This review covers all of Series 2

I must admit that after enjoying the first series of Stephen Knight's most famous and enduring TV creation, "Peaky Blinders", I abandoned it, never to return to it, midway through the second series as I detected an emergent saminess in its character presentation and situation depiction. I'm therefore glad to say that I managed to stay the whole fifteen rounds of the second and what looks like being the final series of his most recent production "A Thoussnd Blows". That despite it having the most irritating theme and Incidental music I've ever heard in a TV show!

Anyway, the series picks up exactly where the first run ended and we follow the continuing fortunes and misfortunes of Hezekiah, Mary, Sugar, Treacle, Mr Lao and the 40 Elephants Gang, the latter no longer a male-dominated group now that Hezekiah cut off its head and Mary and her cohorts wiped up the rest.

Mary has to cope with personal tragedy along the way but rallies herself to dream up a cunning plan to enrich the girls which involves teaming up with a big-talking American con-artist whose cover is to be a Derren Brown-type mesmerist of her day. The new target is a long hidden-from-public-view painting by Carraveggio but you can bet there are a few twists along the way in the attempt.

Meanwhile Hezekiah falls in with Queen Victoria's second eldest son, Prince Albert who wants to learn the pugilistic art so he can settle a personal score which will eventually see Hezza regain his boxing licence and come to the attention of a visiting black American boxer who wants him to return with him to take a bite out of the Big Apple to his considerable personal advantage.

And Sugar and Treacle, well they continue to fall out and in as brothers do with the latter the unlikely police target in the new Ripper murders case. Will Sugar turn in Mary under threat of the cops pinning a murder rap on his bruv...well, watch this space.

I enjoyed series 2 equally as much as I did series 1, although by the end, familiarity was just starting to breed at least a little discontent although not quite contempt for these characters. They were so well drawn and played out, back-stories and all, that I felt there wasn't much more room for further character development.

There were so many plot strands at play here, it got tricky sometimes to tie them together but in the end I think hardly any were still sticking out. The boxing scenes were gritty and realistic and the acting, headed by Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty Malachi Kirby and James Nelson-Joyce was strong all the way down the cast list. If occasionally some of the exterior sets looked more like interiors, I can excuse it through being merely a television as opposed to a movie production.

Although the final scenes seem to set up nicely some high future high jinks in New York as well as London, it looks like we'll just have to dream up the gang's future doings ourselves if indeed this is the end of the line for the show.

It's that thousand and first blow from the commissioning producer which will put you down for the count it seems...

The crime genre features criminal activities, investigations, law enforcement, crimes, and the pursuit of justice. Crime stories often revolve around the planning, execution, and consequences of criminal acts, as well as the efforts to solve and prevent such acts. They explore various aspects of criminal behavior, motives, and the moral dilemmas faced by both perpetrators and those seeking to uphold the law.

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Murtagh's grip on Treacle tightens as Hezekiah steps back into the ring. On the night of the Graften Ball, everything is set for the heist but things don't go to plan.

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