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 RealTo 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 GangSpeaking 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 HistoryHezekiah’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 DiplomatsThe 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 19th 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 5th Earl of Lonsdale Was a Real Boxing EnthusiastHugh 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 RealThe 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 GoddaughterThe 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 RealThe 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.