This series is telling the historical fiction of two past subjects. The first subject is the story of the "Forty Elephants," an all-female crime syndicate that existed from the 1870's till the 1950's. They specialized in shoplifting from the stores and businesses in the West End of London, England. They would also pretend to be housemaids of wealthy families, so they can ransack and rob those wealthy homes. The other subject being portrayed is the transition of bare-knuckle boxing as a sport to more regulated, gloved boxing, which occurred with the last professional, bare-knuckle match in 1889.
Malachi Kirby (Black Mirror and Roots) stars as Hezekiah Moscow, an immigrant from Jamaica who comes to London around the 1880's with a dream of being a lion tamer. He has a potential job, but he becomes homeless on the streets of the East End, which is an area of the city that is impoverished and overcrowded with immigrants from all over. In order to make money or support himself, he starts participating in underground bare-knuckle fights. He quickly proves to be an incredible athlete and an incredible combatant. This draws the attention of people who are envious and those who are exploitative. Both turn out to be deadly.
Stephen Graham (Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) co-stars as Henry Goodman aka "Sugar," the owner of a pub in the East End. He runs the pub with his younger brother. He's illiterate or not well educated. What he does best is getting people to come to the pub. How he does so is by being the main attraction of the underground bare-knuckle boxing matches that he holds in the back of his pub. He's known as the "gladiator." It's not clear how old he is, but Graham is in his late 40's, early 50's and he is an amazing shape, hugely muscular. Yet, his character of Sugar becomes very envious of Hezekiah when Hezekiah proves himself a better boxer.
A rivalry develops between Sugar and Hezekiah, one that's somewhat rooted in racism. Ostensibly, it's rooted in Sugar's pride and wanting to be the best boxer, so that his reputation is such that people are scared of him. He sees that this is the best way to protect his family, specifically him and his brother. His pride is probably his most important thing and his biggest flaw.
Erin Doherty (Adolescence and The Crown) also co-stars as Mary Carr, the leader of the Forty Elephants. She also has relationships with a lot of the business leaders in the East End. She's constantly lying and manipulating in order to get what she wants. She'll get her fellow female thieves to smash-and-grab jewelry stores and high-class clothing outlets. These robberies don't yield a whole lot. Instead, Mary wants to make a big score that will get her out of the East End, out of the poverty there and out of the so-called gutter. She wants to live up to her title of "queen."
Her solution is to pull off a heist of the actual Queen of England by robbing a member of the Royal family. She comes up with a plan, but her scheme will have consequences for all who gets pulled into it. Pretty much, most of the characters get pulled into it. As a result, it becomes a bit of a thrilling narrative. One of the characters that gets pulled into it is Hezekiah, despite the warnings of his best friend, also from Jamaica, Alec Munroe, played by Francis Lovehall (Masters of the Air and Small Axe). He's the one who pushes Hezekiah to become a boxer and pursue it hopefully for a better life than the one they left and the one they currently have.
There's an incredible supporting cast, which includes James Nelson-Joyce (Black Mirror and Industry) who plays Edward Goodson aka "Treacle," the younger brother to Sugar. Edward is also a boxer but he helps to run the bar and be a kind of manager of Sugar's boxing career. He's younger and he's realizing that Sugar is getting a little over the hill for this sport. This too causes conflict between the two brothers.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 6 eps.
Available on Hulu.