A Peaky Blinders spin-off movie bring magnetic Cillian Murphy back to the screen as ruthless Tommy Shelby, writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

Adding to the endless list of spin-off movies to major TV series, this month Peaky Blinders gets the treatment with a new film streaming on Netflix.

Titled The Immortal Man, it brings Cillian Murphy back to the screen as Tommy Shelby, the ruthless Birmingham gangster who has become one of modern TV’s most iconic characters.

Set in the soot-stained streets of Britain in the early 20th century, Peaky Blinders followed Shelby and the pack of mobsters he leads in a brutal world dominated by criminal turf wars.

Over six seasons Peaky Blinders only got better and better before coming to its violent crescendo in 2022.

But it was not the end of Shelby’s story. 

This new film picks up in the years following the finale of the series.

Now set in World War II, Shelby becomes entangled in a Nazi plot to flood Britain with counterfeit money.

As he was in the series, Murphy is magnetic in the leading role and once again makes the character his own.

Essential viewing? Probably not for general audiences but for the die-hard fans of Peaky Blinders it’s a nice cherry on top of a great show.

I doubt we’ve seen the end of this franchise yet.

WHEN Rupert Murdoch divorced Jerry Hall in 2022, rumour has it the settlement included a strict cause she was not to talk to the writers of Succession and give them ideas for their hit drama-comedy series.

Loosely based around the dynastic antics of the media mogul’s family, the HBO Max series became one of the best shows on modern TV and drew huge audiences.

It’s no surprise then that Netflix has decided to cash in on that popularity with a new documentary series that is about the real-life family. 

Streaming now, Dynasty: The Murdochs, is a very bingeable four-part series that explores the strange and exuberant lives of this billionaire family

There’s a look back at how the Australian mogul built his sprawling news and business empire before the show then pivots to the ongoing feud between his three children all competing for the crown.

Sounds a little familiar?

I was a little underwhelmed with the surface level access to the family’s inner workings here, but the doco is still an entertaining and informative look at the power plays that made the Murdochs what they are today.

IN an age where drama series about serial killers and criminals are pumped out so often it feels like they’re on conveyor belts, it’s refreshing to see one set itself apart by not taking itself too seriously.

That’s the case in Deadloch, a drama-comedy streaming on Amazon Prime Video that’s just dropped its second season.

The first series was set in the fictional town of Deadloch, Tasmania. The locals are preparing for the biggest event on their calendar, an annual winter festival when a body turns up on the beach, sparking a major murder investigation and throwing the populace into chaos.

The search for the killer brings together two very different detectives.

There’s Dulcie (played by Kate Box), a meticulous, by-the-book cop who must follow every thread to its very end.

Then there’s Eddie (played by Madeleine Sami), a disorganised but effective investigator sent from Darwin to tackle the case.

The show became an international hit thanks to a witty and compelling script, lifted by a sense of dark, Aussie humour that parodies much of the crime dramas seen elsewhere in the streaming world.

Season two moves away from Tasmania, this time going to Darwin where the team must investigate an even more personal murder: one of Eddie’s own family.

Amusing and engaging, Deadloch is one of Australia’s most impressive streaming exports and lightens up a genre that can feel like it’s drowning in dour cliches.

Leave it to Aussies to have a laugh in even the most stressful of situations.