Taking On The Peaky Blinders, And London Charity Shops

With an invite to Peaky Blinders: The Rise coming up, I hit the charity shops of Crystal Palace to find a 1920s inspired number to fit in with the Tommy Shelby's of the world.
- Tickets to Peaky Blinders: The Rise were gifted
- Footage of Peaky Blinders: The Rise was provided courtesy of their PR team
Peaky Blinders: The Rise Review
While the tickets for this event were gifted, it was not in exchange for a review, so the following is completely my own opinion. I'll also be trying not to give away spoilers.
Right before I went to the event, I looked up reviews so I would have a foundation of what would be happening and found a number of reviews that were very critical of the show. The main accusations were that it was 'light on story and drama' and that there wasn't enough to do.
From my experience, neither of those were true so I can only assume that either the event organisers read those reviews and changed things up, or the people that wrote them were not the 'joiners' they said they were.
Now, I would say that if you're like me and you know absolutely nothing about Peaky Blinders, the beginning is hard to follow. There are apparently similarities to the TV show plot, according to Jenny, but that went right over my head as I've never watched it and hadn't looked it up beforehand. So the first 1/3 of the event was a little confusing and seemed quite complicated, but after that, it clicked and I was having the best time. Also I make a joke in the video about dressing up not being necessary, but I wish they made sure people had to make more of an effort, even if they provided a couple people with cheap hats or something - at Dirty Dancing pretty much everyone was dressed up and it made such a difference to the immersion. Also, you can't buy any food there, which wasn't clearly stated in their FAQs, just hinted at. I luckily ate beforehand, but Jenny hadn't and she was starving by the time we left at about 9pm.
The reason I poo-poo the reviews is because Jenny and I grabbed a drink from one of the bars when we walked in, and didn't grab another till it was all over - we had no time where we weren't listening to someone or doing something. We were being directly beckoned in groups by actors to go into different rooms so it wasn't even hard to join in. If they ask someone to do something, VOLUNTEER. It's even more fun to be given your own specific missions. The actors were great too, they never once broke character and it's actually impressive how they do move the story along in time, and they made full use of the different sections of the venue.
The amazing thing is, you don't know everything that's going on all the time. We were all brought together for key events, but bits in between there's lots to get involved in so you could easily do this event multiple times and have a different experience.
My recommendation is, talk to a few of the characters and help them out, but at some point lock onto one and follow the story through with them. It means you can enjoy a complete storyline - which might help negate those two star review criticisms. For example, I helped out Michael, then the gypsy character, then Michael again, then Grace, and eventually stuck with Grace all the way through.
So, overall, yes this does have the That London Life stamp of approval. We had a wonderful time and I'd even be tempted to go back and see how Michael's story turned out.
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S U B T I T L E S
I'm adding English subtitles to all my videos, but I would love help translating them into other languages to make these videos more accessible to others! If you would be willing to help me, please email [e-mail]

[@willywilly6490]

what a look Eleana, what a mini-tour, what a video !!

[@MariaFrancaSerrau]

Love this video! Beautiful charity shops and what a great idea that “Peaky Blinder”live event! ❤️❤️

[@ThatLondonLife]

Right?? I've seen it work for films so amazing to see how it works for TV shows too. Though picking a show set in winter and holding it in summer was an interesting decision lol

[@MariaFrancaSerrau]

@@ThatLondonLife 😹. It was indeed! Can’t wait for the other videos❤️❤️

[@evancortez2]

I think if I wanted to research 1920s fashion I'd just watch lots of "Downton Abbey" :)

[@JadePogson]

Hi, I’m looking at getting tickets! :) just not sure if the VIP experience would be worth the extra £40 per ticket so wondered if you knew anyone that had done it? :)

[@ThatLondonLife]

I did the regular experience so I'm not 100% sure what the "extra" performance is, or what it means to be in Tommy's inner circle, but the standard one was great by itself. I still interacted with Tommy and wasn't made to feel like I was missing out on anything. No one used the Snug when I went, seems like it was more a place if you didn't want to get too involved in the action and just wanted to sit and chat and drink.

[@stephenlawrence8991]

Love it