Netflix has announced the star-studded cast for its upcoming six-part drama series, Legends, created by Neil Forsyth of The Gold fame. The series is inspired by one of the most extraordinary criminal investigations in history, focusing on a group of British customs officers tasked with infiltrating the country's most dangerous drug cartels.
The official synopsis reveals that in the early 1990s, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise was losing the battle against illegal drug smuggling. In a top-secret operation, a small team of customs employees were sent undercover to build new identities in the criminal underworld—identities called 'Legends'. These were not trained spies but ordinary men and women plucked from everyday lives across the UK.
The cast includes Charlotte Ritchie (Call the Midwife), Tom Burke (Strike), Tom Hughes (Victoria), Steve Coogan (The Reckoning), Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake), Aml Ameen (Rustin), Jasmine Blackborow (The Gentlemen), Douglas Hodge (Joker), Gerald Kyd (The Assassin), and Johnny Harris (Great Expectations).
Brady Hood (Top Boy) will direct the first four episodes, while Julian Holmes (Reacher) will direct the final two. The series is executive produced by Forsyth, Ben Farrell, and Richard Bradley, with Charlie Leech as series producer. A release date has yet to be confirmed.
Forsyth expressed his excitement about telling this 'fascinating, gripping, unknown British story', while Mona Qureshi, Netflix's director of UK content, praised the scripts for introducing a compelling ensemble of characters and promising a gripping, action-filled series in the best tradition of UK crime stories.
