Daniel Owen, known as Danny Whizz-Bang, was a former comrade of Tommy who fought in the Great War.
Characterisation
Danny was a member of the Peaky Blinders who served in France with Thomas Shelby and Freddie Thorne. After the war, he began suffering from violent psychotic episodes where he believed he was still at war, earning him the nickname "whizz-bang" after a term Allied soldiers used during and after the First World War to describe the noise made by German artillery shells.
Through Thomas's nightmares, it was revealed that Danny was in the same deep dugout as Freddie Thorne and Thomas Shelby. As the German Tunnelers were about to breach, Danny took the lead in the tunnels. Carefully listening to the digging and whispers from the other side, he was suddenly hit in the head with a shovel. As one of the German tunnelers had Thomas in a choke-hold, trying to suffocate him, Danny stabbed the enemy in the back, saving Thomas's life.
Character History
Series 1
Danny's first appearance in the show is a violent outburst: he barrels through the doors of The Garrison Pub, knocking over tables, breaking glasses and shouting repeated "had to go bang, had to go bang, had to go bang", thinking himself still at war. He is put down by Freddie and Thomas, who tells him "You're not an artillery shell, Danny, you're a man".
During one of his psychotic outburst, he unwittingly killed an Italian man who seemed to have criminal ties. The man's brothers demand Danny's death in retaliation, so Thomas appears to shoot him at the end of the episode. Before his death, Danny makes Thomas promise to bury him on a hill and not near any mud, a reference to his duties as a tunneler in the war. Thomas agrees, before shooting Danny. However, it is revealed that Danny was only shot with sheep brains, so as to convince the Italians he was dead. Danny is then sent to London to work as a spy for the Peaky Blinders and Thomas uses his false grave to bury stolen guns.
When Danny returns from London with news, he visits Thomas in his chambers, interrupting one of his nightmares. Danny tells him that, while in an Irish pub called "The Mother Redcap", he heard from "an old bloke" that an Irish Republican Army soldier was murdered and that the IRA high command think the Peaky Blinders shot him. Thomas tells Danny that there has been a misunderstanding and instructs him to get a message to the IRA commanding officers to send someone to Birmingham to parlay. Danny realizes that Thomas has enough trouble, because of the whiskey and brown opium Thomas smokes in order to sleep. Danny says he uses it sometimes himself, calling it his "sweetheart", stating that their job as tunnelers was the worst kind.
Danny in Series 1.
Danny takes part in the gunfight between the Peaky Blinders and Kimber's men. When Thomas is shot by Kimber, he jumps between them and is shot instead. He was buried in his original grave.
Quotes
"I suppose I ought to pray now. Those fucking guns. They blew God right out of my head."— Danny to Thomas Shelby
Image Gallery
