A Thousand Blows (2024) s01e02 Episode Script

1
[Hezekiah] The colour of my skin
is making it very difficult for me
to find lodging in the city.
You are just one?
[Hezekiah] Yeah,
man. Me just one.
[Mary] My name is Mary Carr,
Queen of the Forty Elephants.
The biggest independent
gang of female thieves
in the whole of London.
Aboard the
Trans-Siberian Express,
there is a trade delegation
sent by Emperor Qing of China.
[Lao] You're going to steal
from the Queen of England?
Are you in, or are you out?
You took this
money out of my box
in my private room.
Get out of my sight, and don't
you ever fucking come back.
[Hezekiah] You could earn
some money in the ring.
- You were good.
- [Alec] You were better.
[Hezekiah] My position
already filled.
Not here for the boxing then?
What do you wanna
see a lion for?
I don't want to see a
lion. I want to tame one.
[Harkness] Let's start
your training today.
It's five bob a
day. Six on Sundays.
[grunts]
[Hezekiah] Cages
are for animals.
Introducing the East
London Gladiator.
Henry "Sugar" Goodson!
[spectators cheer]
[sergeant] Prepare!
Oh, let the
power from Heaven ♪
Fall on me, my Lord ♪
[sergeant] Hold!
Oh, let the power fall on me ♪
- My Lord ♪
- [sergeant] On my command!
- Let the power ♪
- [sergeant] Prepare to fire!
- Fall on me ♪
- [Hezekiah] Papa.
Hezekiah! Go home!
[chanting] Sugar! Sugar! Sugar!
[bell dings]
[Punch] Both don't show concern
and sizing each other up!
- To the body!
- Get him on the ropes.
- He's quick. He's too quick.
- He can handle himself, this one.
- [gunshots]
- [Hezekiah screaming]
Think. Think!
- Come on now.
- [Punch] The lion tamer's landed a blow!
But can he land two
more for his five bob?
Take your time!
This is on a knife's edge,
ladies and gentlemen!
- [Hezekiah screams]
- Keep him on the rope!
Keep him on the ropes, son.
- [bell dings]
- [spectators shouting]
[spectators chanting]
Sugar! Sugar!
Sugar! Sugar! Sugar!
[villagers] Oh, let
the power from Heaven ♪
Fall on me, my Lord ♪
[villager screaming]
[Hezekiah] Papa!
[Punch] It's a miracle,
ladies and gentlemen!
He's on his feet!
He's back from the dead!
[bell dings]
[bell dings]
[spectator 1] Come on, lads!
Keep your hands up!
[spectator 2] Sugar! Come on!
Take off his chin.
That's it. That's it.
- [grunting]
- [corner man] Give it to him, son.
Fuckin' great!
- Turn him. Turn him!
- Move off him!
Don't come any closer. Get
out of the corner, son.
[spectator 2] Come on, Sugar.
Come on, son. Take it
back in! Take it back!
[Sugar strains]
Come on! You got it, son!
[Punch] Bite his
fuckin' ear off!
Go on, Sugar!
Hold him. Hold
him down. Hold on!
Get your hands up!
Charlie.
That's it. It's done. It's done.
- [bell dings]
- [spectator 2] Get up! Come on!
[Punch] Oh, stay down.
We know you were down.
- [Hezekiah screaming]
- Go on, son. Back off!
- Back up. You're done. You're done.
- [grunting]
[Sharkey] Mare!
[coachman] Get out the road!
[Sharkey] Mary!
Mare!
Come down here, Mare!
Mary!
Hey. Hey.
- Mare!
- Hey, hey, hey.
Hey, listen.
Stop.
Give me the gun.
- [Sharkey sniffs]
- Please.
Give me the gun.
[spectators jeering]
And the brave boy from
the land of ruby red rum,
has at last had
enough punishment!
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes
Sugar Goodson's sweet science surgery!
Oi, Mary!
Who is he?
- What?
- [Treacle] Who is he?
He's a lion tamer, Treacle.
What is he to you?
Nobody's anything to me.
Come on!
[Lao] Wait, wait.
Wait. Wait.
[Sharkey coughs]
Hey. Hey, hey,
hey. Listen to me.
Listen to me. Listen
to me. Listen to me!
There is more to you than this.
- [cries]
- Yes.
I think there is more
to you than this.
[cries]
I must see my Mary.
Mary.
Mare!
Mare!
- [horse neighs]
- No!
