10 Long TV Running Gags You Never Even Noticed

Peaky Blinders might not be a show where you'd expect to see anything in the way of a major running joke, and that's likely why this recurring character gag is rather on the sly side.

While recently promoting the show's final season in an interview with the BBC, star Cillian Murphy confessed a gag that's been part of the show since the beginning: his character Tommy Shelby is never seen eating on-screen.

Obviously it's a given that Shelby, being a living human being and all, does eat, but Murphy confirmed that once the production team realised Tommy hadn't been seen eating in the first two seasons, they opted to keep it going for the remainder. Murphy said:

"I remember we had gotten through the first two series and then we realised that Tommy has never eaten. We've never seen Tommy eat. Like he sat down at tables but has never consumed a morsel, so then we made it a kind of a running gag. So throughout the 36 hours of television Tommy Shelby never consumes anything except I think once he consumes a sprig of mint when he's with his son."

In its own way it subtly implies Tommy's obsession with his life's work, something a small quarter of fans picked up on years ago, but which was only recently confirmed as an intentional character flourish by Murphy and creator Steven Knight.