- Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) has revisited both England’s seedy past and the period drama genre with Disney+’s A Thousand Blows.
- The story pits Malachi Kirby’s Hezekiah Moscow against Stephen Graham’s “dangerous veteran boxer” Sugar Goodson.
- A Thousand Blows release date: 2025.
SAS Rogue Heroes season 2… Netflix’s Peaky Blinders movie… and now: A Thousand Blows.
The next 18 months or so are shaping up to be a cracking good time for fans of writer-director Steven Knight, with the BAFTA-winning creative serving up another period crime drama with the latter.
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The forthcoming 12-part series follows the fortunes of Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall) — two best friends fresh off the boat from Jamaica circa 1880s, who find themselves entangled with a criminal underground.
Backed into a corner, and forced to fight for survival in the “violent melting pot of Victorian London’s East End,” they come up against dangerous veteran boxer Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), whose rivalry with Hezekiah spills outside of the ring.
In the background of A Thousand Blows, we’ll also become acquainted with the Forty Elephants — a notorious all-female crime syndicate that actually existed in 19th-20th century London, and specialised in shoplifting to get by.
“I’m really thrilled to be working on this project with Stephen [Graham] as well as the very talented production team and group of writers,” said Steven Knight.
“I always love to delve into untold history, and this is a story that really deserves to be told.”
“To be able to work with [Steven Knight] again and the talented team of writers we have for this project is truly wonderful,” added Stephen Graham, who appeared in the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders as Hayden Stagg.
“To tell the story of these incredible characters during this period of time in London is a joy.”
In addition to creator and executive producer, Knight has served as head writer for A Thousand Blows. Stephen Graham, on the other hand, juggled being a character actor extraordinaire with duties as an executive producer alongside Hannah Walters via their joint company Matriarch Productions.
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The aforementioned names are joined by Erin Doherty as Mary Carr, Ziggy Heath as Peggy Bettinson, Nadia Albina as Verity Ross, Jemma Carlton as Belle Downer, Caoilfhionn Dunne as Anne Glover, Morgan Hilaire as Esme Long, and Warrior alum Jason Tobin — who we spoke to about this briefly during an interview last year.
Tobin explained: “Like Peaky Blinders, it’s a dramatised work of fiction, but the characters are based on real-life people. Although the tone of the two shows is completely different.”
“In A Thousand Blows, I play Mr Lao and he’s the polar opposite of [Warrior character] Young Jun — a mild-mannered intellectual in exile in London who’d rather not be seen. Not the life of the party like Young Jun. He carries a secret that will be revealed later in season 1.”
“And unlike Young Jun, Lao is not a fighter or at least not in the physical sense. So there’ll be no fisticuffs with Sugar Goodson unfortunately.”
A Thousand Blows is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in 2025 (specific release date TBA), potentially right before the Peaky Blinders movie arrives, though probably before Steven Knight’s other long-gestating project about Enzo Ferrari — check out the teaser trailer above,
