Peaky Blinders (TV Series)
Strategy (2019)
Helen McCrory: Polly Gray
Photos
Quotes
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Mother Superior : May I ask what this meeting is about?
[Polly places a folder on the table]
Thomas Shelby : The Grace Shelby Foundation is the biggest single source of funding for this charitable institution, devoted to the care of the orphaned girls of South Birmingham, yeah?
Mother Superior : For which we give thanks.
Thomas Shelby : Uh-huh.
[he slides the folder across the table]
Aunt Polly : I have a temper similar to the one described in that report. Yet unlike you, I wait until I'm matched in size.
Mother Superior : Whose report?
Aunt Polly : The testimony of children.
[Mother Superior opens the folder]
Mother Superior : Who have they spoken to?
Aunt Polly : You'd have them only speak to God.
Mother Superior : God be their witness.
Thomas Shelby : There is God, and there are the Peaky Blinders. This is Sparkhill, we're in Small Heath. We're much, much closer at hand than God.
Aunt Polly : And we have heard terrible things.
Mother Superior : We have in this place children of the worst sort. They lie as easily as breathe.
Aunt Polly : You had a child half-black. You made her wash with a different soap.
Mother Superior : Mr. Shelby, your own sins are legend.
Thomas Shelby : Our sins? Our sins, against the beating of children with bricks and hoses? Our sins? Our sins...
[he pulls out a small vial, pours some powder into his hand, and blows it across the table at Mother Superior]
Thomas Shelby : ... against the black child who hanged herself for fear of your temper?
Mother Superior : I do not see how...
Thomas Shelby : You do not see?
[he snatches Mother Superior's glasses off her face and smashes them on the table]
Thomas Shelby : Now put 'em on. Put 'em on your face, or it'll be your eyes that are broken. Please don't imagine that I won't use this minute to do it, or that I am afraid of your prayers or your crosses.
[she hesitates, then puts the shattered glasses back on]
Aunt Polly : You see the world broken. Like those beaten children will.
Thomas Shelby : Now look at me.
[no response]
Thomas Shelby : Look at me.
[no response]
Thomas Shelby : LOOK AT ME!
[Mother Superior fearfully raises her eyes to Tommy's]
Thomas Shelby : Funding withdrawn.
Aunt Polly : All children to be taken into our own institutions.
Mother Superior : You have no say in where the children--
[Polly suddenly draws a dagger and points it in Mother Superior's face]
Aunt Polly : If I come for you--and I still might yet decide to come for you--I will wear high heels so you can hear my approach on the cobblestones and have time to repent. You listen for my footsteps.
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Mother Superior : You wanted to speak to us, Mr. Shelby?
Thomas Shelby : Yep.
Mother Superior : All of us?
Thomas Shelby : Yeah.
Mother Superior : At 6:30 in the morning?
Thomas Shelby : [impatiently] Yes.
[he and Polly light cigarettes]
Mother Superior : We don't smoke in here.
Thomas Shelby : Well, I fucking do.
Mother Superior : Nor do we use language.
Aunt Polly : Nor do we find fault in the innocent. Yet you do. You fucking do.
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Aunt Polly : Tommy, I'm 45 years old today.
Thomas Shelby : 45 years old and still breaking hearts, eh?