Legends on Netflix: Real-life heroin crisis drama is a solid series with great performances

The title for British crime series Legends has multiple meanings.

The first is practical in that a “legend” is a spy term for your undercover identity, as we have also seen in the excellent French espionage show Le Bureau des legendes.

The second is someone who does something awesome, like, say, take down murderous drug gangs in the middle of an epidemic. That person is a legend.

The third is about the blend of fact and fiction, passed down through the ages. For example, the legend of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. How much of that is true (Avalon, Excalibur, Merlin?) and how much of it is cobbled together from folklore and fables reflecting a historical context?

Legends, the new streaming series, is a blend of all three.

It’s based on a true story, yes, but out of necessity, both to people’s safety and to the demands of making a TV show, the details have been changed, identities fudged and timelines condensed.

Starring Steve Coogan, Tom Burke and Hayley Squires, Legends is set in the months leading up to Margaret Thatcher’s resignation as Prime Minister in November 1990.

Britain is gripped in a drug crisis with heroin apparently flooding the streets and victims, some of them just teenagers, dying. The Tories need to be seen to be doing something, especially as Thatcher’s political fortunes are waning.

That something is Project Beta, a small operation run out of the Customs department, who had fewer restrictions than other agencies, and whose job it was to secure the borders through which these drugs were arriving.

Drawn from a pool of ordinary workers – suitcase inspectors, secretaries – are four employees, Guy (Burke), Kate (Squires), Bailey (Aml Ameen) and Erin (Jasmine Blackborrow), who work with their boss Don (Coogan), a former undercover agent, to disrupt the criminal networks distributing and selling the drugs.

Their mission is split into two operations, the Turkish gangs in North London and the street crews in Liverpool, which combined are responsible for a hell of a lot of heroin in the market.

The work is dangerous. Guy, who has a wife and daughter, must completely delve into the “legend” of his cover, an imports/exports person looking to expand his business, while Bailey and Erin try to find a way in in Liverpool.

Legends is mostly about suspense and tension, which it wields to great effect, and a great example that maybe if you don’t have the budget to mount big action set-pieces, it doesn’t mean you have sacrifice thrills. Because sometimes what doesn’t happen is as exciting as what does.

It adeptly moves between the story strands without ever losing track, and also allows for room to breathe and bring in where each character is at on a deeper level at any moment. It’s very well paced and plotted.

This is a solid series and so much of that has to do with the performances, including Coogan, who is always so good when he’s doing drama.

Particularly impressive is Burke, a wonderful thespian in projects as varied as action spectacle Furiosa and indie drama The Souvenir. He’s brilliant, equally held-in and combustible as Guy, and makes it clear that the peril for Guy is not just physical but also psychological – will he ever be able to make it back to his family, or will he always be trapped in his legend.

The series is adapted from a book by the real-life Guy Stanton, which is an alias, who worked in these undercover roles for Customs during this period in time. His real identity can’t be revealed, and neither can those he worked with, and the other characters in the series are composites rather than portraits of his former colleagues.

Stanton’s experiences also don’t exactly map over the timeline of the show, which has been condensed for dramatic purposes, but the emotional truth of it is real.

As is the fact that there were in fact Customs agents who did the kind of work you’d expect from highly trained MI5 or police operatives, and without the resources or background experience.

It’s an extraordinary story that has been well served by this satisfying show. It could even be legendary.

Legends is streaming on Netflix