There’s no shortage of spy thrillers on TV and no end of tired tropes to dodge if you want to make something original. Written by Joe Barton (Giri/Haji, The Lazarus Project), Black Doves doesn’t try to avoid the genre clichés, but instead finds its very individual personality by mashing and twisting them into something surprising, thrilling and much more fun than 90 per cent of current offerings.
Keira Knightley plays Helen, the wife of a senior government minister (Andrew Buchan). Helen lives a plush life of expensive coats and champagne dos in her high-ceilinged London home. She is also a spy, working for an espionage agency that sells secrets to the highest bidder.
Knightley squeezes everything out of her best role in years, ably gliding through comedy, action and domestic drama.
The show opens with multiple murders. One of the victims is a man (Andrew Koji) with whom Helen was having an affair. She gets no time to grieve. Her boss (Sarah Lancashire) puts her most valuable employee under the protection of an old colleague, assassin Sam (Ben Whishaw), and tells her to lie low. Ignoring this, Helen sets about finding her lover’s killer, taking Sam along for the very dangerous ride.
None of this is stuff we haven’t seen before, but it’s the tone that makes it feel fresh. There are similarities with Slow Horses, the darkness of the story frequently punctured by a very British withering humour. Bickering insults are exchanged mid-shootout. If it’s not quite as good as Slow Horses – a very high bar – the potential is there. And there’s a warmth to the central relationship between Helen and Sam that gives it more heart than most.
Knightley squeezes everything out of her best role in years, ably gliding through comedy, action and domestic drama. Whishaw is equally strong as Sam, a man who can kill without hesitation but is desperate for love, pining for an ex (Omari Douglas) he can’t let go. Their friendship is beautifully drawn: ‘work besties’ bonded by a career few others understand. In fact, that’s one of the best parts of the show, the idea that even being a spy/killer can become just a job. It’s sort of a very bloody take on trying to find work/life balance.
There are patches in the middle where the storytelling sags – the villains are largely unseen, so there are lots of faceless names to remember – but only a little, and it’s swiftly tightened in the terrific final episode. All the work put into the characters culminates in a series of immensely satisfying face-offs and enough twists to leave you spinning. A second series has already been announced, and the foundations have been so firmly laid that it’s a very exciting prospect indeed.