Peaky Blinders is due to return to the Midlands next March to begin filming again.

Its star Cillian Murphy has confirmed that work on series four is to roll again next spring.

That means viewers will get to watch it on BBC2 next autumn.

Cillian says: “We start shooting the next series next March, I think.

“The success of it is down to really great writing. People in America love it, people in Australia love it, people in Poland love it – it’s mad.”

A hunting we will go....John Shelby (Joe Cole), Finn Shelby (Harry Kirton), Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy), Michael Gray (Finn Cole), Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson)

The actor, who plays gang leader Tommy Shelby in the hit drama set among Birmingham gangs of the 1920s, made the revelation at the premiere of the thriller Free Fire.

The last series of Peaky Blinders took four months to film and then three months to edit.

Shooting finished at the end of January and it was screened at the beginning of May.

So what now? We're all thinking the same thing, Tommy

It the fourth series follows a similar timescale, filming would finish in June and could be ready to watch by October.

Watch the cast at Peaky Blinders' Birmingham premiere

Video Loading

That was how it worked out for series two, which came to its Midland location of the Black Country Living Museum in March 2014 and was screened in October.

Fans then had to wait an agonisingly-long 18 months for series three, which wasn’t broadcast until May 2016.

Behind the scenes filming BBC2 drama Peaky Blinders at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley
Behind the scenes filming Peaky Blinders at the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley

And now it looks like we’ll have a similar wait until autumn 2017.

So please hurry up lads – by order of the Peaky Blinders fans!

We need to find out whether all the Shelby family will go to prison after the series three finale cliffhanger and what plan Tommy has to save them.

The good news is that there will be both a series four and five, as Steven Knight's drama continues well into at least 2018.

Tom Hardy in new BBC1 drama Taboo

And fans of Knight's work and Peaky Blinders' star Tom Hardy only have to wait until January 7 for Taboo on BBC1.

The drama has been written by Knight and stars Hardy as adventurer James Delaney, who returns home from Africa in 1814, along with 14 stolen diamonds, to avenge his father's death.

Fans will be pleased to learn that Hardy wears very few clothes in some scenes.