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Binge watching is great for the greedy, but it has left some of us feeling a little… unsated. You wait over a year for a new series of your favourite show to arrive, but in less than a week you’ve decimated it all, and have to find new ways of re-living the episodes.
The appetite for cult TV is all-consuming, and someone, somewhere, was bound to come up with a new way to package it. And so, here it is: ‘Feasty Blinders’, a copyright-law-swerving immersive night out inspired by the BBC’s 1920s gangster drama, ‘Peaky Blinders’. What do the Shelby family have to do with food? Not a lot, they prefer a meal in a dram glass – but let’s not ruin their fun.
The concept? A secret location has been taken over ‘by order of the Peaky *fookin* Blinders’, and you’re invited for a sit-down meal where Shelby impersonators pop out at random intervals, acting out scenes from the show. The first hour is bottomless drinks (jugs of an identified cocktail, shared with the table). And after that, the prices go straight from nil to nobloodyway – think £7 for a beer.
The food? Not terrible, but not great either. A ticket gets you three courses (a sort-of relevant main of beef or faggots and peas for the meat eaters, and a random but filling chickpea stew for the veggies). All the tables are set around the band. They’re a gypsy swing outfit dressed like a line-up of Jack Sparrows who bellow out Nick Cave, Tom Waits and the odd Dolly Parton tune to keep up the energy – most of the time, they succeed.
Interludes from the ‘Peaky’ cast don’t really amount to a performance, but the crowd lost it for ‘Alfie Solomon’, who was almost as big a scene-stealer as Tom Hardy. High prices and low points aside, it was rowdier than a night in The Garrison. Kitten heels were kicked off, tables were moved and the ‘dance floor’ became a sea of sequins and beautifully awkward men snapping their suspenders along with the double bass. It’s a joy to see all the weird cross sections of London life going feral on a Wednesday, even if all they have in common is an unhealthy obsession with Cillian Murphy. This ‘Shelby’ clan will take you for every last ha’penny, but they know how to throw a fookin’ party.