[breathes shakily]
All right. Fuck
off, and go home.
Give him a round of applause. Give
him a round of applause. Come on.
[Charlie] Fuck
off! Give him room.
- Fuck!
- [spectator 1] Come on!
Come on, what was
that? It's a fix!
[spectator 2] You're a cheat!
You're a fucking cheat!
- [spectator 3] Boo!
- [Charlie] Go on, get in.
Come on.
He didn't even see it coming.
[sighs]
You all right?
[sniffs]
You, uh, forgot to
collect your winnings.
For landing your blows.
It should've been the whole night's
takings. You had Sugar beat.
That man was your friend.
No.
No, he was a cock with
complications. Many complications.
Best you concern yourself with
only yourself in this life.
Them as wish to die
can suit themselves.
If you're so concerned, then
spend two bob on a funeral.
Alternatively, we wrap him up
and throw him in the river.
Sharkey liked the river.
Loved it actually.
As a little boy, he grew up
in the mud between the tides.
He would much prefer the
river full of honest eels
to any fuckin' churchyard
full of mug punters.
You. Are you gonna help?
Which part of the river?
Right. There's a place
called Hell's Gateway.
We'll have to wait
for the tides.
[Mary grunting]
After three, we sling him.
What, without a prayer?
Oh, there's no God
who cares to stray East beyond the
territory of the Angel, Islington.
[speaking Cant]
- Throw.
- [grunts]
[Mary sighing]
River picks them up from here.
Like a train at the station.
Floats them, drags
them to the middle,
then takes them express down to South
End where the dogfish do the undertaking.
What language you just count in?
[sighs]
"What the fuck are they saying?"
The coppers ask as we confer
in the back of the paddy wagon.
Tonight you lost the fight,
but you got my attention.
Which is worth more than a night's
takings at the Blue Coat Boy.
Sometimes fate is
like this old river.
Washes up the exact thing you
need at the exact, right time.
What is it you need?
You.
The last chess piece
for my strategy.
- You play chess?
- With people.
And
And I am a pawn?
More like a knight
in battered armour.
[chuckles]
I have an imminent
criminal engagement
which will require someone
with your abilities
and which would pay you personally
£100 in English paper cash.
Huh.
£100, Mr Lion Tamer.
How many blows would you have to give and
take to earn that in five shilling lots?
And why should I
trust you, Mary Carr?
You are in London.
This city makes
only one promise,
that it will kill you
the first chance it gets.
Strip your flesh as
quick as them dogfish.
You think we don't have
dogfish where me from?
Oh, we have them.
Mmm.
Them wear white suits
and red uniforms.
And when you face them,
drop your guard,
fall for one of their lies
Me know all about
cruelty, Mary Carr.
That is a commodity your people
saw fit to share with the world.
My offer stands.
And you can trust
me to keep my word.
Me and my ladies are
shopping this morning.
But when you're ready to talk,
you can find me in The
Green Dolphin Hotel
making some very
complex arrangements.
[sighs]
[vendors chattering]
[Hezekiah sighs]
[Alec] Hez, where you been?
Me did a worry.
So
you did so worry that you drink a
bokkle of whisky and fall asleep?
[chuckles] That is
not real whisky.
[chuckles]
There's a cray
fisherman by the wharf.
And him make this out of
molasses and crab apple
and put it in a whisky bokkle fi give
"the poor liquid dignity," him say.
[laughing]
Him talk like that.
He's an old soldier
from Scotland.
I think you'll like him.
Ah, wah hap'n to you?
You fight Sugar?
Me lasted two rounds before
injustice ring the bell.
They say we can be better.
But we cyaan win.
Swallow that.
We can be men,
but we are not human.
Swallow that.
[sighs]
[Hezekiah sighs]
You know, crayfish man like me.
Him say him have work for us.
Him give me this one for free.
You know women here like me too?
[both chuckle]
It's starting to be that
I'm almost glad that I came.
Starting to be
Wish I was sitting on a rock ♪
In Morant Bay ♪
With a hook and line
Catching nothing at all ♪
[humming]
[sucks teeth]
We drank two bottles of
this last night, each.
[chuckles] I swear. I swear
I saw a mermaid. [chuckles]
Is that why Anne's so fucking
conversational this morning?
[sniffs] No, it's not.
Last night I went
aboard a Spanish galleon
in Charing Cross with
ten Spanish sailors.
- [Elephants gasp]
- Ten.
