THE RISING TIDE (PEAKY BLINDERS, SERIES FIVE)

Season Five of 'Peaky Blinders' finds Steven Knight back in very ambitious territory.

After a nicely judged fourth series which focused on the basic dynamics of a classic gangland feud, Knight risks it all by going back to melding together the Shelby's gangland dealings with their role in global historical events.

(SPOILERS ALERT!!)

Having seen off the might of Luca Changretta by turning his Mafia associates against him, Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby has taken on the cloak of respectability by becoming a Labour MP.

But it's not high office he has his sights set on.

It is stopping the rising tide of fascism in Europe and specifically on Britain's own doorstep.

Tommy being Tommy, though, he doesn't do it the simple way.

Season Five begins with the Shelbys, though, under threat from a gang calling themselves the Angels of Retribution.

The Peaky Blinders send Aidan Gillen's Aberama Gold and Daryl McCormack's Isiah Jesus along to deal with them.

Arthur's son, Harry Kirton's Finn Shelby insists on coming along for the ride as he is eager to prove himself to his fellow Peaky Blinders but he is wounded in the arm during the confrontation.

With the Wall Street crash occurring, Finn Cole's Michael Shelby, who is in charge of the Shelby Corporation's American interests, returns to Birmingham with his new wife, Anya Taylor Joy's sassy Gina Grey who comes from a family of bootleggers.

Michael, however, is quickly losing the trust and confidence of Tommy and the other family members - having said nothing about Polly's dealings with Luca Changretta in the previous series and then lost them a tonne of money on Wall Street.

Linda, meanwhile, is frustrated that Tommy has put Arthur in the role of chair of the family business, so he can distance himself from any of the dirt associated with the Shelby Corporation's activities.

Tommy's connection to that criminal activity risks being exposed during an interview with Elliott Cowan's journalist Michael Levitt but he ruthlessly moves to shut the story down.

There's another brush with death for Tommy, though, when he wakes up and sees a scarecrow in one of his fields dressed as him.

When he goes out to see it, Tommy soon realises the field has been booby-trapped with landmines and has to save his son Charles in the process.

It emerges the IRA has also foiled a possible attempt on the life of Michael in Ireland as he returns to the US.

Charlene McKenna's Captain Swing alerts Tommy that Michael was abducted by the same people who have targeted him.

He urges the IRA leader to let Michael go unharmed.

It soon transpires the gang targeting Tommy is the infamous Glasgow loyalist Billy Boys, led by Brian Gleeson's Jimmy McCavern, who launch an attack on Aberama and his boxer son Bonnie.

Aberama is injured but Bonnie dies after he is rather shockingly crucified.

With Tommy also troubled by dreams of a black cat, signifying a traitor in his midst, the finger of suspicion is wrongfully pointed by Aberama at Packy Lee's Johnny Dogs.

While his marriage to Linda falls apart and he succumbs to drug abuse and drink, Arthur is sent to Glasgow with Johnny Dogs when Aberama ignores his lover Polly's advice to lay low.

He decides instead to avenge his son's murder with an attack on the Billy Boys.

Tommy, meanwhile, starts to forge an apparent political alliance with Sam Claflin's Sir Oswald Mosley while nurturing links to a Triad gang dealing in opium.

His dalliance with fascism attracts the interest of Neil Maskell's Winston Churchill who is assured by Tommy it is not a case of him being converrex to the far right but infiltrating it with the purpose of defeating it.

Aberama's thirst for vengeance, however, puts both these ventures at risk as Tommy seeks to make peace with the Billy Boys because of their links to Mosley.

Will Tommy's elaborate plan to get close enough to Mosley to have him assassinated succeed?

As with the third series, there's an awful lot going on in Series Five as Knight walks away from the "back to basics" approach of Series Four.

Simmering tensions within the Shelby family are fused with the rise of fascism, the introduction of an infamous Glasgow sectarian gang, the Triads, a bloody tale of vengeance, the opium trade, disintegrating marriages, the IRA and the Wall Street crash.

That's a lot of spinning plates and inevitably some of those plates fall with Knight unable to keep them all under control.

There's a sense, however, that like a lot of penultimate series of a lot of popular TV dramas, narrative arcs are being constructed for resolution in the final series.

Knight's ambition to link the Shelbys to wider historic events of the time once again comes up short and stretches credulity.

For example, Tommy's new found respectability as an MP doesn't quite convince - given the savage reputation he has built in Birmingham as a gangland leader who hasn't exactly hidden his profession 

Nor does the assassination plot around Mosley - it all seems a bit Scooby Doo, even if it is thrillingly choreographed in the final episode by director Anthony Byrne.

As you'd expect, though, Byrne delivers a stylish show with the help of cinematographer Si Bell, costume supervisor Rachel Nott, production designer Nicole Northridge and film editor Paul Knight. 

The soundtrack is as eclectic as ever with tracks from Anna Calvi and David Byrne, Black Sabbath, Nadine Shah, The Darts, Joy Division, Radiohead, IDLES and Bob Dylan.

However despite the best efforts of the cast, the fifth series pulls its audience all over the place just like the third, hopping around like a demented frog.

Murphy remains strangely charismatic for a cool, calculating and ultimately ruthless gangster.

While McCrory and particularly Anderson do little to hide their characters shortcomings, they continue to engage the audience's sympathies.

Finn Cole does plenty to suggest Michael is one to watch, while other series regulars like Kate Phillips, Harry Kirton, Sophie Rundle, Packy Lee, Ned Dennehy, Tom Hardy, Aidan Gillen and Natasha O'Keeffe as Tommy's ex-prostitute wife Lizzie more than justify their involvement.

Emmett J Scanlan is introduced as Billy Grade, another character to keep an eye on, who is a singer and ex-footballer involved in the fixing of matches for the Peaky Blinders.

Anya Taylor Joy is a wonderful addition to the cast as Gina, the savvy wife of Michael and Cosmo Jarvis is effective as an old war comrade of Tommy's whose assistance is called upon in the assassination plot.

Sam Claflin's Sir Oswald Mosley is hard to warm to which is not surprising 

But he is so dislikeable, it is hard to fathom why so many people would be drawn to his toxic brand of far right politics.

The normally reliable Brian Gleeson also struggles a little with the Glaswegian accent of Jimmy McCavern which ultimately detracts from his performance.

But ultimately what lets series five down is the sense that Knight is building towards something that we are not yet privy to, giving the impression that he is not in full control of his spinning plates.

Series six may prove us wrong.

But there is a lot of work to do before 'Peaky Blinders' can prove that.

(Series five of 'Peaky Blinders' was broadcast on BBC1 from August 25-September 22, 2019)