Fascism

Who was Diana Mosley, the real historical character encountered by Tommy Shelby in season six?

Oswald and Diana Mosley were fascists and sympathisers of the Nazi party who continued to regret Britain’s role in WWII throughout their lives. They had been in favour of making peace with Nazi Germany and had planned for Oswald Mosley to become Britain’s fascist leader. Peaky Blinders season six is currently taking place in early 1934, when the real Diana was 24 years old. “When we knew Hitler, he hadn’t committed his crimes,” Diana maintained in 1977, arguing that other dictators including Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao had been responsible for more bloodshed than Hitler and yet continued to be visited – and as she saw it, endorsed – by British politicians. The usual next line about “any resemblance to persons living or dead” being purely coincidental isn’t included, for the obvious reason that several of the show’s characters don’t just bear a resemblance to persons living or dead, they’re unequivocally them. At the end of every Peaky Blinders episode comes the expected fiction disclaimer declaring that its names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.