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Dope Girls is not your grandma’s historical drama (unless of course, your grandma has lived a life, has good taste in TV, and frankly, could do with a bit more respect and a bit less condescension from people assuming that she won’t be able to watch anything that isn’t presented by Alan Titchmarsh). To try […]

The post Dope Girls Cast: Meet the 1920s-Set BBC Drama’s Characters appeared first on Den of Geek.

Dope Girls is not your grandma’s historical drama (unless of course, your grandma has lived a life, has good taste in TV, and frankly, could do with a bit more respect and a bit less condescension from people assuming that she won’t be able to watch anything that isn’t presented by Alan Titchmarsh).

To try again then, Dope Girls is no Downton Abbey. It might be set in the same time period, but this tale of Soho women dancing with danger, death and well, other dancers in the nightclubs where they work is a world away from the genteel intrigues of the Earl of Grantham.

With a cast including actors from the US, Australia and the UK, here’s who’s playing who in BBC One’s new Saturday night series.

Eliza Scanlen as Violet Davies

Violet is a new recruit to the Metropolitan police service hoping to be chosen for “The Female Experiment” in which women were first made officers in the UK. She’s tough, alone and has nothing to lose, which makes her a dangerous prospect.

She’s played by Australian actor Eliza Scanlen, whose breakout roles came in HBO’s 2018 adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, and in Greta Gerwig’s 2019 feature film Little Women, in which Scanlen played second-to-youngest March sister Beth. She’s recently appeared opposite Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa in this year’s National Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Julianne Nicholson as Kate Galloway

Kate is cruelly forced to find her own way after she loses her job, and has to go to extreme lengths to provide a living for her and her teenage daughter Evie, a clever girl with the potential to be among the first women in the UK to go to university.

She’s played by US actor Julianne Nicholson, who’s currently appearing as the wealthy Sinatra in Disney/Hulu political thriller Paradise (which has just been renewed for a second season). She’s known for Law & Order, The Outsider, having played Esther in Boardwalk Empire, Lillian in Masters of Sex and Lorri in the first season of Kate Winslet-starring crime drama Mare of Easttown.

Umi Myers as Billie Cassidy

Billie is a Soho nightclub dancer who lives a bohemian, drink and drug-fuelled lifestyle with her singer friend Eddie Cobb. She’s played by Umi Myers, a recent graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, with previous stage parts and an appearance in Bob Marley: One Love. Dope Girls is Myers’ first television lead role.

Geraldine James as Isabella Salucci

The matriarch of the fearsome Salucci crime family, Isabella is a ruthless survivor who’s held her clan together through the War and much more. She’s played by Geraldine James, a familiar face on screen and stage who’s had a long and healthy career going back to the late 1970s. To some TV viewers, she’ll always be indivisible from the part of Sarah in The Jewel in the Crown, to others, she’ll be best recognised as Rose from Band of Gold, Milner in Channel 4’s Utopia, Mrs Hudson in the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes films, and Marissa in Anne With an E, to name just a few.

Dustin Demri-Burns as Damaso Salucci

A Salucci son, Damaso is a member of a powerful Soho crime family, and has a terrifying brutal side. He’s played by Dustin Demri-Burns, who’s well known for comedy roles in Cardinal Burns, Stath Lets Flats, GameFace and Am I Being Unreasonable?, but has an equally healthy career in dramas with a comedic edge from The Great to Slow Horses, Britannia, Sweetpea and The Decameron.

Ian Bonar as Sgt Frank Turner

Sgt Turner is helping to run The Female Experiment, which saw the UK’s first female police officers. He’s a complicated man who doesn’t wield his power well, and makes an early enemy of Violet. He’s played by Ian Bonar, who recently appeared opposite Peter Capaldi in Apple TV+’s Criminal Record, as well as roles across various TV genres, from I May Destroy You to New Blood, Vera and many more.

Fiona Button as Sophie Asquith-Gore

The wife of a wealthy and important government minister, and the mother to Evie’s friend Alice, Sophie is grieving the brother she lost in the war, and thinks that she can still speak to him via a medium. She’s played by actor-director Fiona Button, who’s known for the role of Rose Defoe in Abi Morgan’s legal drama The Split, and was recently seen as Denise in series three of Industry, as well as in Grantchester, Out of Her Mind, and plenty of theatre productions.

Nabhaan Rizwan as Silas Huxley

Medium and occultist Silus Huxley takes money from the wealthy to help them contact their dead. He’s played by Nabhaan Rizwan, who recently played Dionysus in Netflix’s KAOS, as well as appearing opposite his brother Mawaan Rizwan in his sitcom Juice, and in the US playing Frank in Station Eleven, after his breakout role in 2018’s BBC crime drama Informer.  

