Legends review – Steve Coogan takes on Britain’s biggest drug gang

This astounding true story, written by Neil Forsyth, asks the question: what if the A-Team was comprised entirely of disgruntled customs officers? Imagine The A-Team but instead of a band of wrongfully convicted US army commandos who become soldiers of fortune, it’s a group of dissatisfied baggage searchers and VAT investigators who have taken their ties off. Because Legends is a six-part thriller by Neil Forsyth based on the true story of a group of ordinary men and women recruited from the rank and file of Her Majesty’s Customs in the early 90s, given three weeks’ training and sent undercover to infiltrate and bring down two massive drug cartels that were filling Britain’s streets with heroin and really pissing Mrs Thatcher – head of the party of law and order, don’t you know – off. Steve Coogan – possibly in need of a spot of emotional relief after a career spent playing losers or Jimmy Savile-shaped villains – stars as former undercover police officer Don Clarke. He puts the team together for the home secretary (Alex Jennings – this is statutory) and HMC’s director of investigations Angus Blake (Douglas Hodge) despite neither of them seemingly offering any money or support for the project.

Continue reading... Review This astounding true story, written by Neil Forsyth, asks the question: what if the A-Team was comprised entirely of disgruntled customs officers? I magine The A-Team but instead of a band of wrongfully convicted US army commandos who become soldiers of fortune, it’s a group of dissatisfied baggage searchers and VAT investigators who have taken their ties off. Because Legends is a six-part thriller by Neil Forsyth based on the true story of a group of ordinary men and women recruited from the rank and file of Her Majesty’s Customs in the early 90s, given three weeks’ training and sent undercover to infiltrate and bring down two massive drug cartels that were filling Britain’s streets with heroin and really pissing Mrs Thatcher – head of the party of law and order, don’t you know – off. Steve Coogan – possibly in need of a spot of emotional relief after a career spent playing losers or Jimmy Savile-shaped villains – stars as former undercover police officer Don Clarke.

He puts the team together for the home secretary (Alex Jennings – this is statutory) and HMC’s director of investigations Angus Blake (Douglas Hodge) despite neither of them seemingly offering any money or support for the project. Two other recruits – hardbitten, hotheaded Essex native Kate (Hayley Squires), who has become sick of tracking down perverts and their illegal stashes of pornography, and the more thoughtful, tentative Bailey (Aml Ameen), equally tired of life hunting down VAT evaders – are sent to Liverpool to see what they can find out about the drug gang controlling the streets there. It is a great story – plucky underdogs risking life and limb for noble ideals (a drug-free country! He mostly, if sometimes very, very narrowly avoids falling into the ever yawning trap that a story about customs officers becoming the A-Team inevitably faces, which is the potential for bathos, if not outright risibility. “You think a few customs officers can take on the biggest drug gang in Britain?” (as the Home Sec says to Blake) is a line that could easily come from a sitcom or a comedy sketch.

Into the gulf between them, credulity risks falling – especially given the presence of Coogan, good though he is. The energy spent keeping things serious prevents the series catching fire. But it remains a brilliant story, here well told. Explore more on these topics Share Reuse this content This astounding true story, written by Neil Forsyth, asks the question: what if the A-Team was comprised entirely of disgruntled customs officers? Imagine The A-Team but instead of a band of wrongfully convicted US army commandos who become soldiers of fortune, it’s a group of dissatisfied baggage searchers and VAT investigators who have taken their ties off.

Because Legends is a six-part thriller by Neil Forsyth based on the true story of a group of ordinary men and women recruited from the rank and file of Her Majesty’s Customs in the early 90s, given three weeks’ training and sent undercover to infiltrate and bring down two massive drug cartels that were filling Britain’s streets with heroin and really pissing Mrs Thatcher – head of the party of law and order, don’t you know – off. Steve Coogan – possibly in need of a spot of emotional relief after a career spent playing losers or Jimmy Savile-shaped villains – stars as former undercover police officer Don Clarke. He puts the team together for the home secretary (Alex Jennings – this is statutory) and HMC’s director of investigations Angus Blake (Douglas Hodge) despite neither of them seemingly offering any money or support for the project. Continue reading... Legends review – Steve Coogan takes on Britain’s biggest drug gang