 I always use the First World War 
 as the, sort of, you know - 
 as the sort of line. 
 And there was a Tommy 
 before the First World War. 
 And then that happened, 
 and then there's a Tommy Shelby 
 after the First World War. 
 And he's the one that we meet 
 at the beginning of series one. 
 He looked at me the wrong way. 
 It's not a good idea to look at 
 Tommy Shelby the wrong way. 
 The men that came back from that 
 conflict were...just devastated. 
 And so there was this huge societal 
 change where you had all these men 
 who had witnessed war on a scale 
 that we've never sort of...imagined. 
 It's all right. 
 It's all right. 
 And of course, back then, they were 
 just spat back into society 
 with no help. 
 For Tommy, I think what it did was - 
 he lost all faith. 
 Religion was just a joke, you know, 
 authority was just a joke. 
 You know, 
 the establishment was a joke. 
 Tommy was a clay-kicker in 
 the First World War, 
 which is basically a tunneller. 
 They tunnelled under enemy lines... 
 ..and set explosives. 
 And so, it was the most 
 claustrophobic, horrific, 
 dark job you could possibly have. 
 Like, the worst of the worst, 
 you know? 
 And he seems to turn that trauma 
 into this kind of 
 relentless ambition, 
 because he could have died at any 
 point there, 
 he's not afraid of death. 
 So, every day is just, like, 
 for free - so why not? 
 He's a fascinating character, then, 
 because he's relentless 
 and fearless. 
 To encounter him as an enemy 
 is pretty scary 
 because of that lack of fear. 
 There's no rest for me 
 in this world. 
 Perhaps in the next. 
 Also, I think he's burdened with 
 an intellect and trying to, sort of, 
 move in the world of 
 mere mortals who process stuff 
 at a much slower pace. 
 I think for Tommy, 
 it's very, very frustrating. 
 I think... 
 ..so that you don't have to. 
 I think the way Tommy operates is, 
 the smart people make the decisions, 
 and the less smart people 
 carry them out. 
 And that seems to him to be 
 the logical way of things. 
 And in his eyes, 
 Polly and him are the smart ones. 
 They make the strategy, 
 and it's carried out by the other 
 members of the family. 
  All right, you stay with us, 
  but you stay back.  Let's go! 
 I think the pre-war Tommy used 
 to smile a lot, he laughed a lot, 
 he wanted to work with horses. 
 He was very romantic. 
 And all of these things, 
 you see scratches of them, you know, 
 throughout the show and there's 
 times when he feels 
 like he's getting towards some sort 
 of healing when he's with Grace. 
 And then it's taken away again. 
 And then he retreats back into 
 that kind of shell emotionally. 
 Even though what he does 
 in all of the series - 
 a lot of the actions are obviously 
 morally and completely at odds with 
 what any of us would agree with, 
 that's why people are fascinated 
 by him, because we see in him 
 a magnified version of what 
 all humans are like. 
 And his goal, ultimately, you know, 
 to protect his family - 
 people can identify with that. 
 I feel incredibly privileged to be 
 a part of a show 
 that has incrementally improved 
 season upon season. 
 And I'm very proud that 
 we've managed to do that, you know? 
