The sixth season of Peaky Blinders could be postponed until the end of 2021 or early 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Producers of the show had planned to begin filming in March and finish in July, but that proposal was put on ice five days before shooting was due to begin when the world went into lockdown.

And now director Anthony Byrne has revealed to fans they may have to wait a considerable amount of time before another batch of episodes.

Speaking to Digital Spy, he said: "In an ideal world it would be great to be prepping again towards the end of the year with a view to start shooting early next year. That feels achievable, whether that's true or not, I have no idea.

"If we did start shooting in January (2021), we wouldn't finish until May or June and then it's another 6 months of editing."

Season five of the show aired on BBC One between August 25 and September 22 last year.

Ratings for the drama have continued to rise in the UK from an average of 2.38 million for season one, to 4.05m for season four, to 7.2m for the last season.

Byrne also touched on how to go ahead with a TV show if social distancing measures still need to be in place.

"We have a pretty good idea of how we are going to achieve those scenes, whether it's intimacy or fighting," he added.

"There's definitely a way to do it and that's what a lot of this downtime has been about."