David Bianculli

Stephen Knight wrote such a challenging and nuanced role for him as gangster Tommy Shelby that it wasn't surprising at all that when the series concluded, Murphy was tapped to star as J. Robert Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan.

It also wasn't surprising, if you devoured all six seasons of Peaky Blinders, that Murphy would be not only willing but eager to revisit the character of Tommy Shelby one last time.

Especially when the script is written by night and brings the story to a dramatic conclusion.

The drama in The Immortal Man is provided by both personal and historical challenges.

We last saw Tommy Shelby in the final episode of Peaky Blinders in the 1930s.

Prohibition had been repealed in the U.S., the Nazi party was rising in Germany, and Tommy's volatile brother, Arthur, was about to die.

The movie Peaky Blinders' The Immortal Man jumps ahead to November 1940, when England already is at war with Germany.

A munitions factory staffed by women in Birmingham, Tommy's hometown, is bombed by aerial strikes from the Nazis and claims more than 100 victims.

Tommy has long since secluded himself far away, isolated in a remote farmhouse, haunted by wartime memories and what he fears are family ghosts.

But the bombing brings a visit from his sister Ada, played by Sophie Rundle.

She informs him not only of the devastation to Birmingham, but the fact that his estranged son has taken control of his old gang the Peaky Blinders and is making new and dangerous moves and alliances.

Tommy would prefer to stay distant and uninvolved.

But the recklessness of his son Duke, played by Barry Keoghan, leaves him little choice.

Duke meets with Beckett, a British Nazi sympathizer played by Tim Roth, who finds in Duke an important and agreeable collaborator.

Their meeting begins with Beckett handing Duke a British pound note.

Once that's in play, very early on, Tommy Shelby finds himself having to take sides and do battle.

Either defending or betraying his own country, and either saving or opposing his own son.

The stakes couldn't be much higher.

Or, in writer Stephen Knight's hands, more unpredictable or gripping.

He always populates his dramas with terrific actors and vibrant characters.