Steven Knight

Ding ding! Filming is underway for A Thousand Blows, the 12-part drama set in the gritty world of 1880s illegal boxing in the East End of London.

The series centres on two protagonists, Heziah, played by Malachi Kirby (Small Axe), and Alec, played by Francis Lovehall (His Dark Materials). The pair are thrust into the underground London boxing scene after arriving from Jamaica, and quickly find themselves fighting on all fronts in a punishing world of violence and lawlessness.

Across six parts, This Town tells the story of an extended family and four young people who are drawn into the world of ska and two-tone music. The genre grew out of Coventry and Brimingham in the late 1970s and early 1980s, uniting the young people of the black, white and Asian communities.

The BBC has announced that Michelle Dockery of Downtown Abbey fame will star, alongside Nicholas Pinnock (Life) and David Dawson (The Last Kingdom).

Based on Ben Macintyre’s novel of the same name, the six-part series stars Connor Swindells (Sex Education), Jack O’Connell (The North Water), Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones), Sofia Boutella (Climax), and Dominic West (The Pursuit Of Love).

SAS Rogue Heroes tells the story of how the SAS was formed under extraordinary circumstances in the darkest days of WWII.

A Thousand Blows will see Knight, the writer who breathed new punk energy into the period piece with series like Peaky Blinders and Taboo, portray the perils of illegal boxing in the 1880s in Victorian London.

Across 12 parts, the thrilling series will follow Hezekiah and Alec, two best friends from Jamaica who are thrust into the melting pot of London’s East End post-industrial revolution.

The first look images for the BBC six-part limited series sees Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham with Fionn Whitehead as Pip and Shalom Brune-Franklin as Estella. 

Steven Knight will write and executive produce the series, which will also be executive produced by Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott. 

Great Expectations tells the coming of age story and education of an orphan named Pip who dreams of becoming a gentleman. 

Street artist Akse was commissioned by the BBC to paint a mural in the home of the eponymous gang that announced the previously secret broadcast date of 27 February.

The 12.71m high artwork depicts the leader of the Peaky Blinders, Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy. It took seven days to complete and can now be seen in full on the side of a building overlooking the Old Crown pub in Digbeth.

The series, created by Steven Knight, first aired on BBC Two in 2013. It follows the lives and exploits of the Shelby and his gang in the aftermath of the First World War.

Filmed on location in the UK and Morocco, the six-part series will tell a dramatised account of how the darkest days of World War Two lead to the formation of the SAS under extraordinary circumstances.

The series will star Connor Swindells (Sex Education), Jack O’Connell (The North Water), Alfie Allen (White House Farm), Sofia Boutella (Modern Love) and Dominic West (The Pursuit of Love). Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk) will star as SAS founding member Mike Sadler.

It has also been confirmed that the series will be the drama’s last, although creator and writer, Steven Knight, has hinted at a spin-off: “While the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form.”

The story of Tommy Shelby and his notorious family’s rise to power in post-First World War Birmingham has grown to become an international phenomenon since it first aired in 2013.

Barring an unexpected – but probably unsurprising – large asteroid impact, the most tumultuous year in living memory is finally limping to its end. At this time of year, we would normally compile a review or two but who wants to relive 2020?

It seems the biblical equestrian quartet has been riding roughshod for months; countless losses and the unending upheaval of the pandemic; acts of violent racism; raging wildfires, floods and even a locust plague in East Africa. As a result, we’ve all changed this past year.

The six-part limited series is the second Dickens novel Knight has adapted, following A Christmas Carol last year.

Knight will once again be partnering up with producers Ridley Scott and Tom Hardy to bring the novel to life.

Great Expectations tells the coming-of-age story of orphan Pip, who dreams of being a gentleman and winning the heart of the beautiful but cold Estella.

Initially the story was released by Dickens as weekly chapters starting in December 1860, before it was published as a complete novel.