Sarah Lancashire Joins Keira Knightley And Ben Whishaw In New Netflix Spy Series
Anyone who’s a crime thriller fan bid a sad farewell to Happy Valley when it came to an end earlier this year after 3 highly successful series- but likely we won’t have too long to wait until it’s star Sarah Lancashire returns to our screens. The award winning actress has been announced to be joining the cast of the upcoming Netflix series Black Doves, a new spy thriller that sees her opposite Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw. While we’re a little while from its expected release date, the streamer has revealed a few first bits of info to keep us excited.
What is Black Doves about?
The enigmatically titled series joins recent streaming fare like Amazon’s The Citadel, Netflix’s own Heart of Stone as a modern, tech filled take on the classic spy thriller. While those titles saw Richard Madden and Gal Gadot ape James Bond, Black Doves focuses on a more down to earth and relatable character in Helen Webb. Played by Lancashire, our heroine is a mum of two living in London who seems perfectly normal on the surface, but is in fact an expert spy. The action begins at Christmas in the capital, where Helen has spent the last decade or so working for the highly secretive Black Doves organisation. The agency is discreet and powerful, and Helen has been quietly giving them confidential information about her husband, a politician, and his decisions and activities: she leads a life undercover. But things are about to go very wrong.
What else do we know?
Helen secretly has a lover, Jason, that she sees regularly, and manages to balance her family life with her secret occupation and relationship. But this is shattered when out of nowhere Jason is assassinated, leaving Helen in shock wondering if her own life is in jeopardy. It’s then that she turns to her longtime close friend Sam (Whishaw), who’s the only one she truly trusts to help her and ensure her safety. He’s been set by the agency and trained as an efficient assassin, but has his own demons to contend with. Sam’s last assassination job went badly wrong, forcing him to retire and turn to drinking. With both struggling internally, Helen and Sam set out to find exactly who ordered the murder of Jason and why- leading to an unraveling conspiracy that threatens geopolitical security.
Who else stars?
We don’t yet know who Keira Knightley is set to play, but you can pretty safely assume her character will be deeply involved in the espionage world. Alongside the three main stars are Andrew Koji (Bullet Train), Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch), Omari Douglas (It’s A Sin) and Kathryn Hunter (Andor). There’s no announced release date yet from Netflix, but the show is in production and expected to arrive sometime in 2024.
