Warning: the article contains some spoilers from last night's episode of Peaky Blinders
The first episode of the sixth and final series of Peaky Blinders aired last night, but there's a lot of talk around who is Uncle Jack.
Michael Gray's wife Gina was back for Season 6, played by Anya Taylor-Joy of Queen's Gambit fame, who was first introduced to us in Season 5.
In episode one of series six, it was revealed the head of Gina's family is the mysterious Uncle Jack, who is currently in Boston. Fans have pointed to this being the character Stephen Graham - who is set to star in the final season of the show - will inevitably play.
Graham is a well-known commodity from the likes of This Is England, Line of Duty, and The Irishman. The ending of episode one revealed Uncle Jack is on his way.
We learn he's about to board a steamer ship to the UK on a mission to import licences to 'all the best Scotch and Irish whiskey distilleries.'
Tommy Shelby tells Michael that Uncle Jack isn't travelling alone. He's joined by his wife, his mistress, the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's son and Gina.
We’re thrilled that @StephenGraham73 has joined the cast of #PeakyBlinders series 6.
📷 Matt Squire pic.twitter.com/wmBWLvlTfx— Peaky Blinders (@ThePeakyBlinder) April 29, 2021
Peaky Blinders Links To Kennedy Family
There's plenty of historical and cultural references to digest in Peaky Blinders but the mention of Uncle Jack in episode one has a clear tie to the Kennedy family.
Back in the early 1900s, Joe Kennedy Sr - father of JFK - purchased the rights to import British liquor brands to the United States, taking advantage of the end of prohibition.
In 1933 Joe Kennedy travelled to England with his wife, his mistress and the son of the US president.
Kennedy ended up being the father to nine children. Two of those were future US president John F. Kennedy, and future US Senator Bobby Kennedy.
The historical context was all but confirmed by Den Of Geek in an interview with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, before Season 6 aired.
They asked him if Gina was, in fact, a member of the Kennedy family. "Yes. No! I mean, I'm not giving that away so soon," Knight answered.
"As ever with Peaky Blinders, you look at history and you take real facts and fictionalise them. There is a resonance with Boston, with senior politicians."
"The best you can do as a writer is to take what really happened, which is always beyond anything you would dare invent, and then use that," he added.
What really happened in the 1930s with these powerful people, is something that, as a writer of fiction, you wouldn’t dare to create because it’s so insane. So it’s trying to take some of that madness and chaos of reality and put it into the story.
If history repeats itself in the popular series, Uncle Jack could pay a visit to Winston Churchill, who featured in season one, and base himself out of London.
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