Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire is cuttingly cool in new Black Doves trailer

The series introduces us to the "quick-witted, down-to-earth, dedicated wife and mother" Helen Webb (Knightley), who has spent the last decade passing on intel from her politician husband to a covert spy organisation: the Black Doves.

The synopsis reads: "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."

The trailer teases espionage, action and grave danger for Helen and Sam as they inch closer to the truth, leaving room for speculation as to whether Lancashire's mystery role is friend or foe.

You can watch the latest Black Doves trailer now, right here, ahead of the show's Netflix premiere on Thursday 5th December.

What we can tell from Reed's calm demeanour is that she's an experienced spymaster, whose matter-of-fact delivery of "I'll clean up, shall I?" suggests that she is near enough unflappable – and perhaps a tad irritated by the misbehaviour of her reports.

As depicted in the trailer, the show has a darkly comedic edge to it, with Knightley and Whishaw telling the Royal Television Society in a recent interview that they "did giggle a lot" during filming.

Black Doves also stars Adeel Akhtar (Showtrial), Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch) and Omari Douglas (It's A Sin) among other familiar faces – and it already has a season 2 renewal from Netflix, meaning there should be no unpleasant surprises for any invested viewers.

(No, I will never emotionally recover from Kaos getting cancelled.)

Black Doves comes to Netflix on Thursday 5th December 2024.

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