‘Black Doves’ Is Based on a Real Scandal Involving Spy Cops
I couldn’t think of anything more perfect for Netflix than a spy thriller that takes place during Christmas. Titled Black Doves, the British espionage story stars Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw as secret agents for a shadowy organization. Knightley plays Helen Webb, a spy imbedded as the wife of the defence secretary (Andrew Buchan). Her organization, the Black Doves, is some sort of spy-for-hire unit that sells information to the highest bidder. It’s a story of questionable motives and mysterious identities. According to showrunner Joe Barton, it’s also inspired by a true story.
Before creating Black Doves, Barton learned about a scandal in the United Kingdom involving what the press called “spy cops.” Under the noses of the UK’s top brass, a squad of roughly 140 police officers went undercover into the country’s political groups. As The Guardian reported, these “spy cops” even married many senior officers.
“They infiltrated that environmental group and had ended up having children with it,” Barton said of the group during an interview with Radio Times. “A really horrific story, much darker than this. But I was like, Okay, that idea, that duplicitousness of having a pretend marriage lasting years and years and years and then it’s disappeared. That was really part of the inspiration for it as well.”
In Black Doves, Knightley’s character and the UK’s defence secretary have two children together. She’s his dutiful wife and caretaker for their two young children. Periodically, she secretly updates her handler, Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire) about his meetings and interactions with foreign officials. The Netflix series simply twists the police scandal into more of a Special Ops: Lioness angle. Here, the women are undercover.
Though Black Doves doesn’t seek to oust the operation, it was the real-life women married to these undercover cops who eventually burst the bubble. In 2015, the Metropolitan police apologised for the dozens of inappropriate relationships that were occurring with undercover spies.
“Thanks in large part to the courage and tenacity of these women in bringing these matters to light it has become apparent that some officers, acting undercover whilst seeking to infiltrate protest groups, entered into long-term intimate sexual relationships with women which were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong,” the out-of-court settlement read. “Most importantly, relationships like these should never have happened. They were wrong and were a gross violation of personal dignity and integrity.”
Black Doves doesn’t dive this deep into the real-life scandal. Barton told Deadline that he was only interested in the twist of a spy being married to a top official. “I like working within established genres but trying to put a twist on them or place ‘Trojan horse human character ideas’ into them,” he said. Plus, he “always wanted to set something at Christmas.”
“It’s so sugary and cheerful, but actually quite a dark time of year for many people, and literally a dark time of year,” he continued. “It’s all these contrasting ideas around it, so it seemed like quite a natural time to set a thriller.”
Without spoiling anything, Christmas is far from the only mystery that the Black Doves need to solve. The new Netflix thriller was also recently renewed for a second season. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Knightley and Co. returned to wreak havoc next Christmas as well.
You Might Also Like
