Take on role of a Birmingham criminal, perhaps, and perform brilliantly (4,1,7)

'take on role of a birmingham criminal' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'and perform brilliantly' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is present in the answer.
'perform' could be 'play' (playing is a kind of performing) and 'play' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'perhaps' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?