By order of the Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight, construction has begun on his new multimillion-pound TV and film studio in Birmingham – which is designed to put the city on the media map, create over 700 jobs, add £30m to the local economy and house Knight’s new ska music BBC drama This Town as well the Peaky Blinders film.
Eight years after Knight began working on his idea, building has started on the new studios, which will also provide a home for the band UB40, offer training for local residents to get into TV, as well as restaurants, a hotel and bars. Advanced talks are also in place for an outpost of the media industry’s most famous chain of clubs, Soho House.
But with its image of Peaky Blinders painted on the outside, the Digbeth Loc. Studios - named after the area – will also be a focal point for fans of the hit TV series about the gangland exploits of the Shelby family. Thanks to the show being aired on the BBC and globally on Netflix, fleets of flat-capped costumed fans have flocked to the city, boosting tourism by more than 25%.
“TV tourism” is big business, with Highclere Castle, Ardross Castle and Belfast all benefiting from viewers wanting to visit the locations of Downton Abbey, The Traitors and Game of Thrones.
Knight said he wanted to capitalise on that, saying his home city was known for its industrial heritage but had not as yeat had much of a media profile, “and I think Peaky has gone a long way to address that”.
“I want to launch [the studio] with the Peaky Blinders movie for obvious reasons but we’ve got a fantastic pipeline of productions,” said Knight. He said he could not yet reveal which shows and films were booked into DLS, but “there’s some absolutely brilliant stuff coming our way”.
Knight also said the Peaky film would be made in Digbeth.
The studios would provide “a huge ripple effect in all sorts of ways”, added Knight, emphasising that they were here to stay so people could establish careers in the region, with the local economy benefiting. “We want to plant an industry in Birmingham, not land like a spaceship,” he explained.
London Film Academy is also launching a new sister wing, the Birmingham Film Academy, at DLS and Knight said This Town producer Kudos would help pay to train local people.
“We’re going to be training people in the skills needed for crew. There will be work for them as the years roll by but we’re very committed to making sure local people benefit so we’re doing a scheme with Kudos and Birmingham Film Academy [where] 20% of the intake will be educated for free with fees paid by Kudos and they will be selected from specific West Midland postcodes.”
Knight – who financed much of the project himself in the early years until the council and investors came onboard – said he hoped it also helped bring new, more diverse, voices from the region to the screen “that deserve to be heard, not to tick boxes but because they’re really interesting”.
Sir Lenny Henry, whose drama Three Little Birds has been made in the Midlands, said he was “so chuffed” Knight had achieved his aim: “The idea of a world-beating studio based in Birmingham with the strong intent to create Brum-based stories, mythologies and narratives is very close to my heart.”
The first show to be made at Digbeth Loc. when it opens in July will be the BBC cookery series Masterchef.
Birmingham city council invested £1.3m to help unlock investment for Digbeth Loc. Studios. The leader of the council, Ian Ward, said: “Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders has done a tremendous amount for Birmingham. The value of film and TV locating in a city should not be underestimated.”
He said the region had “become a focal point for the creative industries” sparked partly by the 2022 Commonwealth Games and it being “our time”.
