Creator of Netflix’s Legends Neil Forsyth shares remarkable true story in an exclusive chat

Legends official Netflix trailer

A key scene in Netflix’s latest true crime drama went straight into the script from real life.

All episodes of the streaming giant’s latest six-part series is now available from today (May 7). While it is expected to keep viewers gripped, the series is actually inspired by the remarkable true story of a group of ordinary people who risked everything to do an extraordinary job.

According to its synopsis, the show is set in the early 1990s, with political pressure being felt by Her Majesty’s Customs over the battle with illegal drugs being smuggled across Britain’s borders.

With the impact of drug use being felt across the country and then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s power waning, an unorthodox solutions was considered and put into motion.

As part of a top-secret operation, a small team of Customs employees were sent undercover. Their task was to infiltrate Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs and do anything it took to bring them down from the inside.

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Neil Forsyth said one tale told to him by the real Guy went straight into the script(Image: NETFLIX)

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.

The series is created and written by Scottish screenwriter Neil Forsyth. He is known for also making the crime drama Guilt, starring Mark Bonnar as well as the true crime drama series The Gold, which was based on Forsyth’s non-fiction book of the same name.

This time around, the writer took information from real life legend Guy Stanton, who is played by Tom Burke in the series who penned the book The Betrayer, along with Peter Walsh about his experiences. Neil also undertook his own research and even met Guy himself to prepare for making the series.

In an exclusive chat, Neil revealed what it was like meeting Guy for the first time. He said: “Just extraordinary. Basically sitting in a restaurant in a leafy sunny English village and this very kind of quite softly spoken older look telling me these incredible stories from his younger years. I couldn’t really believe it. It’s amazing.”

He also revealed that a number of scenes found during the series were actually taken directly from Guy’s stories and went “straight into the script”. Some of these occur later on, so he was careful not to reveal too many spoilers but he was stunned himself they really happened.

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Neil Forsyth met the real Guy before writing the series(Image: Netflix )

Neil explained: “There’s a scene in episode six with Guy and his family on a tube train. I won’t say any more than that but that’s a story that Guy told me when we met up together and I just said, ‘Yeah, I’m doing that’. It just went cleanly into the script really.”

He continued: “I was like, ‘That’s crazy’. And the fact that his family were involved. So that just went straight in and there were lots of little moments like that, lots of little things that were discovered. Again, without getting into too much of a spoiler territory, I knew that there was a North London gang of some kind of Turkish heritage, dealing drugs and bringing in heroin.

“And I knew there was a guy in Liverpool doing the same. But when I came across the fact that there was a Liverpool guy in North London with a Turkish guy that joined forces, that was manna from Heaven for me, because for me, I had two separate storylines that can naturally come together.”

Legends is streaming on Netflix.