Peaky Blinders’ Harry Kirton reveals he’s still working part-time in a café as show returns for series five

PEAKY Blinders star Harry Kirton is a key member of the notorious Shelby family in the hit crime drama - but off set he still works part time in a vegan café.

The actor, 21, plays Arthur Shelby Jr's son Finn and develops a massive cocaine habit in series five as he becomes more involved in the clan's criminality.

But his real life is far removed from the fiction, with Harry telling : "I still do part-time work, you know, I like to keep in sync with the world that we live in because acting is a very…you know, you’re pretending a lot and your headspace is in this area and that.

"At the end of the day we’ve all got to pay rent and we’ve all got to do real things.

"I have a lot of passions that aren’t just acting. I like to write, I’m vegan, I’m working at a vegan cafe because I love what they’re doing. I want to eat good food, and I want to talk to people."

The upcoming fifth series of crime drama Peaky Blinders will be even bloodier — and its leading lady can’t bear to watch.

Helen McCrory, who plays Polly Shelby, matriarch of the notorious gangster family in Twenties Birmingham, has described scenes in the latest episodes as “disgusting, gratuitous violence”.

Viewers will once again be transported to the world of the Peaky Blinders gang and their boss Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy.

In the first episode bullets are sprayed, a horse brutally killed and two men shot dead.

At the series launch, Helen, 50, said: “It’s really horrible and you should look away. I did.

“I can’t watch it. I think it’s disgusting, gratuitous violence.”

But the veteran actress is by no means saying the shocking scenes should not be included.

Instead, she believes it is the cruel reality of gangland violence just after World War One.

Helen said: “It should be horrifying and you should have the people who are responsible for the violence unable to self-medicate or having mental health problems — because it is not a natural state of affairs.

“Anybody who looks at the violence of Peaky Blinders and thinks, ‘That is exactly what I want to do’ is sick.”

Cillian, 43, whose character is affected by PTSD after serving in The Great War, added: “We’ve always talked about there being consequences of violence.

“I hope it is made to look ugly and makes you flinch or turn away.

“We are working within the limitations of the gangster genre and things are heightened.

“That is part of its appeal, so I suppose it’s balancing that.

“You see the psychological trauma that Tommy suffers — throughout the new series particularly.”

Not all the actors will be hiding behind their sofas when series five starts.

Sophie Rundle, 31, who plays Ada Shelby and has featured in other Beeb hits Gentleman Jack and Bodyguard, took great pleasure from inflicting a devastating injury on a male counterpart.

She said: “I got to knee someone in the nuts, and that was quite fun. I sort of always wanted to do that.

“I got out of this car and the stunt guy said, ‘What you’ve got to do is punch the guy’. And I was like, ‘I can’t throw a punch, but I could knee him in the b******s’. So he let me do that.”

Lots of characters in Peaky Blinders are seen dabbling in drugs.

Finn gets hopelessly hooked in the new series, having developed a taste for cocaine in earlier episodes.

The actor even had lessons on how to snort the stand-in substance given all the scenes in which Finn hoovers up narcotics.

But Harry insisted on changing the phony coke to suit his dietary requirements.

The 21-year-old actor, pictured, who is from Birmingham, said: “Finn loves to ‘play in the snow’, as they put it. It’s made out of lactose powder and three seconds before shooting, I said, ‘I can’t really have lactose powder, I’m vegan!’

“So I used icing sugar instead. I had to watch the guy do it a couple of times before I understood what was going on. But by the end of the day I definitely knew how to snort cocaine – not that I will be.

“Thankfully it is all very, very fake. Otherwise this show would take a taxing toll on me!

“That is another difference between me and Finn – he just loves his drugs.”

Just five minutes into the latest series and the first sex scene gets under way.

Helen’s character Polly is seen being pleasured by an unknown man while leaning on a dressing table in her bedroom.

And it’s not just Polly who gets some action.

Viewers will see Tommy continue to work through his fair share of lovers since the death of his wife Grace in series three.

Helen praised the writers for allowing men and women to sleep around. She said: “I think what’s interesting about Polly and Tommy is that they both are constantly looking for love.

“You’ve had Grace, she happened, she left and so it goes on.

“Each season he’s got the posh bird, then he’s got the intellectual one. She (Polly) has had the artist, then she’s had the traveller.

“Basically, they are single and they are doing what most single people do.”

Helen admitted she would not let her children watch the raunchy scenes she has filmed.

She said: “The sex scenes tend to be quite fun to film, as it’s all part of acting.

“But I would cringe if my kids were ever to watch them.

“Luckily, Peaky Blinders isn’t suitable for any child to watch.”

Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220.

We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.