Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has said he is a "BBC loyalist" despite his new period drama A Thousand Blows launching on Disney+.
Boiling Point actor Stephen Graham stars as notorious boxer Sugar Goodson in the upcoming series set in the perilous world of illegal boxing in 1880s Victorian London.
The drama will follow two friends from Jamaica, Hezekiah Moscow and Alec Munroe, who find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly of London’s bare-knuckle boxing scene.
It is here that Hezekiah, played by Small Axe actor Malachi Kirby meets Mary Carr, Queen of an all-female criminal gang known as the Forty Elephants, played by The Crown star Erin Doherty, who hopes to exploit his talents to further her enterprise.
Hezekiah also gets caught up with Sugar, the self-declared king of the East End boxing world, as his ambitions to fight in the West End threaten everything Sugar has built.
Asked if this type of show could still be made on the BBC, Knight told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday: "Peaky is a BBC show and there was no issue with making that at the BBC. I’m a huge BBC loyalist, as I think you know.
"I love to work with the BBC creatively. There is no place like it. I think the BBC should be strutting on the world stage amongst the streamers, more so than it does."
He continued: "There are issues of money. I think the BBC has a history of making do and making the best of what they have.
"I’m working with the BBC on other series now, this just happened to come along from a different direction."
Knight was behind the hit gangster series Peaky Blinders starring Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy which ran for six series from 2013 to 2022.
Graham also worked alongside Knight for the final series of Peaky Blinders, playing Hayden Stagg.
Knight has been behind many hit series, including BBC dramas SAS Rogue Heroes, Taboo and This Town, and co-created game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV.
His new drama is inspired by two true stories about Hezekiah Moscow and Mary Carr, with Knight imagining "what would have happened" if they met.
"I find that the best stories are the ones least told for some reason", he added.
"And so you do have to dig quite deep. But when you do find these stories, they’re so remarkable, so incredible, that you just think I would never have dared to make this up and these two stories are absolutely like that."
Knight said he was trying to address the issue of class within the series, as that was more prominent at the time than the issues of gender and race.
"People in the East End, if you’re cold, you’re cold; if you’re hungry, you’re hungry. The real struggle, I suppose, in A Thousands Blows, is about East versus West", he added.
The screenwriter revealed he does not overthink what he is writing and consider what culture elements may be picked apart, as he feels there will be "plenty" of judgment afterwards.
Broadcaster and historian David Olusoga acts as executive producer on the drama.
The first series of A Thousand Blows launches on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland on 21 February, while a second series has completed production.
Source: Press Association
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