Fans crown ‘new Peaky Blinders’ the ‘best British show ever’

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Peaky Blinders may have ended two years ago, but fans of the Cillian Murphy drama reckon they’ve found something just as good to fill the void.

Enter A Thousand Blows, starring British acting royalty Stephen Graham alongside The Crown’s Erin Doherty and Lockerbie: A Search for Truth star Jemma Carlton.

The Disney Plus series became available to stream just days ago, but viewers already reckon it’s one of the ‘best’ shows we’ve seen in recent years.

It follows Graham as he portrays Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson, a dangerous, veteran boxer living in the 1880s era of Victorian London.

Goodson meets Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) and Alec (Francis Lovehall), two best friends from Jamaica who are fighting for survival in the East End.

The six-parter is based on the phenomenal true story of The Forty Elephants, an all-female crime syndicate that came about around the 1870s and was based in the Elephant and Castle area.

Stephen Graham underwent a major physical transformation to play Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson (Picture: Robert Viglasky Photography/Disney Plus) He stars opposite The Crown’s Erin Doherty, who plays his love interest (Picture: Robert Viglasky)

Since the project was created by Peaky Blinders mastermind Steven Knight, it’s not surprising that audiences are drawing comparisons between the two.

Taking to X following its release, user dearmelanchxlyy hailed it as a ‘top-tier’ show, writing: This show A Thousand Blows is definitely the best British show I’ve ever seen and definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen.’

It took just a single episode to draw others in, as rayandnephew_ wrote simply: ‘just saw the first episode of a thousand blows. chefs kiss’.

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Echoing their sentiments, JFACasey posted: ‘One episode into #AThousandBlows and I’m hooked! Beautiful production design, razor-sharp performances, and Steve Knight at his absolute best!’

GristleAmerican described the show as ‘superb’ while sittingbourneTA praised the ‘great acting’ from the cast, leading to a binge-watching session.

Graham’s ‘magnificent’ portrayal of his role has also been well received after the Liverpudlian star underwent a drastic physical transformation, building up his physique and gaining two stone.

The show is based on the phenomenal true story of The Forty Elephants (Picture: Robert Viglasky) Fans have heaped praise on the cast’s ‘magnificent’ performances in the six-part first season (Picture: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage)

But X users aren’t the only ones showering A Thousand Blows with compliments, as it debuted on review platform Rotten Tomatoes with 93% and an average rating of 8.4 out of 10 from critics.

Despite the inevitable connections made between A Thousand Blows and BBC gang drama Peaky Blinders – one fan described it as ‘a worthy successor’ – Knight has made it clear this is a standalone creation.

Speaking to Metro, the writer stressed the importance of the programme standing ‘on its own,’ irrespective of the success of his previous work.

‘There are similarities and differences,’ he said when addressing the parallels that have been made. ‘I try to make everything that I do stand alone and be itself.’

The 65-year-old outlined that there is an ‘obvious’ similarity in the fact that it’s a ‘working class story’, as well as being a period drama.

‘It’s about men and women who are outside of convention, but who ultimately want to be respectable in the end. They want to get there, but the way they get there is by doing things, bad things. So there are similarities, and I don’t mind that,’ he shared.

Plenty of comparisons have been drawn between A Thousand Blows and Peaky Blinders (Picture: BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd./Robert Viglasky)