Abhiroop Das
Created by Neil Forsyth, Netflix’s ‘Legends’ is a crime drama series that follows the United Kingdom’s war on drugs in the 1990s and the many heroes who worked in the shadows to save as many lives as possible. Following the rise of two rival gangs ruled by equally fierce drug barons, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise unleashes a specialized unit with the plan of going undercover and unraveling the criminal gangs from the inside out. However, with limited time and resources, they have no choice but to recruit regular Customs officials and train them into elite agents over the course of a few weeks.
However, the real challenge begins after the four brightest candidates are split into teams and handed specialized personas, also known as Legends. As the mission continues, the characters find themselves confronting their own altered personalities, till all that remains is a single-minded devotion to bring down the UK’s drug trafficking network.
Legends is Based on a Real Project That Turned British Customs Officials Into Covert Agents
‘Legends’ dramatizes the true story of British Customs officers who participated in several covert operations combating drug trafficking across the country in the 1980s and 90s. This program, dubbed the “Beta Projects,” was reportedly launched in 1989 by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise amid mounting public and political panic over large quantities of drugs, particularly heroin, entering Britain through organized smuggling routes tied to Southwest Asia and Europe. One of the tragic incidents that sparked the program was the death of 22-year-old Olivia Channon, the daughter of trade secretary Paul Channon. Reports showed that she had passed away due to a drug overdose, which alerted the entire nation to the threats posed by the rise in drug smuggling. A reimagination of this incident marks the opening scene of the show, setting the foundation for its narrative approach.
A 2014 report by the Home Office estimated that the number of heroin users in England and Wales was somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 in 1981. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction also identified two primary land routes that facilitated the smuggling of heroin into Europe. The first, named the Balkan route, traversed through Turkey, whereas the other, colloquially known as the Silk route, connected Afghanistan to Russia. In ‘Legends’, both routes are depicted in great detail, showing that its depiction of drug trafficking, while fictionalized to an extent, has its roots in real-life research.
The Real-Life Guy Stanton’s Autobiographical Account Informs the Story
In response to the heroin crisis, HM Customs and Excise reportedly recruited existing Customs employees and retrained them for espionage. Following that, the employees were given new identities and personas, which are dubbed “Legends” in the show, and tasked with infiltrating high-level drug gangs all over the country. Over time, they gathered intelligence and helped the government identify the main channels of smuggling, as well as the criminals involved in the program. Much of how the show depicts these covert missions is influenced by the book ‘The Betrayer: How an Undercover Unit Infiltrated the Global Drug Trade’ written by Guy Stanton and Peter Walsh. Guy, who uses a pseudonym, claims to be a real-life Customs worker who was a part of the Beta Projects and worked undercover for over a decade.
In a 2022 interview with The Sun, Guy elaborated on his criminal persona during the 90s, stating, “My character Stanton was nasty, rude and arrogant and could explode at any moment.” Guy further recalled working closely with Andreas Antoniades, AKA Keravnos, an agent for British intelligence, who introduced him to a number of Turkish, Kurdish, and Cypriot gangs. In order to win the trust of the local drug barons, Guy allegedly donned an expensive attire and drove a black E500 Mercedes Sport, all of which had been seized during other Customs investigations. He also recalled working for some of the world’s most infamous cocaine smugglers and, in the process, helping the government seize hundreds of pounds of drugs.
Guy ultimately stepped out of the covert operations and left Customs in 2005. When discussing the psychological toll of being undercover for so many years, he recalled having mixed feelings regarding his persona. “I was proud of being a deep uncover operative but Stanton became too notorious and he had to die,” he told The Sun. Though Guy is in his 60s as of writing, he still feels that the Legend persona is still there within his subconscious. However, he is also glad that the book gave him an opportunity to share the story with the whole world. For series creator Neil Forsyth, Guy’s account of events became a baseline for a larger story, encompassing several perspectives on the drug epidemic and the Beta Projects’ role in countering it.
Creator Neil Forsyth Reimagines the Beta Projects as a Character-Driven Story
When it came to capturing the Legends’ story, creator and writer Neil Forsyth found it imperative to add in their historical context. During a conversation with Tudum, he explained the background for the show, stating, “Britain is entering a recession. A lot of (the Legends) are from working-class backgrounds (…) and that’s very important — they’re trapped.” Forsyth highlighted how such employees possibly saw the program as a chance of redefining their lives, even if it came with a substantial risk. While it is likely that the characters conceived by him and his writing team are composites of real-life people who worked on the covert operations, much of the plot is dependent on Forsyth’s desire to recreate the emotionality of that journey.
For actor Tom Burke, who plays the role of Guy in the show, there was a universal appeal to the idea of people testing their limits by going against the grain. To that end, he personally identified with Guy as a character, and described him as “more individual and internal — that he simply needs to do something like this.” In real life, Guy recounted working with Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s cousin Vittorio as a part of his undercover mission. While the show creates a realistic narrative based on these events, the exact details of the Beta Projects’ effect on the heroin epidemic cannot be fully determined due to the covert nature of the operations. In dramatizing this story, ‘Legends’ sheds light on a little-known chapter in British history, about the heroic Customs employees who saved countless lives.
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