The creator of the mega popular Black Doves series on Netflix has revealed how the thriller is actually based on a true story.
In case you're yet to watch, the new Netflix show stars Keira Knightley, alongside This Is Going To Hurt''s Ben Whishaw and Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire.
Set in London over the festive season, Knightley plays mum-of-two Helen, who is actually working as a professional spy for an organisation called the Black Doves.
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Helen is married to Wallace, a politician (played by Buchan) who is tipped to become the next prime minister.
It's Helen's job to report to the Black Doves on government secrets shared with her by Wallace. But Helen has her own secrets - a civil servant named Jason (Andrew Koji) who she's been having an affair with.
One day, Helen's life is turned upside down when she learns that Jason has been shot dead while sitting on a bench in London.
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The complex situation is made even more complicated when the Chinese Ambassador is murdered and his daughter, Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei) goes missing.
After realising the threat to Helen's life, Black Doves boss Reed (Lancashire) decides to recruit Sam (Whishaw) - a professional assassin (or as he calls it, triggerman) - whose job is to protect Helen.
The series follows Helen as she makes it her mission to track down and seek revenge on whoever killed Jason, all the while trying not to get assassinated herself.
The show has been a huge success and it didn't take long for the series to climb to the prestigious 'No. 1 in TV Programmes Today' slot on the streamer given its near-perfect 95 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.
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While the storyline feels like it's set in some sort of Bond movie, turns out it's actually based on a true story.
Prior to creating the Netflix show, showrunner Joe Barton explained that he had heard about a scandal in the UK in which 140 police officers allegedly went undercover in the government.
“I had been reading as well about those spy cops, those guys, and they infiltrated that environmental group and had ended up having children with it," he said. "I mean, a really horrific story, much darker than this," Barton told Radio Times.
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“But I was like, OK, that idea, that duplicitousness of having a pretend marriage lasting years and years and years and then it's disappeared. That was really part of, I think, the inspiration for it as well.”
The spy cops were allegedly a unit within the Metropolitan Police who spent years living alter egos and even going on to have marriages and children while working undercover.
Topics: TV And Film, Netflix
Lucy Devine