Erin Doherty wins chameleon of the year for A Thousand Blows, the compelling new Disney+ drama ruminating on the macabre underground world of illegal boxing in London in the 1800s. She was memorably steely in The Crown, playing the reserved Princess Anne, but now one of the UK’s most immensely watchable talents performs a complete shape shift to play a working class gang leader: the permanently unphased Mary Carr.
There are plenty of other commendable things about A Thousand Blows, created by Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight (accordingly, the script is full of jibes and quips), but Doherty is why we’re here: based on a true story, the boxing drama pays homage to the Forty Elephants, a group of female thieves who operated in the capital, of which she plays its de-facto leader.
