A Thousand Blows Review

“The following is inspired by real characters who lived and fought together in London’s East End,” the opening intertitles tell us everything we need to know about Steven Knight’s latest show, A Thousand Blows. The story we are about to watch as the series welcomes us into its world is rooted in reality and inspired by real-life people and events that took place at the time in the British capital. Perhaps that is why from the minute the show starts, the audience is immediately transported back into the past to a London that is now largely gone but still bears resemblance to the city many people in the audience will know and love.

A Thousand Blows takes us back to London in the late 19th century when two best friends from Jamaica, Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall) arrive in the city in search of a new life. As their paths cross with Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), the leader of an all-female crime syndicate specialising in shoplifting called the Forthy Elephants, and Sugar Goodson (Stephen Graham), a dangerous boxer who has largely gone undefeated, their fortunes might just change, but perhaps for the worst.

The best part about the whole show is the juxtaposition between East and West London which is introduced from the very beginning of the series and shown after the first few episodes. Steven Knight’s best work in this series is when we see the difference and disparity in the living conditions of those who live in one part of the city as opposed to another. The same event varies drastically depending on which part of the city we are in: for example, boxing in West London is refined and proper as the opponents fight underneath a chandelier with a judge to control their every move, but boxing in East London is a whole different matter as it is made of blood, sweat, and desire for a different life.

While they may be the same city, it is immediately clear that East and West London could not be further apart. The cultural and class divide between the two areas – and, therefore, the characters who inhabit them – is immediately clear in the cinematography, the costumes, and the accents of each character, all of which come to define them from the moment they first appear on our screen. so much so that the people who dare and cross this boundary are far and few between, and also usually punished for it in a very Dickensian manner.

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A Thousand Blows also shares its main setting with the English novelist and the way its characters move in it. Thanks to the establishing shots, the audience quickly becomes aware of the geography of London and, by the end of the series, as familiar with it as the characters who live in it as we start to recognise the familiar places they meet up in, such as Sugar’s pub, and routes they take as they move through the city, its neighbourhoods, and various establishments of the time. This becomes especially relevant as the river Thames soon becomes one of the most recurrent sites that the characters frequently visit. Whether the water symbolised rebirth – as it so often does as a literary trope – or it represents a visual signifier of their class, as at the time the Thames – and its smell – was very much associated with the misfortune and economic status of East London.

As the show goes on, the stakes and tension are intensified more and more. It soon becomes clear that this is not just about them as individuals nor about their personal struggles or wishes, but instead, all of it is a portrayal of a universal issue. The conflict between them soon becomes economic and cultural. The characters’ arcs and progression throughout the series are especially successful and very satisfying to watch, especially for Hezekiah and Mary who go through significant growth and are always incredibly exciting to watch on screen which speaks volumes to the quality of both the acting and the writing on this series.

While at times some of the minor plots may seem irrelevant or less interesting, A Thousand Blows does a good job of making everything come together in the end as all the various narratives end up overlapping and mirroring each other. Unfortunately, having so many very compelling characters on screen also means that the audience inevitably feels like a lot of them were not explored as much as they could have in terms of their backgrounds and motivations, but there is always hope that a second season would address it. On the topic of a second season, the series leaves its main plotline far too open-ended to function as a stand-alone, seemingly requiring another season just to wrap up its narrative.

Overall, A Thousand Blows is a very engaging drama series that fans of Knight’s previous work – namely Peaky Blinders – will undoubtedly enjoy thanks to its exploration of a historical time that many may be familiar with but won’t know the exact details of. Similarly, the show will be successful with those in the audience who simply want to learn more about the real-life story of the Forty Elephants thanks to the show’s thorough analysis of the economic and cultural situation of the time.