‘I wanted to detonate a bit of an explosion’: Creator Steven Knight on season two of Disney+’s A Thousand Blows

When Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight began work on his period drama about bare-knuckle boxing in Victorian Britain, he knew he wanted to make a second series.

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So when Disney commissioned A Thousand Blows and took a leap of faith by renewing it for a second series before the first had even been released, Knight was thrilled.

Thankfully, that confidence paid off. Inspired by the true-life stories of characters battling for survival in the brutal East End of London in the 1880s, the series was a hit with audiences.

It stars This Is England actor Stephen Graham as notorious boxer Sugar Goodson, Small Axe star Malachi Kirby as Jamaican fighter Hezekiah Moscow, and The Crown’s Erin Doherty as Mary Carr, the queen of an all-female criminal gang known as the Forty Elephants.

Season two picks up a year after the events of the first, with Hezekiah a shadow of the man he once was, while Sugar is estranged from his family and drinking himself to death.

Just as Wapping is about to breathe its last, Mary bursts back into town with her loyal second, Alice Diamond, played by Judy actress Darci Shaw, to reassemble her gang and reclaim her crown.

Knight, 66, says he wanted to pull the characters apart this season before bringing them back together.

“Where you start is so important,” explains the Birmingham-born writer. “In season one, we began with the arrival of someone who was a fish out of water in London and their experiences. By the end of the series, hopefully those characters are in people’s hearts and audiences are invested in where they’re going.”

He adds: “For season two, I wanted to detonate a bit of an explosion and pull everybody apart. A year has passed, and what a year it’s been, because so much has changed.

“When you’ve got actors of the calibre we have, like Stephen, the difference between how we first see him in season one and how he appears at the start of season two is huge. That’s the fun of it: putting characters through that, pulling them apart, and then seeing them come back together.”

Although the events of seasons one and two are set a year apart, both were filmed consecutively.

“It’s an act of faith on Disney’s part,” Knight explains. “Most often, a second series isn’t commissioned until the first has aired and the response is known. But they trusted it was going to work and their trust paid off.”

Doherty, 33, fresh off her Emmy win for Adolescence, says she was thrilled to remain with her character Mary for another series.

“It’s so rare that you genuinely don’t want to let go of a character, because you love every character you play and feel like you’re fighting their fight,” says the Sussex-born actress.

“Normally, by the end of a job, you’re ready to move on and explore something new. But I really wasn’t ready to let go of Mary halfway through. Even with just a week’s hiatus in between, I was so delighted to go back in, spend more time with her, grow with her, and be surprised by her.”

Speaking about Mary Carr, inspired by a real-life figure, Doherty says it was a joy to bring her to life.

“It’s been an absolute joy. I had no idea this woman existed, let alone the gang – they really were incredibly skilled criminals. I’m not glorifying crime, but you have to admit, they were remarkable women.

“I was just blown away that their story hadn’t been told before. And Hezekiah, this whole thing was so exciting to me because all of these people actually existed, and this was the first time their stories were being explored.

“It felt like a gift to be able to bring them to life, to put them out there. I tried not to be intimidated and just jumped in, having a great time. As Mary, I couldn’t believe the Forty Elephants hadn’t been shown on screen before, it was mind-blowing.”

Kirby, 36, says he was equally immersed in his world.

“It felt like we were completely immersed in this world, like going on a huge adventure,” he says.

“Pausing in between may have had some effect, but going into season two didn’t feel like starting over, it just felt like returning to this space we’d already been inhabiting, a year later and under different circumstances.”

At the end of season one, Hezekiah suffers the devastating loss of his friend Alec, played by Jamaican actor Francis Lovehall.

“I think his biggest challenge is overcoming his grief and his need for vengeance, and letting go of the person he once was, the person he still, deep down, wants to be but doesn’t think he can be in this environment,” Kirby explains. “He wants to go back home, but right now, his main struggle is just trying to find the light again.”

Knight, the creator behind hit series including BBC dramas SAS: Rogue Heroes, Taboo, This Town, and more recently Netflix’s House Of Guinness, says he felt it was important to balance the male-dominated world of bare-knuckle boxing with the female-led criminal activities of the Forty Elephants.

“When you come across true stories that are this remarkable and unbelievable, you grab them with both hands,” he says.

“The whole thing began with Hannah Walters, who plays Eliza Moody and also produces the show. After seeing a photograph of the real Hezekiah Moscow, she started digging into his story.

“Then it was offered to me, and I began researching the madness of a young man coming to London to become a lion tamer while, at the same time, becoming a heavyweight champion.

“Chronologically, this ran alongside another true story: the Forty Elephants, an all-female gang who were hugely successful in London. From the start, the concept of the show was to bring these two worlds together.”

A Thousand Blows season two launches on Friday, January 9 on Disney+.