20/41

Helen begins a passionate affair with a man who has no idea what her secret identity is. Caught in the crosshairs when her lover falls victim to the dangerous London underworld, Helen’s employers call in Sam to protect her. Bingo, the owner of the guitar shop where Sam gets his guns, is played by Rat Scabies. a member of the band The Damned. Starred in The Graham Norton Show: Cher/Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender/Josh Brolin/Jalen Ngonda (2024). A New York Tale Written by Jem Finer, Shane MacGowan Performed by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl. STARS: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Terrible ‘Helen Webb’ (Keira Knightley) lives with her husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the Secretary of State for Defence, and their two children. Everything seems idyllic until her former commanding officer, Reed (Sarah Lancashire), returns to her life to tell her that her secret lover, Jason (Andrew Koji), has been killed along with two other people, causing her to resurrect her former life as a secret spy on a vengeful path. Reed reunites her with Sam (Ben Whishaw), an assassin and her former trainer, and together they navigate a complex web of political espionage and murder. The spy thriller has fallen out of favor over the years, but one that still manages to work in new and different formats. Black Doves came out of nowhere with a massive advertising campaign and became the latest major production from Netflix to top the charts, aiming to revive the genre in the modern age. The result is a truly mixed bag that holds the attention throughout its pleasantly concise eight episodes, but can’t quite mask the unevenness of the script. Overall, it’s a fairly standard spy story with some fairly standard songs. cloak-and-dagger clichés that anyone familiar with the old spy caper will recognize and even embrace with affection. The big problem is the uneven tone. The script jumps unevenly between wry, cheeky action comedy and dark, serious spy thriller, throwing you off too much to really get into. But it makes up for it with some stylish, flashy action sequences, with Whishaw and Knightley creating a convincing pair of mismatched professionals, with strong support from Lancashire as the icy, independent Type M commander. The spy thriller still has boundless potential, and Black Doves, despite its flaws, is a strong complement to the main cast, with an interesting mystery at its heart, some strong characterization and action. ***

THIEVES THIEVES 2025