The Crown star plays the leader of The Forty Elephants, an all-female gang that pilfered the city, in Steven Knight’s upcoming series A Thousand Blows. “I had no idea they even existed,” Doherty admits. “I can't believe that we haven't - even in the smallest of history classes - heard about these women… I just couldn't get my head around it!”
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.
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.
