A Thousand Blows is ready to binge-watch at last with fans growing curious of where the Disney+ period drama was filmed. Peaky Blinders genius Steven Knight has been able to breathe new life into boxers Hezekiah Moscow and Henry “Sugar” Goodson and gang leader Mary Carr who all walked the streets more than 100 years ago.
The series, loosely based on true events, follows their lives as Mary Carr (played by Erin Doherty), leader of the Forty Elephants hatches her biggest money-making plan yet as Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) and Sugar (Stephen Graham) embark on their rivalry.
Now, with all six episodes dropped on Friday, February 21, on Disney+, subscribers are eager to know more about what went on behind the scenes, including where the drama was filmed. A Thousand Blows’ Victorian London was built at The Story Works, the new nine-hectare film and television studio complex in Mortlake, South West London.
The complex, which is the “largest film and television studio in the heart of London”, according to The Story Works, was built on the historic site of the 22-acre riverside Mortlake Brewery. Series producer Tom Miller explained at a Q&A, saying: “It really started with where we’re going to do it and I think of people have alluded to the fact it was in London, the fact we were all together.
“Because it was actually Simon Vaughan and Damian Keogh who are our colleagues from Story Collective, they had this idea that we could mount it at the disused Budweiser brewery in Mortlake for those of you who know west London. “So after we got it all set up there which was some undertaking in itself, it then became the job of turning it into a kind of film studio.
“And where all those sets were built, it was the kind of the old yard of the brewery which was being used as a car park but completely disused, overgrown. “So really for the first year, before anything really happened, we had to put aside being TV producers and become building project managers.”.
Miller elaborated that the team had to work on cleaning the area out, building offices, soundproofing the old factory and building toilets for the cast and crew. Actress and executive producer Hannah Walters chipped in to add that they all had to wear hard hats and high vis vests in the early days of the set’s creation.
“It was a huge process and a huge team effort," Miller then remarked. “There are only seven of us on here [the stage] but there could be 500, because from beginning to end, it was a huge group effort.”. A Thousand Blows is available to watch on Disney+.
