Helen McCrory

‘Peaky Blinders’ star Helen McCrory died aged 52 in April 2021 from breast cancer.

Explaining why Helen - whose husband was Damian Lewis - decided to keep her diagnosis private, her director friend Carrie Cracknell said: "Helen wanted to be very private about her illness and I understand why. When you live in the public spotlight you have to find space to protect the things that are just for you. Very, very few people knew, and I only did because we were planning to transfer a show to Broadway and we had to cancel that because she was undergoing treatment. We were sworn to secrecy.”