Cillian Murphy’s reported distance from his wife and sons during Peaky Blinders was a filming arrangement, not a marital separation. The show is set in Birmingham but was shot in Liverpool. Murphy stayed in a rented flat there during shoots, while his wife and two sons lived in Dublin. The account comes from a 2016 Guardian interview, and it does not tie the arrangement to marital trouble or to a decision to separate.
What the 2016 interview establishes
- Where he lived during shoots: a rented flat in Liverpool, while his wife and sons were based in Dublin. The interview is from Tom Lamont’s Guardian profile, published 23 April 2016.
- Which period it describes: the production period around the show’s third series. It does not describe a current living arrangement.
- The family’s move: the family had moved from London back to Ireland in 2015. Murphy said he and his wife wanted their sons to grow up nearer their grandparents and by the sea, adding, “We wanted them to be Irish, I suppose.”
- What it does not say: nothing in the interview attributes the Liverpool arrangement to marital conflict or describes it as a deliberate separation.
Why “decided to live apart” overstates the evidence
The phrase “decided to live apart” implies a personal choice about the marriage. The reporting describes something narrower: Murphy worked in Liverpool while his family lived in Dublin, and the distance followed from where the work happened. Accurate wording is that he stayed apart from his family during shoots or kept a separate base while filming. Calling it a separation, a marital problem, or a deliberate acting method goes beyond what the interview supports.
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The schedule behind the arrangement
Murphy’s own description of the routine explains why a second base in Liverpool made sense for him during shoots. He listed these elements:
- “Eleven-day fortnights, 16-hour days, pages and pages of dialogue.”
- A return at the end of the day to a “tiny apartment,” where he ate, learned the next day’s lines, and tried to sleep.
- Life outside work described as “zero. It’s cancelled life.”
These are Murphy’s words in the Guardian interview, not audited production records. They describe the period he was discussing and should not be read as a description of every season or every shooting day.
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Why the family was in Dublin
The family’s relocation has its own stated reasons, separate from the filming. In 2016, Murphy linked the move to his sons’ upbringing and the family’s proximity to grandparents and the sea. In a later interview with Donald Clarke for The Irish Times, published 5 June 2021, Murphy described the move back from London as a way to be closer to family and to have a quieter life than a world capital offered at that stage. That interview explains why the family moved to Ireland. It does not confirm the Liverpool lodging arrangement, which comes from the 2016 account.
How the sources compare
| Source | Date | What it establishes | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guardian interview by Tom Lamont | 23 April 2016 | Rented Liverpool flat during shoots; wife and sons in Dublin; the filming schedule in Murphy’s words; the 2015 move from London to Ireland | Covers the production period around series three; relies on Murphy’s own description |
| RTÉ report | 23 April 2016 | Repeats the family’s wish to be near grandparents and the sea, and the “zero, cancelled life” description | Available only as excerpted text; used for limited corroboration, not for details beyond the Guardian account |
| Irish Times interview with Donald Clarke | 5 June 2021 | Murphy’s later first-person account of the move back to Ireland and the preference for a quieter life | Does not confirm the 2016 Liverpool lodging |
What remains unknown
- How long each stay in Liverpool lasted.
- How often Murphy returned to Dublin, and what his travel routine looked like.
- Whether the arrangement continued in later series or other productions.
- Any detail about the couple’s relationship beyond the logistics above.
The reporting answers the practical question: during the filming period, Murphy’s work kept him in Liverpool while his family lived in Dublin. It does not answer whether the marriage itself was a factor, and nothing in the 2016 interview suggests that it was.
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- DVD
- Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC
- English (Original Language), English (Unknown)
- 2
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- Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English audio.
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- Peaky Blinders (The Complete Series 1-4) - 8-DVD Box Set
- Peaky Blinders (The Complete Series 1-4) - 8-DVD Box Set
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