Will Keen as Frederick Asquith-Gore

A powerful government minister who’s set on rooting out the rot in London’s seedy nightclubs, Frederick Asquith-Gore is played by screen and stage actor Will Keen (incidentally, the father of Logan and His Dark Materials’ Dafne Keen), who recently appeared in BBC drama Wolf Hall as Thomas Cranmer, as well as playing Lord Belzagar in the second season of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Norfolk in My Lady Jane, the Queen’s private secretary in The Crown, and David in Ridley Road, as well as appearing in feature film Operation Mincemeat and more.

ALSO APPEARING

– Musical stage and screen actor Michael Duke as nightclub singer Eddie Cobb.
– The Outrun and The Power‘s Eilidh Fisher as Kate’s daughter Evie Galloway.
– The Bay, The Reckoning, True Detective and Strike‘s Eloise Thomas as Evie’s schoolfriend Alice Asquith-Gore.
– The Sixth Commandment‘s, Ghosts‘ and Lead Balloon‘s Anna Crilly as butcher Anne Sanders.
– Bridgerton and The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself‘s Priya Kansara as nightclub dancer Lily Lee.
– Heartstopper‘s Ben Hope, aka Sebastian Croft as nightclub owner Silvio Salucci.
– The Newsreader and The Inheritance‘s Rory Fleck Byrne as returned soldier Luca Salucci.

Dope Girls airs on BBC One and streams on BBC iPlayer.

The post Dope Girls Cast: Meet the 1920s-Set BBC Drama’s Characters appeared first on Den of Geek.

Science fiction is, almost by definition, an invitation to create anachronisms. By the time the present catches up with the future, various aesthetic and narrative choices within a sci-fi story can suddenly seem silly or outdated. In a best-case scenario, like the 60s Star Trek, certain analog technology can seem to generate nostalgia that allows […]

The post Apple TV+’s Next Big Sci-Fi Gamble Could Outdo Blade Runner — But There’s a Catch appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

Stephen King’s 1980 short story “The Monkey” (which can be found these days in his outstanding 1985 collection, Skeleton Crew) tells the story of Hal Shelburn, a man who is obsessed with an old toy from his childhood, a wind-up monkey that seems to cause death whenever it claps its cymbals. The tale is in […]

The post The Monkey: What the Movie Changed From the Stephen King Story appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

This review contains spoilers for season 3 episode 3 of Yellowjackets For the past two seasons, Yellowjackets has expertly toed the line between thriller and outright horror, building suspense as we wonder whether or not there are actually supernatural forces at work in the Wilderness. Trying to figure out how much is real and how […]

The post Yellowjackets Season 3 Episode 3 Review: Don’t Ignore the Wilderness appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

A decade isn’t really such a long time ago, but it feels like ages ago if you’re a Star Wars fan who’s lived through the many highs and lows of the franchise since Disney acquired the rights to George Lucas‘ empire. That must go double for Daisy Ridley, who in that span of time has […]

The post 10 Years Later, Daisy Ridley Considers the Legacy of Rey and Star Wars: The Force Awakens appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

A set 65 million years in the making. Dinosaur and LEGO fans alike can rejoice because the biggest Jurassic Park LEGO set of all time has just leaked. Allegedly just 25 more pieces than the 2019 set 75936: T. rex Rampage, the 76968: Dinosaur Fossils: Tyrannosaurus is rumored to be the new set joining the […]

The post LEGO Jurassic Park 76968 Set Leaks and Rumors: The New 2025 T-rex Skeleton appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

Batman isn’t just the world’s greatest detective. He’s also a master of branding, someone who understands the importance of iconography. So while he’s had several different costumes throughout the years, Batman also knows that some things need to be consistent. Such is the case with the Caped Crusader’s newest Batsuit, which was introduced by DC […]

The post Batman Comics Just Confirmed the Biggest Change to the Dark Knight in Years appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

The cast of new Disney+/Hulu drama A Thousand Blows don’t so much introduce themselves as smash their way onto the screen – almost literally in the case of Shoreditch boxers Sugar and Treacle Goodson, and Hezekiah Moscow and Alec Munroe, the two young fighters from Jamaica who take the East Enders on in the backroom […]

The post A Thousand Blows Cast: Meet the Characters of the Historical Boxing and Crime Gang Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths. With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census […]

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

In his own words, screenwriter Steven Knight “does legends”. The Peaky Blinders, Taboo, and SAS: Rogue Heroes creator takes elements of real-life history and turns them into swaggering myths.

With an ear for an unusual name, and a knack for conjuring flesh-and-blood icons out of historical figures that crop up in newspaper reports and census columns, Knight has rehabilitated the British working class period drama. He’s taken the gratitude and drudgery out, and written ambition, glamour and modernity in. He made icons out of real-life Birmingham gangsters in Peaky Blinders, and he’s about to do the same with East-End boxers and female thieves The Forty Elephants in new drama A Thousand Blows.

