Keira Knightley's Helen Webb unravels when her lover's body washes up on the Thames, forcing her to balance dinner-party diplomacy with bullet-dodging diplomacy across six episodes. Creator Joe Barton keeps London's Christmas lights humming as Ben Whishaw's Sam Young, a rumpled assassin pulled out of quiet retirement, joins her on a vengeance trail that leads through dockyard warehouses to Westminster corridors. The pair have history, and Whishaw plays every scene like he's tasting something sour he once loved.
The show's real engine is Sarah Lancashire's Mrs. Reed, an intelligence handler who delivers exposition while icing a birthday cake, her smile never reaching the eyes. Barton, who previously wrote the rural noir The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, swaps moorland fog for neon reflections in puddles, and the result feels like Spooks with the gloves off. Cinematographer Mark Patten shoots a rooftop chase across the Thames' tide markers in a single gliding take that makes the city a participant.
Netflix has already ordered a second season, though the first ends with Helen's cover blown and Sam bleeding out in a Canary Wharf car park. The closing shot lingers on Knightley's face as she weighs the cost of every secret she's kept, and the camera refuses to cut away until the viewer realises there's no going back to the life she faked.
Production Details
Netflix / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2024 - Present
Created by: Joe Barton
Showrunner(s): Jane Featherstone, Joe Barton, Chris Fry
Writer(s): Joe Barton
Producer(s): Harry Munday
Cinematography: Mark Patten, Giulio Biccari
Music: Martin Phipps
Main Cast
Keira Knightley as Helen Webb
Ben Whishaw as Sam Young
Sarah Lancashire as Mrs. Reed
Andrew Buchan as Wallace
Andrew Koji as Jason
Omari Douglas as Michael
Sam Troughton as Stephen Yarrick
Ella Lily Hyland as Williams
Isabella Wei as Kai-Ming
Charlotte Rice-Foley as Jacqueline
Taylor Sullivan as Oliver
Gabrielle Creevy as Eleanor
