Shooting for the hotly-awaited Peaky Blinders season three began earlier this month and now, some of its stars are sharing behind-the-scenes photos with fans.

Joe Cole, who plays John Shelby in the Birmingham-based mob drama about a gang who sew razors into the peaks of their flat caps, posted a photo of his cast mates on Instagram.

Captioned ‘Peaky scum’, it offers a glimpse of Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby and Finn Cole as Aunt Polly’s son Michael Gray.

The latter also posted a photo, on Twitter yesterday, showing two cameras on set with “No food or drink on the magliner, by order of the Peaky Blinders’ scrawled in black pen underneath. Fans will recognise that line from the series, as it is used by the gang when they announce a new rule or take power.

Season three will see Peaky Blinders boss Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, “pulled into the glamourous and dangerous world of international intrigue” as he expands his booming business, “putting his entire organisation and family at risk and forcing him to question everything about his own ambitions and desires”.

The opening episode will be set on Tommy’s wedding day, presumably to Grace, but quite possibly to May knowing him, while other plot lines remain under wraps.

Writer and creator Steven Knight revealed earlier this year that the storyline of the upcoming series will be “more of the same but different.”

He said “We all think [series three] is going to be the best yet by a long way. We’ve got a lot of love out there, from the US and here. Great people who want to be part of it. In every way we’re stepping up to a new level.”

Knight added that power will be a key theme, with the storyline focusing on “what it can do to you and what you can do to it”.

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Murphy is planning on sticking around for the foreseeable after finding the writing for series three “the strongest it’s ever been”. “It’s off the charts,” he said. “So as long as it’s that brilliant, of course [he’ll remain involved].”

Paddy Considine is joining Murphy, Tom Hardy, Helen McCrory, Paul Anderson and co in series three as a rival gangster, “representative of a force beyond anything Tommy has previously encountered”.

Dina Korzun and Jan Bijovet have also been added to the stellar cast as “refugees from a foreign conflict who desperately need Tommy’s help”.

The first two series of Peaky Blinders attracted up to three million viewers, with streaming service Netflix airing both six-episode runs in the US. At present only the first is available in the UK.

Season three is set to arrive sometime in 2016, with an exact air date yet to be confirmed.