Netflix’s ‘high-stakes’ crime drama is your next TV binge

Steve Coogan and Tom Burke lead the cast of Legends, Netflix’s six-part series about a group of ordinary British Customs officers who infiltrate a notorious drugs gang

ooking for your next crime thriller obsession? Netflix might just have the answer. The upcoming six-part true story-inspired drama, Legends, arrives in May – and it sounds like a must-watch.

Starring Steve Coogan (The Reckoning) and Tom Burke (Strike), the thriller follows a group of ordinary British Customs officers tasked with a top-secret, “high-stakes” mission to infiltrate and take down the UK’s most notorious criminal drugs gang.

The series boasts an impressive cast of familiar faces, including Hayley Squires and Douglas Hodge, who both starred in The Night Manager, Call the Midwife‘s Charlotte Ritchie and Victoria actor Tom Hughes.

Gerald Kyd as Mylonas, Tom Burke as Guy, in Legends© Courtesy of Netflix
Tom Burke stars as Guy in Legends

If the stellar ensemble cast isn’t enough to entice you, perhaps its writer will. The show is created and penned by award-winning screenwriter Neil Forsyth, who is behind the brilliant crime dramas Guilt and The Gold. 

Neil is no stranger to bringing true crime stories to life on the small screen. His BAFTA-nominated crime drama The Gold told the unbelievable story of the Brink’s-Mat robbery of 1983, and I completely devoured both seasons when they arrived on BBC iPlayer. If Legends is half as thrilling, I’m expecting some seriously binge-worthy viewing. Find out more below…

Steve Coogan as Don in Legends© Courtesy of Netflix
Steve Coogan plays Don

What is Legends about?

The thriller is set in the early 1990s, a time when Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise was losing its battle with illegal drug smuggling across Britain’s borders.

The synopsis reads: “The solution was extraordinary. In a top-secret operation, a small team of Customs employees were sent undercover. Their task — to infiltrate Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs.

Tom Burke as Guy, Jasmine Blackborow as Erin, Steve Coogan as Don, Aml Ameen as Bailey, Hayley Squires as Kate, in Legends© Courtesy of Netflix
All six episodes of Legends will be available to stream on Netflix on 7 May

“But these were not trained spies. They were normal men and women, plucked from ordinary lives around the UK, put through a basic training regime, and tasked with building new identities in the criminal underworld. These identities were called legends.”

Creator Neil said of his latest project: “I’ve written shows in the past that are about well-known events. You then tell the story behind it that isn’t so well known.

“This is unique, in that the work of the Legends is barely known at all … There was this core team of people that did all of this, and they did it almost without any public recognition,” he told Netflix.

Who stars in Legends?

Tom Burke leads the cast as Guy, a customs agent who works alongside his wife, Sophie. He’s based on a real Legend named Guy Stanton.

Meanwhile, Steve Coogan stars as Don, the head of operations.

Aml Ameen as Bailey, Hayley Squires as Kate in Legends© Courtesy of Netflix
Aml Ameen as Bailey and Hayley Squires as Kate

Other cast members include Hayley Squires (The Night Manager, I, Daniel Blake) as Kate, Tom Hughes (The English, Victoria) as Carter, Aml Ameen (A Man in Full, Rustin) as Bailey, Jasmine Blackborow (The Gentlemen, Marie Antoinette) as Erin, Douglas Hodge (The Night Manager, Joker) as Blake and Charlotte Ritchie (You, Ghosts) as Sophie.

Rounding out the cast are Johnny Harris, Gerald Kyd, Numan Acar, Joshua Samuels, Kem Hassan and Thomas Coombes.

How to watch Legends

All six episodes of Legends will be available to stream on Netflix on 7 May.