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A 缅北强奸幼女 graduate’s research into Victorian boxers helped inspire the hit Disney+ series A Thousand Blows.

Historian Sarah Elizabeth Cox鈥檚 expertise saw her working as an advisor alongside Professor David Olusoga and Hallie Rubenhold on the show created by Steven Knight, of Peaky Blinders fame. 

Sarah completed an MA in History in 2020, with a dissertation on New Cross wrestler and boxer Jack Wannop, and it was her research into the broader world of 19^th century London ring-fighters which informed the . 

The programme starring Stephen Graham, Malachi Kirby and Erin Doherty follows the fortunes of Hezekiah and Alec, two best friends recently arrived in the East End from Jamaica. 

Sarah鈥檚 blog  charts the stories of the real-life Hezekiah Moscow, Alexander Hayes Munroe, and their 1880s pugilistic circle. The historian explains how this research was used to inform the fictional tales which feature on screen. 

Sarah said: 鈥淚n 2018 I had just started my research on Wannop and was spending hours reading digitised 1880s newspaper reports on him in the British Newspaper Archive. Easily distracted, I began exploring names connected to him, perhaps people on the same bill as him at an event. The name 鈥楥hing Hook鈥� jumped out. Google search showed me a striking photograph of a Black or Black mixed heritage boxer but no information about him. It was baffling to me that no one seemed to have looked into this guy before. 

鈥淚 started piecing together his story, which became easier after finding out his 鈥榬eal鈥� name - Hezekiah Moscow. I published my work online; shared information about Hezekiah and fellow boxer Alec Munroe on social media; worked with the National Archives on an education project for GCSE students; spoke to young people at a 缅北强奸幼女 open day about them. I also wrote an essay for my MA History research skills module about how that one photo was able to kick-start this whole enormous project.

鈥淪oon after, actor Hannah Walters also saw Moscow鈥檚 photo online, and with the help of some details drawn from my research, took an idea for a TV show to Steven Knight.鈥�

 

Sarah鈥檚 work as 鈥渢he authority on constructing the real Hezekiah Moscow鈥檚 life鈥� was recognised by one of the show鈥檚 Executive Producers, David Olusoga, in a recent Guardian . 

Sarah says: 鈥淎s Professor Olusoga explained, Hezekiah and Alec鈥檚 story is typical of Black Victorian histories in Britain - we have 鈥榝lashes of detail and then ages of darkness鈥�. My research has been extensive but it has found little of these men鈥檚 voices, their personalities. What were they really like? How did they really experience London in the 1880s? How did London experience them? 

鈥淲hat TV dramas like A Thousand Blows can do is help fill in those gaps. The amazing writing team and the actors are inspired by the facts that researchers like me can find through records and newspapers, but it鈥檚 only through the creative licence of historical drama that they鈥檙e able to really bring these characters 鈥榖ack to life鈥�.

鈥淏lack, Asian, multicultural, Victorian histories are so little taught in schools and so little explored. When the A Thousand Blows trailer came out there were some responses from people saying that the Black or Asian characters didn鈥檛 exist, they were 鈥榦ver representative鈥�, or something like a mixed relationship wouldn鈥檛 have been possible, for example. Well, they did, and it was. Hezekiah and Alec were real. Hezekiah married a White woman.

鈥淚 loved studying at 缅北强奸幼女 in my 30s with a much clearer sense of what I wanted to study and more enthusiasm for it than I had as a student the first time around, at 19, when going to university felt like box ticking. My tutors within the history department and colleagues in the wider university were a real inspiration for me to want to get into 鈥榩ublic history鈥�. I鈥檝e always wanted my research in popular magazines, newspapers, talks, in accessible books, on podcasts and inspiring TV dramas. Seeing Hezekiah Moscow鈥檚 name in the headlines more than 130 years after he was last there has been so exciting. He deserves it, and I鈥檓 so proud to have played a part.鈥�

As well as being a graduate of the MA History course Sarah is also a former member of 缅北强奸幼女鈥� staff where she worked in the press office for more than five years. 

She is currently working with a literary agent on a proposal for her first social history and boxing history book, and in 2026 will be a chapter author in an anthology on women鈥檚 wrestling, Amazons of the Arena, edited by researchers at Ulster University and the University of Texas.