While there are plenty of superb industry writers giving us delectable series to devour, few are quite as exceptional—or as busy—as Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight. A prolific screenwriter, director, and creator, Knight is known for his distinct style of blending intense character studies with super-gritty, often historical or criminal environments focusing on class culture, meticulous world-building, and high-volume, self-written scripts. As consumers, we’re never really too far off from a new project. He’s given us 6 new series in the past 7 years, and more are on the way.
As we gear up for the highly anticipated premiere of the Peaky Blinders movie sequel this week on Netflix, keep your flat caps and razor blades close, because we’re exploring six other must-see series penned by Steven Knight. Our top show stars an Oscar nominee in mysterious period drama that deserves its recognition.
6
SAS Rogue Heroes
War history with a jolt of anarchy
Jack O’Connell (Unbroken), Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones), and Connor Swindells (Sex Education) star in SAS: Rogue Heroes, a riotous, turbocharged retelling of how Britain’s most elite rebel fighting force emerged. In the hit action series, which boasts a 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, Knight swaps out his stiff, upper-lip stoicism for punk-rock chaos and presents us with a band of misfit soldiers who are all about swearing, disregarding the rules, and drinking way too much.
Set during WWII, an eccentric young officer is hospitalized after a training exercise accident. Bored, he devises a radical plan after concluding that the accepted war methods are wrong. So, he recruits the toughest, boldest, and brightest soldiers for a small undercover unit, whose sole purpose is to create mayhem behind enemy lines. More rebellious than anything else, they’re as complicated, flawed, and reckless as they are astonishingly brave and heroic.
SAS: Rogue Heroes is available to stream on MGM+.
SAS: Rogue Heroes
- Release Date
-
2022 – 2025-00-00
- Network
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BBC One
- Directors
-
Tom Shankland, Stephen Woolfenden
5
Great Expectations
This one’s a pearl-clutcher
A six-part historical drama, Great Expectations is based on the 1861 novel by Charles Dickens. Reimagined by Knight as a dark, snarling, macho beast of an adaptation, the limited series is riddled with adults-only content, like spanking, swearing, sex work, suicide, self-harm, and plenty of opium, all of which feed into its bad boy allure. The show is executive produced by Knight alongside Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott.
Our plot follows the coming-of-age journey of Pip (Dunkirk’s Fionn Whitehead), an orphan blacksmith’s apprentice who rises into high society as a “gentleman” after a secret benefactor provides a fortune, only to discover the dark truth behind his wealth and true love. Expect Knight’s trademark exploration of dark themes like addiction, violence, and corruption, which were unexplored in the original novel.
Great Expectations is available to stream on Hulu.
Great Expectations
- Release Date
-
2023 – 2023-00-00
- Network
-
BBC One, Hulu
- Directors
-
Lucy Forbes
4
House of Guinness
A lavish, Irish, historical version of Succession
House of Guinness is an 8-part period drama that dramatizes the story of Ireland’s most iconic brewing family, with a heavy focus on the family’s lust for life. While inspired by real family members, Knight blends historical fact with fictionalized intrigue and creates intense family dynamics and high-stakes business maneuvering.
Set in 1860s Dublin, the plot centers on the infighting, addictions, and secrets of the Guinness siblings in the wake of their father’s death, highlighting the dynasty’s wild nature while exploring how their dead father’s estate influences their scramble for power. Knight also showcases the gritty challenges of running a massive brewery enterprise, which include labor struggles, corporate strategy, and expansion. There’s also some gnarly political tension stemming from the prominently featured Irish Republican Brotherhood, who are busy protesting the family’s unionist policies and ties with England.
House of Guinness is available to stream on Netflix.
3
See
Think Daredevil overrun with tribal savagery
Aside from Peaky Blinders, one of my favorite Steven Knight series is See, a 3-part dystopian sci-fi drama set far in a brutal, primitive future where everyone is blind. As both its creator and writer, Knight’s influence is all over the place. In addition to the series’ world-building, character dynamics, and gritty, enigmatic atmosphere, he crafted an existence that relies on echolocation, scent-tracked battles, and intimate, close-quarters fighting. It is delicious.
After a 21st-century virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, fewer than 2 million people survived. When they emerged, they were blind. Several centuries later, humanity has returned to tribal, hunter-gatherer, and medieval-type societies with new ways to interact, communicate, build, provide, and survive. In this new world, vision is merely a myth… until it isn’t. One sighted man is busy traversing the landscape, impregnating women to start a new race. Jason Momoa stars in the lead as badass warrior Baba Voss, the fierce leader of the core tribe and non-biological father to twins born with the mythic ability to see. It’s now on him to protect not just his family, but also his tribe and the landscape from the evil seeking to control it.
See is currently available to stream on Apple TV.
See
- Release Date
-
2019 – 2022-00-00
- Showrunner
-
Steven Knight
- Directors
-
Steven Knight
2
A Thousand Blows
Bare-knuckle brawls and an all-female crime gang
Another Steven Knight favorite of mine is A Thousand Blows, which premiered in 2025 and has become the perfect replacement for Peaky Blinders fans. The well-executed period drama features a gritty character-driven narrative with outstanding performances by Adolescence stars Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty, along with Malachi Kirby of Roots.
Instead of 1900s Birmingham, we’re rooted in the muck- and mud-addled streets of London’s East End in the late 1800s and have a mouthwatering focus on area gangs and the bare-knuckle boxing scene. Don’t let the grit and blood distract you from what’s really going on here, which is a group of outsiders—i.e., the lower class—boldly and fearlessly taking what society has long denied them. Where Peaky Blinders focuses on an all-male gang, A Thousand Blows features the first all-female crime gang, the Forty Elephants, who really did exist. The 2-part series is fascinating and riveting, and thanks to the gritty gods, more is on the way.
A Thousand Blows is available to stream on Hulu.
A Thousand Blows
- Release Date
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February 21, 2025
- Network
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Disney+
- Directors
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Ashley Walters, Katrin Gebbe, Dionne Edwards, Tinge Krishnan, Nick Murphy, Coky Giedroyc
1
Taboo
A gothic fever dream
Written by Knight with father-son duo Chips and Tom Hardy, Taboo is dark, gritty, scandalously provocative, and utterly brutal, making it a must-see crime drama. It weaves espionage, colonial critique, and occult whispers right into a grimy tale of vengeance that is not for the faint of heart. It’s a little like Peaky Blinders on absinthe, with a hint of Shakespearean daddy issues.
Set in 1814 amid the War of 1812, against the tumultuous backdrop of 19th-century London and the rise of the East India Trading Company, our story follows adventurer and business mogul James Delaney (Hardy) as he returns home after being presumed dead to inherit his late father’s shipping empire. Not only does he face enemies and conspiracies, but he must also face his conniving half-sister and her husband, who, along with the EITC, seek to control the empire and eliminate James. This is old-world malevolence and seduction at its finest, and there’s more on the way.
Taboo is currently available to stream on Prime Video and Peacock.
Taboo
- Release Date
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2017 – 2017-00-00
- Network
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BBC One
- Showrunner
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Steven Knight
While Peaky Blinders is, without a doubt, Knight’s best and most obsessive series to date, it’s not the only one worth bingewatching repeatedly, and it surely won’t be his last.
