The third season of Peaky Blinders ended on an almighty cliffhanger after a shock twist that saw Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby reveal that the family were to be arrested. Surely not?

Thankfully, we're not only going to be heading back to Birmingham for a fourth season, but also a fifth.

While we wait impatiently, here's everything you need to know so far about the next couple of seasons:

Peaky Blinders season 4 release date - when will it return?

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BBC Two renewed the Steven Knight-created crime drama just before the end of its third season in May 2016, and the confirmed release date is now 15 November. In other words: very soon.

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Cillian Murphy confirmed at the start of this year that Peaky Blinders series four would start shooting in March.

The last series finished shooting back in January 2016 and screened at the start of May, suggesting that the new series could be with us in the last quarter of 2017.

"I'm very, very excited because I'm just completing episode six of series four, which again I think is the best yet," he said. "I'm loving it and it's not like work, it's not like a labour.

"I love doing it, and the boys are coming back and they're loving the scripts, and we start shooting in March."

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Sure enough, filming shots began to emerge in March - revealing what happens next for the Shelbys after that cliffhanger.

It looks like Tommy is back with a vengeance, too - opening fire on the streets of Brum in explosive new images.

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Filming on the fourth series officially wrapped three months later, on June 10, with director David Caffrey (Line of Duty, Prime Suspect 1973) confirmed as being behind the camera.

Knight will write all of the episodes - with series four once again expected to span six episodes. We're expecting it to follow on Netflix in the US.

Cillian Murphy announced the show's renewal by saying: "Tommy Shelby is one of the most intense, challenging characters I've had the opportunity to play.

"I'm particularly grateful that Steven's original, dynamic writing and the long form series allow me to explore Tommy in depth. I very much look forward to Tommy's evolution over the next two chapters."

Knight added: "I am genuinely thrilled at the response to the third series of the show. The prospect of writing series four and five is truly exciting.

"This is a real passion project for me and I look forward to telling more stories of the Shelby family."

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Peaky Blinders series 4 trailer: Is there any footage?

Yes! The first official trailer for series four dropped in late September, with the Shelbys in dire peril and Aunt Polly (Helen McCrory) apparently facing death by hanging. "They're coming for us all," warns Tommy. "We don't get to decide who lives or dies."

preview for Peaky Blinders Series 4 Trailer BBC

Peaky Blinders cast - who will appear?

There are few details about the full cast of season 4 and 5 so far, but we're expecting all the regulars to return.

These include not only Cillian Murphy but Helen McCrory as Polly, Paul Anderson as Arthur, Sophie Rundle as Ada, Joe Cole as John - and, of course, Tom Hardy as mad, bad and dangerous-to-know Alfie Solomons.

"Of course [he'll be back] – we can't do it without Alfie," said writer Knight.

Charlotte Riley will also reprise her role of aristocratic widow May Carleton - last seen in series two - and was snapped on-set with Cillian Murphy in May, 2017.

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There'll be a couple of high-profile new additions. Adrien Brody - yes, actual Oscar winner Adrien Brody - will join Peaky Blinders in a part written especially for him, a character described as the biggest threat yet to the Shelby clan.

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Aiden Gillen - Littlefinger off of Game of Thrones - is also on board, playing another new character: Aberama Gold, a hard-nut gypsy who is said to be an uneasy ally of Tommy Shelby.

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Both Aberama and his son, Bonnie the champion boxer, will apparently survive the events of the fourth series, as it's already been confirmed that both characters will appear in the following fifth run too.

Playing Bonnie is Jack Rowan - the rising star seen in Channel 4's Born to Kill- who told Digital Spy that he's "over the moon" to have joined the cast.

Cherrelle Skeete and Esther Smith have also both been cast in supporting roles. Both are known for performing in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

One face not returning is Alexander Siddig, who played Aunt Polly's love interest – the artist Ruben Oliver – in the previous third series.

"They have a way of moving on, three years or something, every time they start a new season," Siddig told Digital Spy. "As far as I know I'm not involved."

What will happen next?

The new season will pick up six months after we last saw the Shelby family, and the gangsters are out of prison and running the streets once again.

According to a tease from the BBC, series four opens with Tommy receiving a mysterious letter on Christmas Eve which tells him that the Peaky Blinders are in "danger of annihilation".

"As the enemy closes in, Shelby flees his country house and returns to the streets of Small Heath, Birmingham where a fight for survival begins…."

Cillian Murphy has also teased season four by saying that "everything has changed" after that finale.

In a BBC interview, Murphy addressed Tommy's future relationship with his family in the next season.

"I think his family think that he's betrayed them, and it will be up to Tommy to demonstrate to them that he hasn't betrayed them, and that he has a bigger plan," he said.

"The question is what that bigger plan is. Who is he going to call? What's going to happen to the family? Can he ever get that level of trust or love back again?"

The stylish key art for the new season shows the Shelbys united, so it looks as though Tommy will somehow earn their trust and loyalty back.

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Of what's next for Tommy after reassembling his clan, Murphy said: "I think he will never stop. Because of what happened to him in the First World War, I think it's never going to stop. He'll just always be this man searching for something.

"I think that even if he achieved all this material wealth and he achieves some sort of position of power… I don't see him retiring with a pipe and slippers, that's for sure."

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Peaky Blinders movie: Could it happen?

Series creator Steven Knight and executive producer Caryn Mandabach previously told Digital Spy that there had been discussions about a possible film spin-off - but would series star Cillian Murphy be up for moving it to the big screen?

Speaking to Deadline about the prospect, Murphy said: "I'm sort of ambivalent about it. I'm sort of like, 'Eh, yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure'.

"I love the idea sort of theoretically, but it has to come at the right time, you know? You can't alienate the beautiful democratic thing of television where everyone just watches it," he added.

"Cinema is trickier because you gotta pay your $10, you gotta leave the kids at home. You've got to do all of that, so it's different and also you have to compress the story into probably just an event rather than the whole arc that we've normally been doing."

The actor summed up: "It's kind of a sexy idea, but I'll reserve judgement until the idea is presented to me."

He later touched upon the topic again, telling usat Esquire Townhouse: "I think Steve [Knight] has some ideas. You'd have to be careful, but I'd be curious to do it."

From: Digital Spy