Could Line of Duty's Vicky McClure join Peaky Blinders?

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The 35-year-old, who is best known for playing DI Kate Fleming in Jed Mercurio’s hugely gripping police drama Line of Duty, confessed earlier this year that she had auditioned for “every series” of Peaky Blinders so far – but had failed to ever land a part.

“I’ve never got it,” she told Red magazine. “Although work is regular, it doesn’t always go my way.”

However, Knight admitted that he was “surprised” that McClure had never been cast in Peaky Blinders – and hinted it was something he would consider.

“I’ve worked with her and I think she is brilliant,” he told The Mirror. “She would be great.”

McClure wouldn’t be the only Line of Duty star to cross over into Tommy Shelby’s dark world of organised crime, with Stephen Graham having also been confirmed for a role in either series six or seven of Peaky Blinders – although his role is currently a closely guarded secret.

The fifth series of Peaky Blinders, which sees the show bounce up onto BBC 1, sees Tommy get sucked into the world of politics as he goes toe to toe with Oswald Mosley – a notorious real-life figure who led the British Union of Fascists from the early 1930s.

“The story of the Peaky Blinders and of the Shelby family gets woven into the political fabric of Britain and Europe as the 1920’s end and the thirties begin. Tommy Shelby faces the darkest force he has ever faced and his struggle is as relevant today as it was then,” explained Knight.

At a screening in London, he added: “The things that were happening in the time that we’re setting the series have an unbelievable resonance to what’s going on now.”

Peaky Blinders returns to BBC 1 later this summer