As the six-episode first series (a second has already been filmed) arrives on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US, let’s have an overview of the real history of A Thousand Blows, and some pointers on where you can find out more.

Hezekiah Moscow, Alec Munroe & Sugar Goodson Were All Real

To learn about the real Hezekiah, Alec, Sugar, Treacle and more, go no further than the historical research that inspired A Thousand Blows, conducted by the show’s boxing historian and historical consultant Sarah Elizabeth Cox. First published online in 2019 on her Grappling With History website and currently being expanded into a book, Cox’s findings include photographs, posters, newspaper articles, census entries and more detailing the lives and careers of the real people who inspired the show’s characters. As Cox writes, “A Thousand Blows is not a documentary: the characters and storylines are the creation of a wonderful team of writers, and it is only in little snippets here and there that they cross paths with reality.”

Those crossed-paths with reality include the real existence of a West-Indian immigrant named Hezekiah Moscow, who worked at the East London Aquarium as a bear and lion tamer and competed in various boxing bouts, including at the real Blue Coat Boy pub in Shoreditch, London. His West-Indian trainer and corner man Alec Munroe was also real. There was indeed an East-End fighter nicknamed “Sugar” Goodson – though according to Cox, the real Sugar was thought to have only one eye.

Mary Carr and The Forty Elephants Were a Real Criminal Gang

Speaking to the BBC, A Thousand Blows creator Steven Knight explained how he combined two real-life stories to create the Disney+/Hulu drama. Approached by actor-producers Hannah Walters and Stephen Graham about putting the life of boxer Hezekiah Moscow on screen with their company Matriarch Productions, Knight combined that story with another based in historical fact he’d been wanting to tell – about female thief gang The Forty Elephants.

“A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That’s pretty much irresistible.

“And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I’d wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that’s what this show is about.”

Mary Carr was indeed the Queen of the Forty Elephants around the 1880s period in which A Thousand Blows is set, as well as being an artist’s model for painter Frederic Leighton. Read more about the Elephant and Castle-based gang’s tactics and lifestyle via the BBC here.

Mild Spoiler warning: references to plot details in A Thousand Blows below.

The Morant Bay Rebellion Was an Infamous Part of Jamaican History

Hezekiah’s traumatic flashback memories to his childhood in Jamaica elliptically tell a version of a real, violent historical episode in colonial history. The 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion was an uprising by the people of Jamaica’s southeast coast against cruel privations by their British colonial oppressors. You can read more about its origins and impact at the national archives website here.

Li Hongzhang and Lo Feng Luh Were Real Chinese Diplomats

The Chinese dignitaries who are guests of the Earl of Lonsdale in A Thousand Blows are based on real diplomats who served as part of a legation to London in the aftermath of the 19^th century Opium Wars between Britain and China. You can see here an artist’s drawing of Lo Feng Luh (played by Chike Chan in the show), and here a contemporary newspaper report about the Chinese minister.

The 5^th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing Enthusiast

Hugh Cecil Lowther was a real English peer and sportsman during the period around which A Thousand Blows is set. He’s the “Lonsdale” behind the famous British sports brand of the same name, and was a founding member of the National Sporting Club who was said to have donated the very first Lonsdale Boxing Belts for the boxing championship trophy.

Aerialist “Miss La La” Was Real

The acrobat that Mary and Hezekiah see performing at a West End music hall is based on a real Black Polish historical figure, also named “Miss La La”. She performed on a swing high above crowds and her feats were recorded by painter Edgar Degas in his 1879 work “Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando.” She was the subject of an exhibition at London’s National Gallery in 2024, which you can read more about here.

Queen Victoria Did Have a Black Goddaughter

The A Thousand Blows character Victoria Davies must be inspired by the real Nigerian-born woman known as Sara “Sally” Forbes Bonetta (originally called Aina, before she was renamed by the English captain to whom she was “discharged” by enslaved people trader King Ghezo of Dahomey), who became Queen Victoria’s goddaughter. The timeline doesn’t quite match up as the real Aina died young of tuberculosis and didn’t survive into 1880 period in which A Thousand Blows is set, but it’s very close. See portraits of her here, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

The Blue Coat Boy Pub, its Boxing Ring, and its Landlord Were Real

The Blue Coat Boy Pub had an MC who owned a boxing saloon nicknamed William “Punch” Lewis, just like Daniel Mays’ character in the TV show. Read more about them all here, thanks to the research of Sarah Elizabeth Cox.

A Thousand Blows is streaming now on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US.

The post A Thousand Blows True Story: The Real Characters Behind the Historical Drama appeared first on Den of Geek.

