Tom Burke explained: the release driving the conversation

Steve Coogan and Tom Burke star in this 1990s-set true-life crime drama. Tom Burke has emerged this Friday as one of the stories drawing attention in United Kingdom.

Key facts

• Steve Coogan and Tom Burke star in this 1990s-set true-life crime drama.
• It’s more of a slow burn than The Gold but, as the officers (who include Tom Burke and Hayley Squires) embed themselves within criminal gangs, the stakes rise, identities collapse and events become increasingly nerve-jangling.
• Netflix brings us the fact-based story of the customs agents who went undercover to foil drug smugglers.
• Steve Coogan, Tom Burke and Charlotte Ritchie are the stars of this explosive new British drama.
• That’s right – in the 1990s, sick of losing the battle with the drug smugglers, HM Customs & Excise took the extraordinary step of creating new identities (the “legends” of the title) for some of its employees and sending them into the field, with the aim of bringing down the operations from the inside.

What we know

Going deeper, It’s more of a slow burn than The Gold but, as the officers (who include Tom Burke and Hayley Squires) embed themselves within criminal gangs, the stakes rise, identities collapse and events become increasingly nerve-jangling.

On the substance, Netflix brings us the fact-based story of the customs agents who went undercover to foil drug smugglers.

Beyond the headlines, Steve Coogan, Tom Burke and Charlotte Ritchie are the stars of this explosive new British drama.

More precisely, That’s right – in the 1990s, sick of losing the battle with the drug smugglers, HM Customs & Excise took the extraordinary step of creating new identities (the “legends” of the title) for some of its employees and sending them into the field, with the aim of bringing down the operations from the inside.

It is worth noting that Steve Coogan stars as a cop infiltrating a heroin-smuggling ring in the nerve-jangling new show from the creator of The Gold.

By the numbers

At this stage, It’s inspired by real events in the 90s in which officers infiltrated heroin-smuggling rings at the behest of Margaret Thatcher, who needed “a crisis she could solve”.

On a related note, Even so, its premise might have been designed to tap into the paranoid preoccupations of 2026.

Going deeper, Neil Forsyth, the writer behind The Gold, which dramatised the events of the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery, has turned this fascinating story into a six-part drama that explores the reasons these people took on this assignment, the dangers they faced, and the threat it posed to their own identities.

On the substance, they can see how the next 30 years are going to play out for them, and they don’t really fancy it, but they’re not in a position to go down a different route.

The wider context

On a related note, it stars Steve Coogan as Don, a jaded detective who assembles a team of misfit customs employees either bored or bold enough to take a gamble with their careers, and possibly their lives.

Going deeper, the latest drama from Neil Forsyth, creator of The Gold, follows ‘Guy Stanton’ and his colleagues who went undercover to catch drug kingpins in the Nineties.

On the substance, We preview the show and pick more great series for true crime fans to stream.

Beyond the headlines, They’re ordinary men and women working for the customs service.

More precisely, Burke (Strike) is Guy, an agent based on a real-life Legend named Guy Stanton, and says Guy’s motivation was about more than doing the right thing. “He simply needs to do something like this because it’s meaningful and purposeful but also because it’s dangerous, and he craves that.

The bottom line

• It stars Steve Coogan as Don, a jaded detective who assembles a team of misfit customs employees either bored or bold enough to take a gamble with their careers, and possibly their lives.
• The latest drama from Neil Forsyth, creator of The Gold, follows ‘Guy Stanton’ and his colleagues who went undercover to catch drug kingpins in the Nineties.
• Tuning to this channel automatically launches Netflix.
• Searches spiking right now: The Secret Undercover Mission To Topple Britain's Heroin Gangs, Actor Tom Burke to speak at On Sale Live 2026 Conference, How an award-winning actor has become a town centre warrior, Legends — the real-life customs officer who inspired the new Netflix drama.