00:00There's two elements to it, which I have intentionally bolted together, which is, that were concurrent
00:07at the time. So in the 1880s, 1890s, there was this very vibrant bare-knuckle boxing
00:13scene in the East End of London. There was also the emergence of what we now recognise
00:18as boxing in the West End of London, the Queensbury rules, boxing with gloves. But then, anarchically,
00:25apart from that, there was this reality of a thing called the Forty Elephants, which
00:29was a gang of women who operated from the Elephant and Castle, and they specialised
00:36in contricks, robbery, but also they would enter a department store like Harrods or Selfridges,
00:44and they would just invade the place and cause mayhem and steal so many clothes and put them
00:49on so that when they left, they looked like elephants, and they could barely get through
00:54the doors as they left. So it's just this real thing, this real piece of history that,
00:59as a writer, you wouldn't dare invent.
01:02Which obviously, when you hear about those antics, you must surely think to yourself,
01:06like, why has no one written this screenplay before?
01:08It is absolutely the case, and I've wanted to do a Forty Elephants thing for seven or
01:14eight years, because when I first found out about it, and found out about the characters
01:18about Mary Carr and Alice Diamond, real people who lived extraordinary lives, who took no
01:26nonsense, who were incredibly strong and powerful, you just think, this is a gift for a writer.
01:32Was it a similar spark that you felt towards them as when you first found out about The
01:35Piggy Blinders, perhaps?
01:36Absolutely.
01:37I hope you need to tell their story.
01:38It's absolutely the same. It's hidden or forgotten working-class history that the history books
01:44didn't bother with, and yet it's so much more interesting and fascinating than a lot
01:49of the stuff you read. I think it takes a genius to make history boring, and this is
01:56just, you just dip into history and find these incredible characters.
02:00I know you're a proud rummy. Can I ask you what you thought about the Tom Brady Birmingham
02:03City Revolution?
02:04I could not be more happy. Are you a blues fan?
02:08My dad is.
02:09Oh, really? I couldn't be more happy. It's fantastic. I never thought it would happen.
02:14I was at the Wrexham game, David Beckham sitting in front of me, Tom Brady sitting
02:18next to me. Incredible, and let's just hope that our dreams are going to come true.
02:24I'm proper happy for you all.
02:26Keep writing.
02:27See you later.
Comments