Boxed with John Fardy: Legends
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What series on Netflix is the focus of this episode?
John, you've been looking at legends on Netflix.
Indeed I have. Landed on Thursday a six-parter, which the clues there, now it could be six parts and it's terrible, but this is brilliant and it's lean. It's not 10, it's not 15 like The Pit is, as good as that was.
I'm four parts through of the six.
Exactly. And we only discussed this on Thursday, so that should be lesson listener. He's already devoured four of them, right? It was funny, not to overshare with you, but my wife was watching this with me and she actually said, Pat will like this. So you've made it to our couch, Pat, in the Fardy household.
You told me I'd made it to your bed the last time we spoke about this. Steady on, Gavna! So anyway, what does the title mean, Legends?
So Legend is a thing, it's kind of a spying term. And we've seen it before, although it's not called this. It's the idea that you take on a character to go undercover. So what we have, this is based in reality of sorts. In the late 80s, 90s, there was a heroin epidemic in all sorts of places, but there was one in England as well. And it started to make, after a few high profile deaths, Margaret Thatcher, it was on her radar. So customs officers were led to believe became the vanguard of the fight. And in the Netflix series Legends, we have a brilliant Steve Coogan playing a kind of guy, middle manager guy in the customs office who it's decided is going to recruit some disaffected customs officers. Bored.
Yeah, who may be able to give more. One in particular is working checking suitcases in the airport. We have the quintessential person who's just in an office writing God knows what. And within 15 minutes, he's recruited four disaffected customs employees who might want to do more with their career. And we have a flavour of this very first recruitment meeting, which would not go down now in HR circles. Have a listen to this.
For anyone who doesn't know me, I am Angus Blake, Director of Investigations for Her Majesty's Customs. This is my head of operations, Don Clark. Right. We're holding a three-week, top-secret training program for new recruits, and are looking throughout the agency for those who we think might offer us what we need to attempt something we've never done before. What's the investigation? Did you miss the secret bit? For security reasons, only those who complete the three weeks will learn what the investigation entails. Would this be a promotion? For some, it would technically be a demotion. Where's the training? It's a residential programme. Is that overtime, then? No. Well, if it's residential training, it has to be overtime.
We can't take you if you're deaf, mate.
Would we get a per diem?
What does the title 'Legends' signify in the context of the show?
A per what?
Lunch money.
Lunch money?
What are you, 12? If you've asked a question, then please leave the room.
Any impertinence will not be tolerated.
Definitely not. So no questions. But what I really liked about this is that was 15 minutes into the opening episode. So there is no long setting up all this. It begins very dramatically with two pretty horrific deaths. One in Oxford or Cambridge, I think it is actually, and one on the mean streets of at that time, of Liverpool. And you see that this heroin epidemic was starting to make headlines in the tabloids and we're led to believe that Thatcher at the time read the tabloids every morning. And when this occurred a few times, she suddenly wanted... She was also in trouble for her economic policies.
How does the heroin epidemic relate to the plot of 'Legends'?
So this was a victory she thought she could achieve.
Little did she know, let's say. And of course, people will make the point something very similar a few years earlier was happening in Ireland. But Shinskane Ella. So, yeah. So what happens is the great Steve Coogan, along with a few other people, recruit these people and they all have to adopt legends. They all have to adopt personas. And we've seen that before. It's the backstory.
They have to have a backstory.
And we've seen that lots of times in spy dramas over the years. But this is done particularly well because these guys aren't spies. They are customs officers.
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