oswald Mosley.

Fans were thrilled to see the character return.

"Alfie is Alive!!! Maybe dreams do come true!" one posted on Twitter.

"I CANT BELIEVE ALFIE IS ALIVE YES YES YES YES I MISSED HIM LITERALLY
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THIS SEASON," said another.

One said: "I think we can all agree that the best part of this season is Alfie Solomons returning."

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Another tweeted: "Peaky Blinders. Wow. Best TV series I think i'll see
in my lifetime. Knew Alfie was alive and kicking."

"Alfie Solomons back from the dead, what a man, what a series," tweetedanother fan.

"Sometimes dreams do come true people," said another.

Hardy’s character appeared to have been killed off during the final episode of the fourth season that aired in 2017. However his “death” was a last-minute addition to the script, as series four director David Caffrey recently revealed.

“That was the thing with the script – that wasn’t in the script. I think we started shooting,” he told BBC Sounds’ Obsessed With Peaky Blinders podcast (reported by NME). “We had a tiny little window with Tom about. We did the stuff at the beer barrels in Liverpool and then we were about to go to the beach.

“But that [shooting between Alfie and Tommy] hadn’t been written. Steve had just come up with that two days beforehand. We hadn’t recced it, hadn’t looked at it and so I literally went through a 24 – 36 hour period of we need to organise the tides correct.”

Caffrey went on: “So yeah, that particular scene – I think it was Tom and Cillian [Murphy] that sort of worked out the scene, that they fire their guns together and both fall over.”

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He added: “So pretty much the bones of the scene that Steve had written was there, but you know just through production reasons, you kind of have to approach things in a different way.”

This latest episode, featuring the return of Alfie Solomons, was the last in the fifth series of the programme.