Abhiroop Das
Created by Neil Forsyth, Netflix’s ‘Legends’ dramatizes the true story of a number of employees of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise who were recruited into a covert program in the 1990s and turned into Legends, or undercover agents. In the show, Guy, Erin, Kate, and Bailey are four officials dissatisfied with their daily lives and professions. As such, when they all come across a poster asking them if they can do more, they are magnetically drawn into a world full of espionage. As it turns out, the mission is to infiltrate two of the biggest drug gangs in the UK, one being the Green Lanes Turks in London, and the other being a Liverpool cartel. While Erin is put in charge of handling the logistics, Guy is sent into the lion’s den pretending to be a smuggler in London.
Meanwhile, Kate and Bailey find themselves in the role of property agents scouting the streets of Liverpool. All this time, the unit probes deeper into these criminal networks, hoping to find a weak link. However, often they end up staring back at themselves in horror, as their Legends take on new life and force deeper confrontations down the line
Erin, Kate, and Bailey are Composites of Real-Life Customs Officials Who Went Undercover
Erin, Kate, and Bailey are fictional characters that reflect the true story of British Customs officials who went on covert missions in the 1990s and infiltrated various drug networks across the UK. One of the show’s protagonists, Guy, is based on a real-life person who uses the pseudonym Guy Stanton and allegedly served as a covert agent as part of the Beta Projects launched by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. However, Guy’s teammates in the show appear to be composites of the many Customs employees who risked their lives for the cause. In a conversation with Radio Times, writer Neil Forsyth revealed that his research involved talking to some of the people involved in the original program. Together with researcher Adam Fenn, he compiled several records, newspaper clippings, and court transcripts to give shape to this largely unknown story.
When discussing his conversations with the Customs employees and other people involved in the Beta Projects, Forsyth recalled that some were willing to share details, while others chose to keep their identities and parts of their story private. In this light, it is possible that Erin, Kate, and Bailey loosely reference these accounts, with a layer of fiction keeping them distanced from real life. To that end, it was essential for Forsyth to condense his research and express it in the form of four main characters, as “otherwise it would be extremely complicated and we’d have far too many characters.” He also added that the goal was to “take the true story and make it manageable (…) because real life is very messy.” While the finer details of these characters’ experiences may be heavily dramatized, they are broadly consistent with the spirit of what happened in the 90s.
The People Mentioned in Guy Stanton’s Book May Have Served as References For the Trio
In Guy Stanton’s book, ‘The Betrayer: How an Undercover Unit Infiltrated the Global Drug Trade,’ which he co-wrote with Peter Walsh, pseudonyms are often used in place of real names so as to protect people’s identities. While this includes Stanton himself, the book also mentions a host of people who helped him during the infiltration process. Guy allegedly took on the persona, or “Legend” of an expert drug smuggler, and was joined by a man named Keef, who pretended to be a money launderer, as well as an ex-soldier named Big Pete, who took command of Guy’s boats. While these are just two of the many people who may have constituted a top-secret undercover unit, it’s possible that they contributed to the conceptualization of Erin, Kate, and Bailey as characters.
A large part of what makes Erin, Kate, and Bailey stand out is the efforts put in by their respective actors in nailing their characterization. In a conversation with Netflix, actor Jasmine Blackborow, who plays Erin, described her character as someone who is “really bright, for various reasons she’s learned to suppress that, in order to fit or to blend in.” As a Legend, something is unlocked inside of her psyche, proving that there is a lot that she has to offer this world. Something similar goes on in the making of Bailey as a character. Actor Aml Ameen highlighted that Bailey is a three-dimensional presence with his own share of traumatic experiences, which often come out to the surface anytime he is not in his element.
For actor Hayley Squires, her character, Kate, is full of surprises. “There’s a stubbornness in her nature which means she becomes immovable,” Squires told Netflix, adding that Kate’s tenacity also happens to be her greatest strength. As such, all three characters have something unique to their personality, which largely combines the creative efforts of the writing team and the actors involved in making them come to life.
Read More: Netflix’s Legends True Story, Explained
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