Two hours later, I stepped ashore
with 100 Spanish gold coins
that I had earned without
recourse to the obvious.
Show us your hundred gold coins,
Anne, and we'll believe ya.
- [Eliza] You drugged them.
- Fuck you.
I will speak only to Queen Mary.
Come on then, we've
got work to do.
[door opens]
[Treacle] Mary's downstairs.
[door closes]
Sounds like the ladies are heading up
the West End to cause a bit of bedlam.
Who is he?
Um [sighs]
He got in from Jamaica a few days ago,
and they're staying in The Green Dolphin.
Who's they?
Well, there's the one who I
fought on Friday night and beat.
He's called Alec.
And then there's the one you
fought. He's called Hezekiah.
They're sleeping
in my own backyard?
Where'd he learn
to fight like that?
[Treacle] No one knows.
And that's the problem.
Mary held his fuckin' hand.
Are you listening to me?
Strangers walking through our doors,
and we don't know who they are.
Peggy Bettinson paid me a visit.
And what did he fuckin' want?
Well, he's setting up
legitimate fights for belts,
and he's taking
rooms up West, Sugar.
Proper rooms, not
the fucking pub.
He's straightening it up.
I wanna fight him again.
The Jamaican.
[sighs]
He's got men who are half royals
and stockbrokers coming in,
and that way we know who we're
fighting, and we can plan for it.
Peggy Bettinson will never make a
penny from his stuck-up tea dances.
People sat around like
they're in fuckin' church.
I wanna fight him again.
Saturday night.
Not with you or fucking
Charlie coming in the ring.
Just me and him.
Yeah.
Mary watching,
and she can raise
my fuckin' hand.
She'll hold my right hand in the
air as he lays on the canvas.
Dead or alive.
I don't care which.
Well done, mate.
- Gwaan.
- Gwaan.
- Good?
- I'm good.
- Ready? Hmm.
- Yeah, man.
Oi! Well done.
You swung your blows for
all of us last night.
- Yeah, man. Thanks.
- [pedestrian] Good on you, sir.
Yo, Jack, it's Alec!
Jack, it's Alec.
So what your friend
want us to do?
So him make all of
them things here so.
Him make all of this?
Mmm, all right.
So him want we fi sell
the bokkles for him.
Him say we can sell it as Jamaican
Rum that we bring from Kingston.
Hmm, so him is a cheat?
- No. Well, no, no, Hezekiah
- Ah, the cheat is your friend?
You know, we only in
London because of you.
[sucks teeth]
All right, so where him is?
This Jack.
- This cheat.
- [Jack] There he is.
Glad that you came back, Alec.
[chuckles]
Jack, this is my friend. The
one I did tell you about.
Oh, not just you,
Alec. Not just you.
Everybody.
The runners, the larks
They're all talking
about him this morning.
The saviour of the
common man, he is.
Jack MacAllen.
Known to the world as Jack Mac.
Alec, me don't want pass surgical
spirit as Jamaican rum for this man
because it's not right.
[Alec stammering]
Give him a chance now.
A man of principle, eh?
Fire in the belly.
Beginnings of a
legend, I think, Alec.
You know, I fought in Bloemfontein
alongside men like you.
And it was there I learned
the language of the lion.
In Africa, it was a lion
who was my best friend.
Everything is a lie here.
So you believe what
you waan believe, Alec.
You see, these mad people, them
just say what you want to hear.
Hezekiah. Sorry.
- Hezekiah!
- [Hezekiah] Me gone.
- Yo, listen to me now, man
- [Hezekiah] Me gone. Me gone.
[patrons chattering]
Afternoon, ma'am.
It's all on display, ma'am.
[patrons clamour]
- [Belle] I'll be taking that, thank you.
- [shop clerk] My God, it's the Elephants.
[Eliza] Right. Down there.
I'll take this, you take that.
[Belle] Pardon me, ladies.
[patron] Oh, my!
[patrons scream]
[Mary] It will take the
Knightsbridge Constabulary
exactly two minutes to get here.
And remember I want yellow
and blue silk in gold brocade.
Verity, get down the other end.
[chuckles]
[Belle] Oi, pass his
hat! I'll be taking that.
[Mary] We've got to cover it.
- Time's up, ladies!
- Milady.
[Esme] Right, come on. Let's go.
[Eliza] Ladies, come on. Now.
[chuckles]
[chuckling]
Keep moving!
[employee] Wait!
