Historian David Olusoga sheds light on Hezekiah Moscow, a mysterious migrant seeking a better life in Victorian London. Plus, my suya obsession
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. Last week I watched Steven Knight’s historical drama series A Thousand Blows, in which Hezekiah Moscow (played by Malachi Kirby), a plucky young man from Jamaica, arrives in London to become a lion tamer but ends up a boxer. The Bafta-winning film-maker and historian David Olusoga, an executive producer on the series, tells me about the real Moscow and the difficulties of recovering the history of Black life in 19th-century London. That’s all after the weekly roundup.