Ahead of the upcoming premiere, stars Steve Coogan, Tom Burke, and Hayley Squires drop hints about the complex double-lives of their characters, and what drives ordinary people to infiltrate the 1990s criminal underworld.
Cr. Courtesy of Sally Mais/Netflix © 2026
Created by Neil Forsyth (The Gold), Legends is a gritty and gripping 6-part drama coming to Netflix in May 2026. Headlined by British acting legend Steve Coogan, the series follows a team of customs officers thrust into the world of deep-cover espionage, going undercover under new alias’ — or ‘Legends’ — and aiming to dismantle the drug empire from the inside.
Legends creator Neil Forsyth is already an esteemed creator of gritty British crime dramas, having created 2023 series The Gold at Paramount+ and the BBC.ForLegends, he’s swapping out ’80s Britain for the 1990s, where a group of untrained customs officers goes undercover, creating new identities known asLegends,with the aim of infiltrating Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs. These officers are untrained. They’re ordinary people — our protagonist Guy works in airport security before taking on the ‘Legends’ gig. Unbelievably, Legends is based on a true story, set against the highly classified 1990s anti-drug operation.
Legends boasts a stellar, multi-award-winning cast, headlined by Tom Burke (Strike, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) as Guy, Jasmine Blackborow (Shadow & Bone, The Gentlemen) as Erin, Steve Coogan (I’m Alan Partridge) as Don, Aml Ameen (Sense8, Kidulthood) as Bailey, and Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake) as Kate.
Ahead of the debut ofLegends in May 2026, the cast has introduced fans to their characters and what viewers can expect from their roles in the series.At the beginning of Legends, a small team of Customs employees from all corners of the UK is sent undercover. They’re untrained in espionage and thrust into the deep end, made to forge their own identities.
Note: The following quotes are provided courtesy of Netflix.
The Legends program is spearheaded by Don, played by Steve Coogan, who recruits his team based on targeting very specific personalities and skills.
“Don is looking for people who are stoic: strong, but quietly strong. Not too mouthy, not people who push themselves forward, but who have a certain kind of inner strength,” Coogan explains. “They’re resourceful and diligent, not showy, not prone to rash decisions. He’s probably looking for that because his own metal was sorely tested when he went undercover. They might have issues, but that’s fine, so long as they have self-control.”
“I think the combination of Kate, Bailey, Erin and Guy – who are all very different – is a very odd group. You wouldn’t expect them to be in the same social circle, and they don’t duplicate skillsets. They all bring something different to the table.”
Don’s leadership is tough, born from his own experiences in espionage. “Obviously he has to produce results, otherwise you’re just sort of running round in circles, chasing shadows. So he has to strike the balance between getting them to make progress, without jeopardising things by running too fast,” he added.
Tom Burke teases Guy — a spirited and airport security officer who jumps on the mission
The first undercover officer we meet is Guy, played by Tom Burke. “Guy is working in airport security when we first meet him, and so is his wife Sophie. Sophie’s perhaps even more aware than Guy about how stuck in a rut he is, and the effect it’s having on their marriage,” Burke teases. “She sees him noticing a poster at work, asking for volunteers for this potential mission, and she’s very encouraging of him to do it. I was as fascinated by her as I was by him. I feel I often choose jobs based on the relationships in them, rather than the characters themselves, but I suppose the two are somewhat interchangeable.”
Additionally, Burke explains thatGuy’s motivation for jumping aboard the secretLegends mission was crucial not only for any financial gain or for the moral high ground, but also to inject excitement into his life. “In some ways, it’s a very moral thing that the Legends set out to do, but I never saw Guy as a particularly moral character. I always thought his drive was more individual and internal; that he just simply needs to do something like this, because it’s meaningful and purposeful, but also because it’s dangerous, and he craves that. There’s an adrenaline junkie in there somewhere.”
Given how strong-willed Guy is, his relationship with the other Legends is both tenuous and fruitful. “The other Legends are all very different; a real zoo of people, in a sense. I tend to say they’re dysfunctional, but a lot of the dysfunction really comes from how Guy relates to them,” he explains. But as the series goes on, they find they complement each other as much as they rub each other up the wrong way.”
Guy particularly gets special treatment from his boss Don. “Don sees a lot of his younger self in Guy, who’s sort of his star operative,” Coogan added. “He has to strike the balance between a slightly paternal attitude towards Guy, and also being a tough taskmaster.”
Hayley Squires introduces her “stubborn” operative Kate
Next is Kate, played by Hayley Squires — a “stubborn’ operative defined by her “very witty” and “sarcastic” personality. “When we first meet Kate, she’s very, very bored of her job. She’s working in the vice division of customs, knocking on the doors of men who have tried to import illegal pornography,” Squires says. “She’s probably in a position where regardless of what they were recruiting for, she’d go and do it, if it meant being able to use her brain more and be out of the very sad suit that she has to wear to work every day!”
Kate is stubborn, perhaps occasionally to a fault. Her ardent personality shines through early, in a scene where she becomes adamant to unpick a lock. “There’s a really brilliant scene that Neil put in early on during the recruitment and training process, where we’re picking locks, which is a very tedious task, and late at night Don finds Kate still at the desks trying to get this lock undone until she manages to do it,” she recalls. “There’s a stubbornness in her nature which means she becomes immovable. With that stubbornness comes a certain amount of strength, and a bravery to stick to something, even if you’re possibly wrong or possibly in danger.”
Elsewhere, Bailey, played by Aml Ameen, joins the team. As a methodical VAT inspector, Bailey is someone who feels he hasn’t quite reached his potential in life. Ameen describes him as “an incredibly efficient person, if it’s within the boxes of what he does,” but notes that stepping into undercover work pushes him far outside his comfort zone. “Within his routine, he’s incredibly confident. But as soon as that routine shakes a little bit, you see his wobbly knees, and the pain behind the mask that he’s developed,” Ameen explains.
Rounding out the highlighted crew is Erin, portrayed by Jasmine Blackborow. Operating as the “engine room” of the team, Erin is a Civil Service secretary responsible for creating the detailed paper trails that make the Legends credible. “Erin is a secretary who’s worked in the Civil Service for about six or seven years,” Blackborow shares. “Despite being really bright, for various reasons she’s learned to suppress that, in order to fit or to blend in”. Joining the Legends mission finally gives her a chance to embrace her intelligence. “It unlocks something in her, and she just lets out this really keen little girl that she maybe used to be and gets really enthusiastic about it all,” she adds.
Legends arrives on Netflix on May 7, 2026. Check out our full preview and first-looks here.
