The real EastEnders of the Victorian era are about to burst onto our screens in Disney+’s new series A Thousand Blows.
Bare-knuckle boxing, gang culture and shoplifting are all thrown into the melting pot of London street life in the 1880s to create this show.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, it has Stephen Graham as the star and executive producer with Erin Doherty as the ruthless leader of an all-female gang known as the Forty Elephants.
Based in part on some real-life characters and events from the period, the show’s creators relied on historian Professor David Olusoga to acts as one of the executive producer to ensure authenticity.
The first season will premier on Disney + this week, with a second season waiting in the wings.
Set in the perilous world of illegal boxing, A Thousand Blows takes viewers back to the brutal East End of London in the 1880s.
Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), best friends from their former lives in Jamaica, find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly of London’s thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene.
But as Hezekiah finds fame and fortune through fighting, he is also drawn into the orbit of the leader of the infamous all-female gang the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty).
Known as the Queen of the Forty Elephants, she sets about exploiting his talents to further her criminal enterprise.
Meanwhile, the menacing and self-declared emperor of the East End boxing scene, Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), is determined to destroy Hezekiah.
The young Jamaican’s ambitions to fight in the West End threaten everything Goodson has built.
What ensues is a battle of the old world against the new.
Stephen Graham stars as Henry “Sugar” Goodson, the self-declared emperor of the East End boxing world.
Graham, 51, is also the executive producer of the show along with his wife Hannah Walters.
He said the character was “a very complex individual which was a joy to play”, but admitted there was a lot of work involved in learning the art of boxing.
Award-winning actor Graham has starred in films such as Gangs of New York, This is England, The Irishman and Boiling Point.
He is also well-known for his roles in Boardwalk Empire, Line of Duty and Boiling Point.
Malachi Kirby plays Hezekiah Moscow, a Jamaican who comes to London and becomes a boxer.
Kirby, 35, is a British actor and writer who won a Bafta in 2020 for his portrayal of Darcus Howe in Small Axe: Mangrove.
He has also appeared as Wayne Ladlow in EastEnders, as Kunta Kinte in Roots, Michael Garwick in Curfew and Oliver Harris in Devils.
Erin Doherty stars as Mary Carr, gang leader and so-called Queen of the Forty Elephants.
Doherty, 32, rose to fame playing Princess Anne in the third and fourth seasons of Netflix series The Crown.
She portrayed Becky in the psychological thriller Chloe and Clare in the 2024 film Reawakening.
Francis Lovehall plays Alec Munroe, best friend of Hezekiah Moscow.
He played Reggie in Steve McQueen’s Lovers Rock, part of his Small Axe anthology series.
And he was Laurent in the television series Champion.
He has also appeared as Allerton Mcnaught in the 2022 film Death on the Nile.
The cast of A Thousand Blows also includes:
A Thousand Blows was filmed on location in London, with a brewery south-west of the capital used to recreate some of the street scenes.
The Story Works studio, based within the brewery site, was behind the series production.
And the Stag Brewery in Mortlake, which is soon to be converted into housing, formed the backdrop for the East End of London in Victorian times.
The towpath along the Thames in the Mortlake area was also used in the filming as was some of the city’s iconic Victorian architecture and cobbled streets.
A Thousand Blows launches on Disney+ in the UK on Friday 21 February.
All six episodes will be available to stream but viewers will need a Disney+ subscription.
This starts from £4.99 a month in the UK, details are here.
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