Peaky Blinders season 6 pays tribute to Aunt Polly actor Helen McCrory

Peaky Blinders has paid tribute to the late actor Helen McCrory, who played Aunt Polly in the hit BBC series.

The Peaky Blinders season 6 premiere, "Black Day," ended with a message accompanied by birdsong that read, "Dedicated to the memory of Helen McCrory OBE ‘Polly Gray’"

McCrory, who played ‘Aunt Pol’ for the first five seasons of the show, passed away in April 2021. The season 6 premiere also reveals what became of Aunt Polly in the fallout from Tommy Shelby’s foiled plot to assassinate Edward Mosley, though we won’t spoil it here.

Peaky Blinders fans flocked to social media to praise the tribute to McCrory.

"Lovely tribute to the brilliant Helen McCrory on Peaky Blinders last night," one wrote on Twitter. Another said, "you will be missed," while one viewer described the episode’s treatment of Aunt Polly as "very poignant."

“What a beautiful tribute to the late Helen McCrory - aunt Pol. The birdsong at the end. An absolute icon, Queen and the heartbeat of Peaky Blinders,” journalist Charlie Webster wrote.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has revealed that the sixth (and final) season is merely "the end of the beginning."

"It's a world that has a life around the world... it's so popular, but you stop when people want it to stop, not when we want it to stop," Knight said at a recent red carpet event (H/T BBC). A Peaky Blinders movie is also in the works.

Need to catch up on the exploits of Tommy Shelby and friends? Here’s how to watch Peaky Blinders, no matter where you live.