Peaky Blinders star Sophie Rundle says Yorkshire-backed BBC hit has 'punk energy'

The actress believes the gangster epic - which was originally funded by the Screen Yorkshire agency and filmed in the county - portrays Britain in a way rarely shown on screen.

Rundle, who plays Ada Thorne in the crime series, has said it matches an American-style confidence in national history.

She said the British are shy to celebrate their past in TV and film, but Peaky Blinders creates the myths that are so celebrated in the US.

Rundle, who also starred in Gentleman Jack set at Shibden Hall in Halifax, said that the energetic series has a punk attitude which ensures its continued success as series five approaches.

Speaking at a BFI screening of the new series, Rundle said: "It's just so cool. You see this kind of punk energy on screen.

"What's so beautiful is it's mythologised British history in a way that we're quite shy about doing

"The Americans do it very well. They take their history and they make it rock and roll.

"This show does that, and it's funny, and it's cool, and it's not ashamed to be a bit heightened."

The new series - which was partly shot at Bradford City Hall and a private home in Huddersfield - plunges the main characters into the world of politics, with Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby in place as an MP in Birmingham.

Rundle said that despite being five series into the story of the Shelby family and their criminal antics, the characterisation and plotting of Steven Knight's creation show no signs of slackening.

She said: "It is punk, it is a bit anarchic.

"It just keeps going and it just keeps gaining momentum.

"People just keep coming to it. It's unlike anything else we have on TV at the moment."