Cillian Murphy reveals why Tommy Shelby never eats in Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders fans have been obsessed by the fact that lead character Tommy Shelby is never seen eating on the hit BBC series.

One person tweeted during the last series: "Has anyone EVER seen Tommy Shelby eat?!! (Whisky and cigs don't count)".

Another recently said: "Has anybody ever seen Tommy Shelby eat in Peaky Blinders? Swear he's not ate a single thing in about 18 episodes".

But even though Tommy seems too busy and important running his Birmingham criminal gang to do mere mortal things such as eat and sleep, actor Cillian Murphy has broken his silence on his character's eternal hunger.

He told World Screen: "He's very complex and he's about as far away from me as a person as you can possibly get! He has that physical capability, which I certainly don't possess. It seems like he never sleeps or eats.

"In fact, over the whole four seasons so far, we never see Tom Shelby eat; a morsel never enters his mouth.

"He is all-consuming and obviously the nature of television-being that you are shooting so many episodes and so many setups per day and you have so many lines to learn-means that it does take over your life, but in a brilliant way. It's what every actor would want."

That aside, we still think Tommy should eat something.

Adding to that, 41-year-old Murphy claimed that he won't be eating anything over the next six episodes in the upcoming season.

He is also excited about season four and thinks it'll be the best yet – a grand statement if you've seen the past three.

He told On Demand Entertainment: "It's pretty powerful, we've got lots of surprises. It's soon, it's November I think."

He added to Today FM: "In the classic gangster arc, the last season was sort of all about the wealth, the house and all that material stuff. This season is sort of a return to the roots. That's about as much as I can reveal."

While there is no confirmed date for Peaky Blinders season four, it is set to return some time in November.