Is two bob a day worth getting
your throat cut for, darling?
Fuck two bob a day. I
wanna be an Elephant.
- Where are you from then?
- Covent Garden.
The shit end with
the rotten apples.
[officer] Stop or you'll get
Stop!
[coins clink]
For three more nights.
[Lao] I hear you had
Sugar Goodson beat?
I only won five shillings.
How it can be that
I had him beat?
[Lao] Everyone knows
you had him beat.
Which is unfortunate for you.
If you have any sense,
you will take your coins
and put five miles of London between
you and this part of the river.
[sucks teeth]
When Sugar gets mad,
the river gets hungry.
- Look, I have done nothing to that man.
- He can't stand to lose.
They say when he
was seven years old,
he saw his own father
beaten to death in an alley.
In the workhouse,
he fought every day to save his little
brother from flogging and worse.
In every fight,
he is protecting his family.
[Hezekiah] Please
just keep the rent.
By the way, I know there
are two of you down there.
[in English] 'cause you
are my Chinese brother.
[chuckles]
[grunting]
[grunts]
Well, I admire your bollocks,
young man [sighs]
but this is not a
good place for you to be.
Give him a drink on the house.
I would like a glass
of Jamaican rum
and to know what your
brother has planned for me.
He wants a rematch.
[scoffs]
And it'll be me against
him, you, and what?
- Two other men?
- [Treacle] No.
No, no, no, no, no.
This time, it'll
be fair and square.
[Sugar panting]
- [sucks teeth] How much you paying?
- You know the rates.
Me not care about your rates.
How much to give the emperor a
chance to restore his reputation?
£3, win or lose.
More if I win?
[chuckles] Punch.
I'll check the barrels.
No.
On this occasion,
more if you lose.
Why more if I lose?
I'm his brother.
And he has hot blood.
Mine is cooler.
You agree to lose
on Saturday night,
and I will give you £5 and
you can walk away for good.
Yeah?
Just have a little
move round in the ring
and go down in the third.
[weights clink]
Mmm.
- Yeah?
- Mmm.
[exhales sharply]
Uh, Sugar Goodson!
[Sugar grunts]
Sugar Goodson!
Hey, your brother just offered me £5
to take a fall in the third round.
Fucking idiot.
[Sugar sighs]
I asked my brother
to make arrangements
because my heart
cannot be trusted,
and there are devils that
pull the carriage I ride.
I am able to speak
to you long enough
to invite you to
meet me in combat
this Saturday night at eight
o'clock in that there ring.
And I promise you
it will be a fair fight.
And should you win, this
pub will pay you £50.
But should I predominate
should I break you,
and I promise I will not
stop until you're dead.
Then your body will be sent back
on that boat to whence you came.
[Hezekiah] I am just
a stranger to you.
Why would you want me dead?
Because it's like
looking in the mirror
and there can't be two of us.
Fair and square.
[spits]
Fair and fucking square.
[Sugar breathing heavily]
- [door opens]
- [bell dings]
What?
Genuine Chinese silk liberated
from the grasp of the ruling class
by representatives of
the urban proletariat.
Your sisters in the struggle,
the Elephants of the revolution.
Not much call for
Chinese silk around here.
Lot of call for bread and
shoes and clean water.
- Things like that.
- No.
We don't want you
to buy it off of us.
We want you to make
something out of it.
Let me guess, Mary.
- A wedding dress?
- [chuckles]
- You're getting married?
- [laughing]
Mary's waiting for a miracle,
aren't you, Mary? Hey?
A cock with no babies in it, a
tongue that doesn't answer back.
And when you are of no more use,
you fall under the hooves of horses.
I want you to make
a suit like this.
Slippers as well and that
hat. We like that hat.
What size?
You know the man who
runs The Green Dolphin?
It's for him.
Will he come for a fitting?
He don't know he's
gonna be wearing it yet.
Mary, I'm gonna
stay here for a bit.
What, are you an item?
No, it's just a port of call.
We discuss revolution.
Mary, I swear the
conversation is secondary.
We just fuck.
Well, fuck him all
you want, Eliza,
but don't start believing
what he has to say.
Planting bombs
and causing chaos,
anarchists and
communists and Fenians
attract the sort of
attention we don't need.
We are ordinary, decent criminals,
and we thrive on neglect.
[door opens]
[door closes]
Come on. Yeah.
He was coming at you fast, and you
were chasing him round in the ring.
