In the grimy underworld of 19th-century London, a bare-knuckle boxer dreams of making a name for himself, while an all-female gang of thieves terrorises the West End. This is the world of Steven Knight’s vision of Victorian London A Thousand Blows, the latest historical drama from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, which lands on Disney+ this week.
Starring Stephen Graham, Small Axe’s Malachi Kirby, and The Crown’s Erin Doherty, the series is a brutal, fast-paced tale of Victorian London’s underground fight scene, entwined with the exploits of The 40 Elephants – a notorious all-female crime syndicate. While much of the drama is fictionalised, both the gang and the enigmatic boxer at its heart, Hezekiah Moscow, are rooted in real history.
Knight’s A Thousand Blows follows Moscow, played by Kirby, as he becomes entangled in the criminal world ruled by The 40 Elephants and their leader, Mary Carr (Doherty). Meanwhile, Graham plays Sugar Goodson, a ruthless bare-knuckle fighter loosely inspired by a real figure of the same name.
“I just felt that, because it took place in the 1880s in London, that was an opportunity to tell that fantastic story of hardship and triumph and marry that with the story of The 40 Elephants and put those two things together," Knight told the Radio Times.
The 40 Elephants were one of Britain’s longest-running organised crime syndicates. First documented in 1873, though possibly dating back to the 18th century, the gang took their name from their base in Elephant and Castle, South London.
As historian Brian McDonald detailed in his books Gangs of London and Alice Diamond and the 40 Elephants, they were experts in deception and shoplifting, swindling high-end West End stores such as Harrods with tactics ranging from wearing fake arms to impersonating housemaids in wealthy households.
Their exploits didn’t just fund their lifestyles – they set rules, too. Southwark News noted in 2015 that the gang had a strict Hoister’s Code, which forbade drinking before a job, wearing stolen clothes, or talking to the police.
While many gang members’ names are historically accurate, A Thousand Blows plays with the timeline. Mary Carr, born in 1862, is depicted as the gang’s leader in the 1880s, though the group peaked decades later.
Alice Diamond (played by Darci Shaw), another key character, was only born in 1896 but appears alongside Carr in the show. In reality, the gang was at its most formidable in the 1920s, even forcing smaller criminal outfits to pay them protection money.
Despite historical liberties, The 40 Elephants remain a fascinating anomaly in British crime history – perhaps the only gang to have inspired a inspired a cocktail bar in their name.
The real Hezekiah Moscow: Boxer, lion tamer, and mystery man
Unlike the Peaky Blinders or the Kray twins, Hezekiah Moscow is a largely forgotten figure. But his story – discovered by A Thousand Blows star Graham and his wife, Hannah Walters – is just as remarkable.
Graham recalled being shown an “amazing” photograph of Moscow, describing him as looking “regal” and full of “humility and dignity.”
According to extensive research by historian Sarah Elizabeth Cox, Moscow was a Jamaican migrant who arrived in England in the 1880s intending to become a lion tamer but found success in boxing instead.
Fighting under the pseudonym “Ching Hook” or “Ching Ghook,” his alternate name suggests mixed heritage – something reflected in A Thousand Blows, where Moscow speaks Mandarin thanks to his Chinese grandmother.
By 1882, he had gained recognition in the East London boxing scene and became a minor celebrity, making headlines for his powerful performances in the city’s rowdy, underground fight venues. But boxing wasn’t his only talent – Moscow was also a music hall singer and a lion tamer at the Shoreditch Aquarium.
His circus career, however, led to controversy. He was charged by the RSPCA for “cruelly ill-treating” four bears in his care – a rare documented detail in an otherwise elusive personal history.
Despite his prominence, little is known about Moscow’s later years, adding an air of mystery to his story. He was accompanied in London by his friend Alec Munroe, played in A Thousand Blows by Francis Lovehall (Small Axe). Munroe, another Caribbean-born boxer, struggled to find the same success as Moscow. His life was tragically cut short in 1885 when he was stabbed to death in Spitalfields at the age of 35.
Although A Thousand Blows is set more than a century ago, its themes remain timeless. Migration, survival, and the struggle for identity are as relevant today as they were in the 1880s.
“A Thousand Blows is about somebody who comes aboard a ship and arrives in a sprawling city that has no mercy and no pity,” Knight told the Radio Times. “Human beings don’t change. Love, jealousy, hatred, it’s always there.”
