"It was brilliant" - Scots Peaky Blinders extra reveals all as last ever series comes to a conclusion
Ashleigh Bass stars in the hit series which included scenes from Portsoy
Last updated 4th Apr 2022
A North-East man's telling us about his role as a "spit guy" in the hit series Peaky Blinders.
Ashleigh Bass was used an extra while the cast and crew were in Portsoy filming scenes for the sixth season.
The 34-year-old featured in first episode of the last series, where Michael Gray - played by Finn Cole - asks him a question in French.
Ashleigh's character responds by spitting in his direction.
Ashleigh was already acting as an extra, when the added role of "spit guy" came up by chance.
He said: "I went to the auditions and I got just a callback to say I could go down as an extra, a barrel boy initially.
"On the Tuesday afterwards, we did about 13 hours of recording on and off and then on the Friday we got another 5 hours of filming done.
"The assistant director then asked if we could get an idiot to do this extra part , ‘spit guy.’"
"It was brilliant."
"We did a couple of takes just to get the camera angles right, but once they got it sorted I think we took about two attempts.
"I think Michael messed up his lines in French twice, but that was alright."
Acting just a "one-off" - Ashleigh Bass
Ashleigh also revealed how he met the show's main character, but the Aberdeenshire man's not pursuing a career in acting.
He added: "I met Cillian Murphy just briefly, but it was good.
"All the behind the scenes crew were brand new, they had a lot of time for everybody.
"I’m trying to stay off social media because I haven’t seen the last episode. I have read something, which may have spoiled it for myself.
"If the bit I have read on social media is true, then I dare say tourism will be booming this summer.
"I think that was probably just a once off.
"It’s like a bucket list, now that it’s done I can move on."