3.8 million people watched the dramatic denouement of season 5 on BBC One…

Peaky Blinders‘ long-awaited fifth season ended without a bang this week – at least, not one that we heard – but the drama was too much for some fans who took to Twitter afterwards to say they “couldn’t cope” with the cliffhanger that Steven Knight’s award-winning series left them with this time.

The Beeb was surely in better spirits, though, as it’s been revealed that the season 5 finale, which saw Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby encounter Tom Hardy’s Alfie Solomons once more, raked in 3.8 million in overnight viewers, continuing the trend of leaving past season viewing numbers in the dust. Deadline also confirms that the first four episodes of season 5 managed to average 5.9 million in 7-day consolidated viewing across all screens. Previously, the season 4 finale was the ‘peak’ (sorry) of the series in terms of viewers, at 2.4 million.

Deadline says that although Peaky Blinders has not officially been renewed for a sixth season, “plans are afoot to begin shooting [it] in February next year” with season 5’s director, Anthony Byrne, expected to return.

15,000 people turned up to the official UK Peaky Blinders festival this month in Birmingham, where Liam Gallagher headlined. The series is also popular in the US, and Netflix plans to stream season 5 from 4th October.

More Peaky news as it arrives.