Netflix has released the trailer for ‘Legends‘, its new British crime drama from Neil Forsyth (The Gold, Guilt), which follows a group of ordinary customs workers drawn into a dangerous undercover operation in the UK during the early 1990s. The six-part series stars Steve Coogan (The Trip, Alan Partridge), Tom Burke (Strike, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake, The Gold), Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You, Rustin) and Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts, You). The series lands on Netflix this May.
Inspired by a real undercover operation, ‘Legends’ tells the story of a team of largely untrained recruits who were tasked with infiltrating some of Britain’s most notorious drug gangs. Rather than polished spies, these were everyday people forced to invent entirely new identities and live them convincingly enough to survive. And, from the look of the trailer, Netflix is leaning hard into both the tension and the psychological cost of that double life.
In the footage, Coogan’s Don leads the operation with a mix of stern realism and weary paternalism, warning his recruits: “Your legend has to be part of you. One wrong word, one wrong decision, and you’re a goner.” Tom Burke plays Guy, one of the customs agents tempted by the chance to do something bigger with his life, even if it means putting everything at risk. If that all sounds a bit like a British answer to the sort of undercover thrillers where nobody gets out emotionally intact, that seems to be very much the point.
Forsyth said the series appealed to him because the true story behind it is so little known, despite the scale of what these people were being asked to do. He described the recruits as people trapped by circumstance, suddenly handed a chance to reinvent themselves, even if that opportunity came wrapped in enormous danger. That sense of reinvention, and the cost of it, also seems to be one of the show’s big themes, with Coogan suggesting the series digs into ideas of identity alongside all the crime drama tension.
Alongside Coogan, Burke, Squires, Ameen and Ritchie, the cast also includes Jasmine Blackborow (The Gentlemen), Douglas Hodge (The Great, Joker), Tom Hughes (Victoria, A Discovery of Witches), Johnny Harris (A Gentleman in Moscow, The Salisbury Poisonings) and Gerald Kyd (The Swarm, Silent Witness).
Given Forsyth’s track record with ‘The Gold’, there’s every chance ‘Legends’ could end up being another sharply observed British crime story with a strong human edge. And, judging by the trailer, it looks like one where the biggest danger may not just be getting caught, but losing yourself while pretending to be someone else.
‘Legends‘ premieres Thursday, 7th May 2026 on Netflix.
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