Writer’s comments come as new drama A Thousand Blows set for Disney+ debut
Steven Knight has suggested the streamers are outperforming the BBC due to the broadcaster’s financial “issues”, as he gears up for the release of his Disney+ series A Thousand Blows.
On Radio 4’s Today programme, the writer was asked why his latest drama, which is set in the world of illegal boxing in 1880s Victorian London, could not have been made by the BBC.
“I’m a huge BBC loyalist and I love to work with the BBC. Creatively there is no place like it,” he said.
“The BBC should be strutting on the world stage amongst the streamers more so than it does. There are issues with money. The BBC has a history of making do, and making the best of what [it has].”
He said A Thousand Blows “just happened to come along from a different direction” to the BBC, adding that he is working with the broadcaster on other series.
The Peaky Blinders creator touched on the outlandish nature of his new series, which also delves into the world of the Forty Elephants, an all-female shoplifting gang.
“I find the best stories are the ones least told for some reason so you do have to dig quite deep but when you do find these stories they are so remarkable, so incredible, that you think ’I would never have dared to make that up’,” he said.
He also credited the “fantastic” historian David Olusoga who consulted on the drama.
“He lifts the rocks and looks in the places where no one looks and finds all the stuff you don’t normally get from history books. He was the perfect person for this because we are looking for the real thing - what really happened and what it was really like for real people.”
Produced by The Story Collective in a co-production with Matriarch Productions and Water & Power Productions, A Thousand Blows will land on 21 February.
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