Warning: contains finale spoilers for The Leftovers. HBO’s The Leftovers opens on an ordinary street in Mapleton, New York, on an ordinary day in October, moments before an extraordinary global event – the “Sudden Departure” – changes the world forever. As 142 million souls – two percent of the world’s population – suddenly and inexplicably […]

The post The Leftovers Ending: Explaining the Final Scene appeared first on Den of Geek.

“The coldest blood runs through my veins, you know my name,” croons Chris Cornell at the start of Casino Royale, the film that rebooted the James Bond franchise with a new approach and a new face as 007. Yet, as many times as the guy playing James Bond changed, fans could count on one constant name: Broccoli.

But that’s about to change. Amazon Studios has announced a “joint venture” with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the current heads of Eon Productions, to “house the James Bond intellectual property rights.” Although the announcement makes clear that Broccoli and Wilson “will remain co-owners of the franchise,” it also indicates that “Amazon MGM Studios will gain creative control of the James Bond franchise following closing of the transaction.”

That’s a seismic change in the world of James Bond. Since 1961, Eon Productions has been the sole creative shepherd of live-action adaptations of Ian Fleming’s novels and characters. Founded by Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Eon has remained family-owned, even after Saltzman sold his shares in 1975 and Cubby died in 1996, after which his daughter Barbara Broccoli and his stepson Michael G. Wilson assumed control.

Eon and the Broccoli family have been the people most responsible for James Bond’s successes and failures. Outside of the occasional production that occurs outside of Eon’s aegis — the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale, Never Say Never Again from 1983 — the family has been in charge of choosing the actors, directors, and creative direction of the project. It was the Broccolis who picked Scot Sean Connery and blond-haired Daniel Craig to portray the dark-haired English agent, but it was also the Broccolis who rushed Moonraker into theaters to cash in on Star Wars and refused to let Steven Spielberg make a Bond film.

Obviously, the family’s record is imperfect. But it’s the type of record that can only occur when unique voices are at work, a rare thing in our current state of boardroom-driven IP-mining. Thus far, the Broccolis have largely avoided farming out the James Bond for cheap cash ins. That is, if we forget about the weird cartoon series James Bond Jr. and the aborted attempts to make a show about Jinx Johnson, Halle Berry‘s American agent from Die Another Day. Still, compared to a media landscape that includes Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler, such restraint is absolutely monk-like.

Will that change with Amazon in charge? A company best known for getting cheap iPhone chargers to your door may not be anyone’s best hope for creative integrity. However, the corporate giant has produced some pretty fantastic work, including the TV series The Boys and last year’s groundbreaking film Nickel Boys (produced by Orion Pictures, a subsidiary of MGM, which Amazon now owns). Amazon may want to continue the level of care exerted by Eon, if only to protect the brand.

Then again, just two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reported on tensions between Eon and Amazon. “These people are f____g idiots,” Barbara Broccoli was quoted as saying of Amazon executives, dismissing their suggestions by repeating a line she heard from her father: “Don’t have temporary people make permanent decisions.” The Wall Street Journal article described Eon as having primary control in the negotiations, which they wielded to prevent spinoffs and short-term ideas that the Broccolis found contrary to James Bond’s best interests.

Apparently, that’s changed. “With my 007 career spanning nearly 60 incredible years, I am stepping back from producing the James Bond films to focus on art and charitable projects,” Wilson says in his statement with Amazon. “Therefore, Barbara and I agree, it is time for our trusted partner, Amazon MGM Studios, to lead James Bond into the future.”

For her part, Broccoli looks backward in her statement, reflecting on Eon’s successes rather than her issues with Amazon. “My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli. I have had the honour of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry,” she stated.

What does the future of James Bond look like? It’s hard to say. But Bond has gone through several permutations before and still come out okay. If Bond can survive Auric Goldfinger, Xenia Onatopp, and Blofeld, then he can also survive Jeff Bezos.

Well, maybe. Just hours after announcing creative control of the franchise, Bezos has taken to social media to ask users to pick the next Bond.

To the surprise of probably no one, Henry Cavill seems to be the favorite, his popularity likely stirred by recently leaked footage of him reading for Bond during the casting of Casino Royale. Several users also call for Idris Elba, long-rumored to be in the running as the first non-white actor to take the part, while others want to see Daniel Craig back in the part. And, of course, many others point out that Bezos has more in common with a Bond villain than he does M. or anyone likely to hand out 00-status, and thus shouldn’t be in charge of such things.

It’s hard to disagree with that last opinion. After the exacting control that the Broccolis and Eon have had over the franchise, it’s shocking to see Amazon almost immediately throw it all away and let the people decide. That’s underscored by their choice of Cavill, a guy who Casino Royale director Martin Campbell wanted for the role, but was overruled by the Broccolis, who picked Craig. Craig’s unique but instantly iconic take on the character is exactly the sort of thing that comes only from someone with creative vision, not someone trying to score easy social media points or get subscribers to a delivery service.

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