As A Thousand Blows returns for its second season, I got a chance to sit down with Darci Shaw, James Nelson-Joyce, Malachi Kirby, and Erin Doherty to talk about what to expect from Steven Knight's big London underworld series.
For those catching up, A Thousand Blows is a Disney+ series about the London boxing underground at the turn of the century, where criminal gangs compete for superiority as Jamaican boxer, Hezekiah Moscow (Kirby) arrives into town seeking his fortune. He encounters the icy Mary Carr (Doherty), leader of the Forty Elephants, and ends up butting heads with the volatile boxing champ Sugar (Stephen Graham), along with his well-intentioned but misguided brother, Treacle (Nelson-Joyce). It's not long before they're all entwined in plots upon plots, each reaching out to grasp at a strand of happiness, wealth, or both.
The first season concluded with everyone at their lowest point, and it's not looking too rosy for anyone involved as the second one picks up. Things are particularly dire for Treacle, who has lost his sense of self and place after enduring a horrific beating from his own brother. When we first see him, he's barely holding his pub together, announcing to potential customers the joint is closed "on account of me not wanting to work today."
Says Nelson-Joyce: "He's not the same Treacle. In the first season he's trying to do the right things for the wrong reasons, now he's just a hot mess, bless him."
Meanwhile, Sugar finds himself on the street, abandoned by everyone he once held power over. Where the first season explored the relationship of the two brothers with a familiar power structure, the second flips the narrative on its head.
"The roles are reversed," Nelson-Joyce continues. "Unfortunately Treacle isn't in the same state as in season one. I'm not equipped to look after myself, let alone Sugar."
Yet Sugar and Treacle aren't alone this season, as A Thousand Blows expands even further to explore the meaning of community and class in a setting that feels all too relevant to the present day.
Says Kirby: "The importance of community is key to this season. There is an immigrant story in a lot of Steve [Knight]'s writing that comes through in this. The importance of the immigrant contribution to society and not isolating multiculturalism to just a bunch of different looking people in the same space, but instead all of them collaborating together. That's something we explore in the show."
A part of what makes A Thousand Blows so fascinating is how closely it ties into history. Most of the characters really existed and we have plenty of surviving evidence about them.
For Shaw, it was an immense help in putting together who her character, Alice, would be in the grand scheme of things.
"It's not exactly true to life," she begins. "They did bring her back in time so she could exist alongside Mary. I read a lot about her background and her family. In reality she was born in 1880, and then became a queen of the Forty Elephants and really infamous in London in the 1920s. It's great as an actor to have not just a great part, but the ability to do the research."
Some of that emerges in Alice's icy stare, which has become a fan favorite. Look at any group scene, and you'll find Alice observing the scenario with an almost detached sense of calculation. Which couldn't be further from Shaw, who is bright and quick to smile and break out in a joke with her co-stars during our chat.
"That was all me!" she insists. "I was trying to find how she would show everyone that she was one to watch out for. She has that kind of stillness that is all about the competence and coolness. She's cool as a cucumber in a stressful situation that says 'I want to make it to the top.'"
I ask Kirby and Doherty about their respective journeys, which see the two characters trade both physical and emotional blows as they negotiate what it means to trust and have faith in others. Knowing where history leads them, did they lean on that information in crafting their emotional arcs?
"I read the script and where I had to get to, but it's important to be present at every moment," Kirby says after a brief pause. "I wasn't pre-empting it or guiding my way to an end. I trusted how everything was written and playing the truth of it. It's really good writing that is believable."
Doherty agrees: "That was my experience of it. The stakes are so high they require you to be in the moment and honor that at any given moment. I was emotional with the last scene [in the series] because I was avoiding it. It was so special going on that journey, entwined by these two people. It was really emotional."
A Thousand Blows Season 2 streams on Disney+ Friday, January 9th. Look for a review closer to the release date here on Region Free.
