When it comes to Christmas films and shows, virtually no genre stone has been left unturned. We've had festive comedies (Home Alone), holiday romances (The Holiday), seasonal musicals (Nativity!), yuletide horrors (Terrifier 3), and even holly jolly action movies (Die Hard — shh!). But with Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project scribe Joe Barton's upcoming Netflix six-parter Black Doves, we're about to get something a little more rare — a Christmas thriller. The snowy spy series stars Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire as a covert agent, an asssassin, and their spymaster (now that's our kind of Three Wise Men) who get caught up in London's criminal underworld, and it looks like another Barton banger. Check out the new trailer below:
Now, clandestine car meetings, assassinated paramours, late-night strangulation, and close-quarters hand-to-hand combat — stylishly, er, executed as they may be — don't immediately scream "Deck the halls!", we'll admit. However, that is not the full picture here, because what this eye-catching minute-long teaser does also have is liberal snowfall, some festive decorative lights, and a shot in which Knightley's spy Helen Webb quite clearly and significantly can be seen within mere inches of a big bit of tinsel. Plus, y'know, there is the fact that Keira Knightley has serious holiday season pedigree, having starred in Love Actually, Silent Night, and The Nutcracker And The Four Realms. And anyway, seeing Knightley's agent and Whishaw's assassin Sam Young teaming up with a cool-as-you-like Sarah Lancashire to get to the bottom of a murder whilst reckoning with their messy pasts is about as great a Christmas present as any of us could ever ask for, no?
And here's the official synopsis: "[Black Doves] follows Helen Webb (Knightley), a quick-witted, down-to-earth, dedicated wife and mother — and professional spy. For 10 years, she’s been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to the shadowy organization she works for: the Black Doves. When her secret lover Jason (Andrew Koji) is assassinated, her spymaster, the enigmatic Reed (Lancashire), calls in Helen’s old friend Sam (Whishaw) to keep her safe. Together, Helen and Sam set off on a mission to investigate who killed Jason and why, leading them to uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy linking the murky London underworld to a looming geopolitical crisis."
Black Doves flies home to roost on Netflix on 5 December. And to that we say a very Merry Christmas, indeed!