Peaky Blinders boss Steven Knight is bringing us a new period TV series, A Thousand Blows, which focuses on the real-life boxing community that thrived in 19th century London. It will star The Crown‘s Erin Doherty and Peaky star Stephen Graham.
What’s most exciting, though, is there’ll be some seriously strong females at the centre of the series – we’ll see Doherty’s character Mary head up a notorious all-female gang, based on a real one based in London’s Elephant and Castle in the late 1800s.
Also, a second series has already been confirmed before the first one has even dropped – so you know it’s going to be good.
Here’s everything we know so far about A Thousand Blows.
Robert Viglasky/Disney
A Thousand Blows plot
According to a synopsis, the series follows “the fortunes of Hezekiah and Alec, two best friends newly arrived from Jamaica. Fighting for survival in the violent melting pot of Victorian London’s East End, they come up against Sugar Goodson, a dangerous, veteran boxer”.
“As Hezekiah finds fortune and fame through the art of pugilism, he attracts the attention of the infamous Queen of the Forty Elephants, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), who sets about exploiting his talents to further her criminal enterprise. Meanwhile the menacing and self-declared emperor of the East End boxing world, Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), determines to destroy Hezekiah whose ambitions to fight in the West End threaten everything he has built. What ensues is a battle of the old world against the new.”
Robert Viglasky/Disney
A Thousand Blows cast
The role of Hezekiah will be played by Black Mirror star Malachi Kirby, who won a BAFTA for his performance in Small Axe. Joining Malachi, Erin Doherty and Stephen Graham will be Francis Lovehall, Jason Tobin, James Nelson-Joyce, Susan Lynch, Daniel Mays, Adam Nagaitis, Gary Lewis, Tom Davis and Robert Glenister.