Yeah. Don't open up. Stay
tight like a fucking crab.
Yeah.
But when he pops up, there's a
second where I can catch him,
and this time, I
will. I'll catch him.
Yeah. But if you miss, you'll
be open and he will catch you.
I'll read his eyes.
[scoffs]
Yeah, but you'll be the same
man, and he will be the same man.
Yeah, well, I've
learned from last time.
Brother, I watched you.
Watched me? What does that mean?
Hey, what did you see?
What did you fuckin' see?
I saw that you've slowed down.
And that you came up against
someone young and useful and
Well, you weren't fast enough.
Champions are fast.
Not champions around here, champions
of everywhere in the world.
Of the world, Sugar, yeah?
Up west, they're talking
about someone being the fighting
champion of the whole fucking world.
And you can't do that if
you're you're dead.
Brother,
I saw in that lion tamer's eyes, if
we hadn't have dragged him off ya
that he would have killed ya.
And come this Saturday,
you will be the same man, and
he will be the same man and
You're my brother.
I'm talking sense to ya. [sighs]
And you will fucking
listen, Sugar.
[sighs] Sugar.
[Eliza] Oh. [chuckling]
[chuckling]
[kissing]
- That e-enough now. I mean it.
- [sighs]
I swear to God,
Mary, we just fuck.
We do fuck.
And feel.
Why don't you tell
her it's more?
Why don't you tell me what you and your
friends are plotting in the shadows?
For your own protection.
Promise me you'll never
breathe a word of this to Mary.
Why do you fear her so much?
Fear?
You know the man I used to be
with, and you know what he did.
Well, it was Mary who
saved me, made me safe.
I told her what he did. [sighs]
Three days after I left,
he was found at home with a
butcher's knife in his throat.
She never said anything, but I
knew she was somehow behind it.
You believe in your cause.
And I believe in Mary Carr.
Did you get what I asked?
Courtesy of the Harrod's
Department for Sporting Gentlemen.
Good girl.
So, I passed?
Am I now an Elephant?
You don't become an Elephant.
The Elephants are born.
At the top of my thigh, I've got a
birthmark in the shape of a stiletto.
It's fate telling me
something, I think.
You leave fate to me.
Heard the name Sugar Goodson?
- No.
- You have now. Find him.
If you can persuade him to meet
me at Hell's Gateway in an hour,
you won't be an Elephant, but I
will have a bigger job for ya.
And only let those
who will benefit you
ever get access
to your birthmark.
This may be the bottom
of the barrel, Alice,
but we are gonna float elegantly
all the way to the fucking top.
[chuckles]
[Sugar] I remember
showing you this place.
I haven't wanted to see you
because I've been out of sorts.
I'll be fine here.
The river keeps me calm.
I know.
But whatever it is you want,
don't make it anything that
will stop me being calm.
Oh, f [sighs]
It is the future, Sugar.
Do it like they do
up river in the West.
Fights organised by
lords and ladies.
You put yourself in the
hands of Peggy Bettinson.
No, no, no. Hear me out.
Respectable punches, honourable
blood, silk stretchers,
and mostly, the
fighting men don't die.
Until you wear gloves,
you are East End scum.
You wear gloves,
you're engaged in a
sport for gentlemen.
And that, Sugar,
that is where the money is.
Bare fists are gone.
I go out West to
fuck, not fight.
Why don't you just try 'em on?
There's something wrong with me,
and there's something
wrong with you.
But the thing that's wrong
with me, I can punch,
and I can feel that
I'm hurting it.
But the thing that's
wrong with you is a hole.
You can't feel, Mary,
'cause there's a fucking
hole in the middle of ya.
I've seen it.
Be there.
Saturday night.
Watch me kill him.
[sighs]
[panting]
[knocking on door]
[chuckles]
What do you think of my perfume?
[chuckles]
You smell like my grandmother.
Me taking your hand seems to
have caused a bit of a problem.
But I'd do it again because, among
other things, I read fortunes.
And your prospects
appear to be rather poor.
If you lose on Saturday,
- he will kill you.
- Me can't lose.
But if you win, he'll
have you killed.
- So
- [bones crack]
[groans] Fuck!
[groaning]
By the time the Trans-Siberian Express
arrives with the Chinese delegation,
you should be healed.
But you won't be
healed by Saturday.
I just saved your life.
[Hezekiah grunting, panting]
There'll be plenty of
ways to say thank you.