Peaky Blinders creator talks A Thousand Blows: New series set in Victorian London - how to watch

A new series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight exposes the dark story of illegal boxing in Victorian London. A Thousand Blows launches on Disney+ this month and sees actor Stephen Graham star as notorious boxer Sugar Goodson.

The drama follows two friends from Jamaica - Hezekiah Moscow and Alec Munroe - who find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly of the UK capital's bare-knuckle boxing scene. Hezekiah, played by Small Axe actor Malachi Kirby, meets Mary Carr, Queen of an all-female criminal gang known as the Forty Elephants, played by The Crown star Erin Doherty, who hopes to exploit his talents to further her enterprise and Sugar, 'king of the East End boxing world'.

Graham and Knight previously worked together on Peaky Blinders, when the tar portrayed Hayden Stagg in the hit Birmingham-based drama. His new drama is inspired by two true stories about Hezekiah Moscow and Mary Carr, with Knight imagining “what would have happened” if they met.

“I find that the best stories are the ones least told for some reason”, Knight told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “And so you do have to dig quite deep. But when you do find these stories, they’re so remarkable, so incredible, that you just think I would never have dared to make this up and these two stories are absolutely like that.”

He said he was trying to address the issue of class within the series, as that was more prominent at the time than the issues of gender and race. “People in the East End, if you’re cold, you’re cold; if you’re hungry, you’re hungry. The real struggle, I suppose, in A Thousands Blows, is about East versus West," he went on.

The screenwriter revealed he does not overthink what he is writing and considers what culture elements may be picked apart, as he feels there will be “plenty” of judgment afterwards.

How to watch A Thousand Blows

The first series of A Thousand Blows launches on February 21. It will be screened only on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland. Meanwhile, a second series has already completed production.

Broadcaster and historian David Olusoga acts as executive producer on the drama - which is not being made by the BBC, as Peaky Blinders was. However, asked if this type of show could still be made by the national broadcaster, Knight said: “Peaky is a BBC show and there was no issue with making that at the BBC. I’m a huge BBC loyalist, as I think you know.

“I love to work with the BBC creatively. There is no place like it. I think the BBC should be strutting on the world stage among the streamers, more so than it does.”

He added: “There are issues of money. I think the BBC has a history of making do and making the best of what they have. I’m working with the BBC on other series now, this just happened to come along from a different direction.”