A Thousand Blows Is The New Crime Drama To Watch
Love Peaky Blinders? While there’s still a little while to wait for Tommy Shelby’s return in The Immortal Man: A Peaky Blinders film, you can hopefully fill that gap in your life with A Thousand Blows, a new historical drama TV starring Stephen Graham.
Created by Peaky mastermind Steven Knight, it follows a boxing rivalry and an all-female crime gang in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is coming to Disney+ later this month. Here’s all you need to know:
What is A Thousand Blows about?
The series begins in the 1880s (so not quite contemporary with Peaky Blinders), and introduces us to Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) and Alec (Francis Lovehall), two close friends from Jamaica who arrive in a post-industrial revolution London. Both find themselves in the heart of the vibrant and often violent melting pot of the East End, and it’s not long before they brush with the criminal underworld. The city has a thriving underground boxing scene, and Hezekiah meets the dangerous and ruthless fighter Sugar Goodson (played by Graham). The two will develop a serious rivalry, the ramifications of which will be felt further than just in the heat of the ring.
Along with locking horns with Sugar, Hezekiah will also become acquainted with Mary Carr (played by The Crown’s Erin Doherty), who’s the leader of The Forty Elephants, a formidable all-female crime gang. Carr’s infamous syndicate is fighting for survival on the streets, and Hezekiah will have his loyalty tested if he wants to remain alive himself. With betrayal and cutthroat ambition all around him, the boxer will make plenty of friends- and enemies.
Who else stars, and what else do we know?
The rest of the cast, meanwhile, includes Ziggy Heath (One Life), Jason Tobin (Warrior), James Nelson-Joyce (Bird) and Jemma Charlton (Lockerbie: A Search For Truth). Like Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight and the production team have made an effort for the show to be historically accurate as well as very entertaining, grounding the show in the authenticities of the late Victorian era. The six-episode miniseries will begin on Disney+ on 21st February.
