There’s been quite a bit of construction work going on under and around the viaduct arches in Castlefield over these past couple of weeks.
And eagle-eyed fans will have spotted that’s because the Peaky Blinders are in town.
Looking almost unrecognisable to those who know our city centre, but extremely familiar for viewers of the cult-favourite BBC drama series – which follows the exploits of the Shelby crime family, lead by celebrated Irish actor Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, in the direct aftermath of the First World War – Castlefield has undergone quite the transformation to pay resemblance to the show’s setting of early-1900s Birmingham, and it’s a pretty impressive step back in time.
Filming for the sixth series of the hit show was confirmed to have already begun last month, with cast members having already been spotted outside The Plaza in Stockport and on Formby Beach earlier in February, and now production crews are getting ready to pitch-up in Manchester in the coming weeks.
So in preparation for their arrival, sets have started to take shape around the city centre.
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Several wooden scaffolds, market-style props, trader signs, sacks, barrels and more have been seen dotted around the area, with the Shelby’s famous ‘The Garrison’ pub being the most notable sight to viewers.
Fans have been taking to social media to share their snapshots of the sets.
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The Peaky Blinders set is starting to take shape in Castlefield.
Once again Manchester will be the location used for a big shootout scene, after previously the Northern Quarter and London Road Fire Station welcomed Thomas Shelby and co. pic.twitter.com/SHEilLk0Rg
Just like most sectors and industries, film and television production was inevitably shut down when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic first hit back in March 2020.
But over the past couple of months, the action has started picking back up once again.
Peaky Blinders joins the long and ever-growing list of TV shows, blockbuster films, and independent productions to be filmed in and around Greater Manchester in recent years, with everything from hit Netflix series’ The Crown, The Stranger, White Lines and The English Game, to upcoming ITV show Viewpoint – starring Noel Clarke – and more, as well as the notable stand-out Channel 4 five-part drama series It’s A Sin.
Thanks to our industrial history, canals and old-fashioned bridge arches that still remain today though, this isn’t the first time Peaky Blinders has made use of Greater Manchester towns and cities as filming locations either, as parts of previous series’ of the show have been shot at the city’s iconic Victoria Baths, as well as Bolton’s Le Mans Crescent as a double-up for 1920s London, and more.
The streets of Liverpool, and Arley Hall in Cheshire, also make up some of the other North West sights used as filming locations for the show over the years.
Spotting recognisable locations around the region while watching the beloved and critically-acclaimed show has become a regular occurrence for Mancunians since it first aired on our screens back back in 2013.
And it looks like this is only going to continue in Series 6.
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‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Emily Sergeant -
22nd February 2021 
