Screenwriter Neil Forsyth earned kudos a-plenty with his two BBC One series of The Gold, a dramatisation of the 1983 Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery and its aftermath. Now he’s stepped aboard the good ship Netflix for this story of heroin-pushing gangs in London and Liverpool, set in the dying days of the Thatcher government at the turn of the Nineties.
Again the story is rooted in fact, and explores how a group of fairly lowly customs officers were recruited to infiltrate and destroy a multi-million pound heroin racket that was wreaking havoc with both poor kids in Northern housing estates as well as posh thrill-seekers. The overdose death of a cabinet minister’s daughter, it’s suggested, was one of the catalysts for the operation, which plays helpfully into Forsyth’s class-warfare subtext (which was also threaded none-too-subtly through The Gold). In response to this, Blake (Douglas Hodge), boss of HM Customs & Excise, is tasked by the supercilious Home Secretary (Alex Jennings, in his element) with creating an undercover team to, uh, “smash the gangs”.
The drama is driven by a cluster of powerful performances. Steve Coogan demonstrates once again his aptitude for non-comedic roles with his portrayal of Don, who’s in charge of assembling the group that will take on, and with a bit of luck take down, the smack smugglers. Tough, pragmatic and unsentimental, Don brings a steely focus to his task, assisted by his own traumatic personal experiences as an undercover officer (Coogan and Hodge pictured below).
Don’s recruiting technique is to put up notices in various government offices saying “Could You Offer More?”, inviting usually faceless civil service drones to step up and get involved in some risky business. The “Legends” of the title refers to the cover stories the officers will have to construct to enable them to infiltrate the dark passageways of organised and mercilessly lethal crime gangs as they bring in tons of heroin from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The idea is that the volunteers will immerse themselves totally in their legends, to the extent that their true identities will be set aside while they’re involved in the case. And even when their mission is over, they may find it coming back to haunt them. “The danger never leaves and legends never die,” Don warns them.
Don finds an especially promising recruit in Guy, who, like his wife Sophie (Charlotte Ritchie), is a customs officer at Heathrow airport, and usually checks passengers’ suitcases for a living. But Guy, in a towering performance from Tom Burke, proves to be a man with many hidden depths, a former boxer who seems to have been secretly craving an opportunity to unleash a powerful craving for action, danger and being at centre-stage. Growing steadily in stature over the six episodes, he will play a pivotal role in masquerading as a professional transporter and importer of drugs, with influential connections in the port at Felixstowe.
As the story unfolds, we get to meet an intriguing array of protagonists on both sides of the law. Tom Hughes delivers a creepy and menacing turn as Liverpool drug baron Declan Carter, a man who hubristically declares that “I own this city”, but he’s much less frightening than the sinister smack kingpin Hakan (Numan Acar). Jasmine Blackborow delivers a skilfully nuanced turn as Erin, the undercover team’s resourceful researcher who gradually grows into her role and banishes her natural diffidence, while Hayley Squires plays dogged field operative Kate, who forms a fruitful partnership with Bailey (both pictured above).
But the action isn’t confined to grimy old Blighty. A visit to the poppy-growing heartlands of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey gives Forsyth an opportunity to cast a critical eye over the historic colonialist excesses of the British, the Russians and the Americans, suggesting that we we reap what we sow. An ironic harvest indeed.
Add comment