Before we crack on, beware that there's a couple of spoilers in here for the last series of Peaky Blinders, so if you're not totally caught up then maybe just back up right now and find us again when you've finished.

We're getting closer and closer to the fifth series of Peaky Blinders, and - seriously, if you're just testing yourself to see how far you can get without accidentally seeing the spoiler, your thrill-ride is going to have to stop now - the showrunners are confident that actually, Tom Hardy's character Alfie Solomons dying at the end of the last series won't result in a dip in quality.

"I personally believe – and I think everybody involved believes – that this is the best series yet, for all sorts of reasons," Knight told the Radio Times. "There’s a lot going on, there’s a lot of bells ringing, there’s a lot of conflict happening.

"It’s like when Sam Neill was no longer in it [after series one and two]. That felt like a loss, but you move on. You have to."

Tommy Shelby managed to become an MP at the end of the last series, and as we move into the 1930s it sounds like he's going to come face to face with dark tides rising around him. "Obviously he has political power now, and in series five he confronts fascism," Knight said. "Well, not 'confront' exactly, but that is what is happening at the time. The 1930s were all about the rise of fascism; how does Tommy Shelby respond?"

Tommy Shelby is very unlikely to spend the next series setting up a breakaway group of independent MPs, put it that way.