Helen McCrory: David Cameron, leave our BBC alone, before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street

Helen McCrory has promised to set the Peaky Blinders on David Cameron if the government does not “leave the BBC alone”.

The award-winning actor plays the fearsome Aunt Polly in the BBC2 gangster drama, which returned for its long-awaited third series last Thursday.

Speaking to The Independent at the show’s press event in April, McCrory argued that she has “never heard anybody whine” about paying the £145.50 licence fee, which Culture Secretary John Whittingdale memorably branded “worse than a poll tax” in 2014.

“I know that our money has fallen from when Peaky Blinders started because of what is happening at the moment,” she said. “I think that the government policy at the moment of thinking that the country cares about the licence fee, frankly, when you look at what’s happening in Brussels is the least on our f**king minds.

McCrory, 47, drew attention to acclaimed recent series such as Poldark, Banished and Wolf Hall, which she claims form an argument in themselves for protecting the BBC. “[The list of great BBC shows] goes on and on and on and that is because the BBC commissions TV with ambition,” she said. “Can you please write to David Cameron and ask him to leave our BBC alone before the Peaky Blinders come down Downing Street?”

Sunday night’s Bafta TV Awards were dominated by calls for the protection of the BBC, with Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminky using his winner’s speech to speak out in its defence.

“Our BBC is the envy of the world and we should stand up and fight for it,” he said, earning a standing ovation. “If we don’t, blink and it will be gone. There will be no more Wolf Halls, just a broadcasting landscape where the only determinate of whether something gets made is whether it’s like to line the pockets of its shareholders. It’s time for us to stand up and say ‘no’ to this dangerous nonsense.”

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop and actor Tom Hiddleston were among others to echo Kosminky’s comments at the ceremony, where the BBC enjoyed huge success. The corporation took home more than half the awards up for grabs, including wins for The Great British Bake Off, Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Foster, Peter Kay’s Car Share and lesser-known factual drama Don’t Take My Baby.

Whittingdale has both supported the BBC and expressed concerns over its scale and scope, reportedly suggesting to Cambridge University’s Conservative Association that killing it off is a “tempting prospect”. Thursday will see the publication of a white paper setting out its future.