Peaky Blinders star leaves show for new BBC adaptation Noughts & Crosses

Peaky Blinders without David Beckham!
(Image credit: Robert Viglasky)

Jack played the son of assassin Aberama Gold

Peaky Blinders star Jack Rowan has revealed that he left the show after being offered a new role.

The actor, who played aspiring boxer Bonnie in the Birmingham based criminal gang drama, revealed that he chose to leave the popular show after being offered the lead role in the new BBC adaptation Noughts & Crosses.

Jack played the son of assassin Aberama Gold during series four and five of the show, but left the series, with his character being written out during series five of the crime drama.

And it turns out that it was all due to the timing of Jack’s new role.

peaky blinders jack rowan stars noughts crosses

Jack revealed that he left Peaky Blinders to start filming Nought & Crosses (Credit: Getty)

“In the timeframe between series four and series five, I landed Noughts and Crosses, so it was a case of what do you do? Do you take this?” he told RadioTimes.com.

“And in a way, I’m a young guy and it’s a lead role. It was horrible to have to do something like that, but there was no question really what I would do, and it was this”.

Speaking of his character’s ending, Jack continued, “I thank that team from the bottom of my heart for not recasting the character or not just leaving him out, they actually said let’s give him an ending. So, I actually filmed that in-between.

“I did block one of Noughts and Crosses, then in the Christmas period I was only on it [Peaky Blinders] for a day, and then I came back to South Africa. I’m just grateful I had an ending.”

Fans will be able to see Jack on screen next when BBC adaptation Noughts & Crosses hits screens.

The show tells the story of young adult writer Malorie Blackman’s dystopian novel of the same name, which sees lower-class ‘nought’ Callum McGregor (played by Jack) fall in love with privileged ‘cross’ Persephone Hadley.

The adaptation is set to start on BBC One next week on Thursday 5th March.

Aleesha Badkar

Aleesha is acting deputy editor for My Imperfect Life, where she looks after the beauty, fashion and eCommerce pages. Previously she was a writer for woman&home and gained an AOP awards nomination after working on their news team. She earned an MA in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London in 2017 and has since worked with a number of brands including, Women's Health, Stylist and Goodto. When she’s not testing new products, Aleesha spends her time soaking up the newest bestsellers and Netflix releases, exploring different wines, attempting new languages and has been known to be a bit of a jet setter, after spending a year living in Madrid.