Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight added star power late in the first day of SXSW London 2026 on Monday, sharing the stage with U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.
In case you wonder: No, they did not bring up the much-discussed future of Peaky Blinders star Tom Hardy on MobLand after criticism of his on-set behavior!
Did Knight hint at what the new James Bond movie will look like? After all, he was tapped last summer to write the script for filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who is directing the next 007 film for Amazon MGM Studios and producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman. He didn’t do that either.
But he did support U.K. political calls for global streamers to contribute to supporting the U.K. production sector, given the content they create in the country. Last year, a parliamentary committee recommended a levy of 5 percent of U.K. subscriber revenue on foreign streamers, including Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+ and Disney+, to help finance British drama production. Netflix rejected that, saying that the goal should be to “incentivize rather than penalize investment and success.”
Argued Knight: “The issue for me is: They come here, they make big blockbuster productions,” which is “great” for job creation in the British sector. “But they keep all profits. I just feel there’s a conversation to be had. It’s not [a] tax. it’s a two-way street.”
He suggested that streamers could therefore “leave” a certain percentage of money in country to help keep its production infrastructure and success alive and well. “If you’re going to come and take advantage of what we have, then maybe financially there is a 1 percent, 2 percent, something that is left behind that helps us to maintain” that, Knight said. He didn’t specify if that should be a percentage of revenue or profits.
Under the theme of “Our National Story,” he and Nandy on Monday discussed these and other topics in a well-attended session. Of course, AI was also part of the issues they mentioned.
“AI is a threat to writers” and others, Knight offered, urging that “the human has to be better.” He explained: “I think the people who are responsible for lots of these tech things need to understand that they’re human too, and they’ve got a responsibility to do the right thing, not to be proud of doing stuff that they believe is possible but wrong. They seem to escape from any sort of moral judgment.”
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