A Thousand Blows: Stephen Graham stars in 'moreish' boxing series

(Image credit: Prod DB © Disney+ / The Story Collective - Water & Power Productions / Alamy Stock Photo)

published 27 February 2025

"Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight doesn't make dull television, and his latest series – for Disney+ – "may be his best yet", said Benji Wilson in The Telegraph. Set in late 19th-century London, it stars Erin Doherty as the leader of a gang of female pickpockets. Also in the mix is Malachi Kirby, as a Jamaican who finds himself thrust into the East End's thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene. There, he soon threatens the supremacy of Stephen Graham's Sugar Goodson, a publican who is the scene's "self-styled alpha". The series is deeply violent – the clue's in the title – "but if you can get past that", it's "blockbuster" TV with a "sensational" performance from Doherty.

Like "Peaky Blinders", this series is "very moreish", said Carol Midgley in The Times: it grabbed me by "the scruff of the neck", and forced me to binge-watch it all. And while "there is the odd clunky line", and a "pretty preposterous" plot twist later on, it "viscerally" brings to life the "grime, chaos, danger and cunning but also the sheer energy of the East End".

The performances are excellent, and it is lovely to look at (though everyone looks far too clean), said Deborah Ross in The Mail on Sunday. But it didn't feel all that original, and the violence really is extreme. "I spent, roughly, 40% of the six hour-long episodes staring into my lap while also blocking my ears." And it was quite infuriating to have watched it all unfold, eager to find out where it was going, only to get a "To be continued..." message in the last frame.