Comedian Jasper Carrott gave Peaky Blinders creator Steve Knight first TV writing gig

Can you imagine Peaky Blinders without Cillian Murphy?

That’s hard enough but how about the BBC’s hit period crime drama with gangster Thomas Shelby played by Jasper Carrott?

It sounds too weird to be true but there was a time when the comedian could have had a starring role in the gritty series set in his native Birmingham.

After the success of An Audience With Jasper Carrott in 1978, the Brummie was hardly off our screens for the best part of 30 years.

“That’s about right,” nods the recently-turned 74-year-old. “I was the right person, right time, right place.

“I didn’t want to get stuck in a rut, so after An Audience With I did a couple of specials and then I went into Carrott’s Lib which was quite a political programme.

“I did a couple of seasons there and then did The Detectives with Robert Powell, that was very fortunate because do you know who wrote it?

“It was Steve Knight, who of course writes Peaky Blinders.

“I gave him his first chance writing for TV in 1989 and even then we were talking about the Peaky Blinders as it was a Birmingham thing.

“I’d never heard of them but his father was a Peaky Blinder, and he was telling me he wanted to write this series.

“It took him 25 years but blimey has it been successful. And what a cast.

“The irony is it’s not shot in Birmingham at all, it’s shot in Liverpool, Leeds and the Black Country but it’s very successful in America where it’s a real underground hit.”

Speaking of The Detectives, did Jasper bond with co-star Robert Powell over their shared love of football or clash over Powell being a Manchester United fan while Jasper’s a Birmingham City devotee?

“Football was a big part of our lives, and in fact the second sketch of The Detectives was all about a Birmingham City/Man United FA Cup Final and this bloke had taken us hostage,” recalls Jasper, who’s currently touring the UK.

“It was probably the best episode we did because we were supporting Birmingham City and United on television in front of this hostage-taker.”

Jasper’s most recent regular TV gig was as the host of the BBC game show Golden Balls and I’m stunned they stopped making it.

It was addictive with its duplicity over the chance to “split or steal” – share the cash or pocket it all after deceiving your opponent.

“I did about 300 programmes but one of the reasons they took it off was because it was too expensive to make, we could only do about eight shows a week because it was so involved,” explains Jasper.

“I didn’t really intend to be a game show host – I’m a raconteur don’t you know! – but they hit my Achilles’ heel, which is money!

“My agent said, ‘This is the amount of money they’re going to pay you per programme’ and I said, ‘Is this in lira?’ and when he said, ‘No, that’s pounds’ I thought I’d give it a go!

“I was with it for three years and I learned such a lot about human nature. God, I thought I knew everything about humans – if I was in court, as soon as they walked into court I’d know instantly if they were guilty or not guilty.

“I could not believe how good people were at lying over split or steal. People used to bet on that – the Man United team bet on who’d split or steal! – but I could rarely tell what people were going to do.

“It was a real eye-opener. I queried whether I should be doing it but there was only one time I thought, ‘No, this isn’t right’ and that was when we brought back people who’d been stolen from, so they knew what it felt like.

“We had this one show when we ended up with prize money of £115,000 and it was a young girl and this bloke. It was towards Christmas and he had five pounds to buy his kids presents and they both swore blind they were going to split.

“He was convinced she was going to, and so was I, but she stole and he split so he lost out on almost 60 grand and was absolutely distraught.”

Jasper’s daughter is the actress Lucy Davis, best known as Dawn in The Office before she landed a scene-stealing supporting role in the huge DC superhero film Wonder Woman.

And her proud dad says: “That got her a part in a TV series called Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, an update of the 90s show Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

“Netflix and Warner Bros have put it back on the air and they’ve revamped it – very much darker and for a more mature audience- and it’s been wonderfully successful.

“So she’s signed up for that for the next God knows how long which is wonderful because she had a kidney transplant 22 years ago, my wife was the donor, and it’s still going strong so I’m really pleased.

“She’d been successful for many years but not to this extent, you do a big-budget superhero movie and things just explode, and she had really good reviews.

“It wasn’t a major part but it was enough to get people talking about her and this Sabrina thing has really taken off, so I’m well chuffed for her.”

Jasper Carrott’s Stand Up And Rock is currently touring the UK. For information and tickets visit www.jaspercarrott.com