Ten million. Courtesy of Sally Mace/Netflix © 2026
Produced by Neil Forsyth (gold), fables is a gritty and entertaining 6-part drama coming to Netflix in May 2026. Directed by British acting veteran Steve Coogan, the series chronicles a team of customs officers who plunge into the world of deep cover espionage, going undercover under the new alias ‘Legends’ and aiming to dismantle a drug empire from the inside.
fables Creator Neil Forsyth is already a respected producer of serious British crime dramas, having created the 2023 series gold On Paramount+ and BBC. For fablesHe transforms 80s Britain into the 1990s, where a group of untrained customs officers work undercover, creating new identities called fables, With the aim of infiltrating Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs. These officers are untrained. They’re normal people – our hero guy works in airport security before taking over.Fables’ Gig. Incredibly, fables It is based on a true story, based on a highly classified anti-drug campaign of the 1990s.
fables boasts a brilliant, multi-award winning artiste, titled tom burke (Strike, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) as Guy, Jasmine Blackborough (Shadow and Bone, The Gentlemen) as Erin, steve coogan (i am alan partridge) as don, Amal Amen (Sense8, Kidulthood) as bailey, and hayley squire (I, Daniel Blake) as Kate.
Before the debut of fables In May 2026, the cast introduced fans to their characters and what viewers can expect from their roles in the series. at the beginning of fablesA small team of customs staff are dispatched undercover from all corners of the UK. They are untrained in espionage and go to great lengths to establish their identity.
Note: The following quotes are provided courtesy of Netflix.
Who is Don, the leader of Legends operation?
fables The program is led by Don, whose role is steve cooganWho recruits their team based on targeting very specific personalities and skills.
Coogan explains, “Don looks for people who are cool: strong, but quietly strong. Not too blunt, not people who push themselves, but who have a certain kind of inner strength.” “He’s resourceful and hard-working, not showy, not prone to making rash decisions. He probably looks for it because his own metal was very tested when he went undercover. He may have problems, but that’s okay, as long as he has self-control.”
“I think the combination of Kate, Bailey, Erin and Guy — who are all very different — is a very strange group. You wouldn’t expect them to be in the same social circles, and they don’t mimic skill sets. They all bring something different to the table.”
Don’s leadership is tough, born of his own experiences in espionage. “Obviously he has to deliver results, otherwise you’re just kind of running in circles, chasing shadows. So he has to strike a balance between getting things progressed without jeopardizing things by running too fast,” he said.
Tom Burke teases Guy – an enthusiastic airport security officer who jumps on the mission
The first secret officer we meet is Guy, played by tom burke. Burke teases, “When we first meet Guy, he’s working in airport security and so is his wife, Sophie. Sophie is probably more aware than Guy of how much trouble he’s gotten himself into and what it’s doing to their marriage.” “She sees him looking at a poster at work that’s seeking volunteers for this potential mission, and she’s very encouraging of him to do it. I was as thrilled with her as she was with him. I think I often choose jobs based on the relationships in them rather than the characters, but I think the two are somewhat interchangeable.”
Additionally, Burke states that Boy’s inspiration to jump on mystery fables The mission was important not only for any financial gain or moral high ground, but also To fill his life with enthusiasm. “In some ways, it’s a very moral thing that Legends planned to do, but I never saw Guy as a particularly moral character. I always thought his motivation was more personal and internal; that he just needed to do something like this, because it’s meaningful and purposeful, but also because it’s dangerous, and he craves it. There’s an adrenaline junkie in there somewhere.”
Given how strong-willed Guy is, his relationships with the other giants are both tenuous and fruitful. “The other legends are very different; in a sense, a real zoo of people. I say they’re passive, but really a lot of the looseness comes from how Guy relates to them,” he explains. But as the series progresses, they discover that while they complement each other, they also rub each other the wrong way.”
Guy receives special treatment, especially from his boss Don. Coogan said, “Don sees his younger self in Guy, who is, in a way, his star operative.” “He has to strike a balance between having a slightly paternalistic attitude towards Guy and being a strict taskmaster.”
Hayley Squire introduces her “stubborn” operative Kate
Then there’s Kate, played by hayley squire – A “stubborn’ worker who is defined by her “very funny” and “sarcastic” personality. “When we first meet Kate, she’s very, very bored with her job. She’s working in the vice-president’s department of customs, knocking on doors of men who have tried to import illegal pornography,” says Squire. “She’s probably in a position where no matter what they’re recruiting for, she’ll go and do it, if it means being able to use her brain more and getting out of that very sad suit she has to wear to work every day!”
Kate is stubborn, perhaps to a fault sometimes. Her spirited personality quickly shines through in a scene where she insists on opening a lock. “There’s a really great scene that Neil came up with early on during the recruitment and training process, where we’re picking locks, which is a very difficult job, and late at night Don sees Kate still on the desk trying to get this lock open until she succeeds in doing it,” she recalls. “There’s a stubbornness in her nature that means she tends to be immovable. With that stubbornness comes a certain amount of strength, and the bravery of sticking to something, even if you’re possibly wrong or possibly in danger.”
Elsewhere, Bailey, played by Amal AmenJoined the team. As a methodical VAT inspector, Bailey is a man who feels he has not reached his potential in life. Amin describes him as “an incredibly skilled person, if within the scope of what he does,” but notes that stepping into undercover work pushes him far outside his comfort zone. “Within her routine, she’s incredibly confident. But as soon as that routine shakes up a bit, you can see her shaking knees and the pain behind the mask,” Amin explains.
Rounding out the highlighted crew is Erin, who is featured Jasmine Blackborough. Serving as the team’s “engine room”, Erin is a civil service secretary, responsible for creating the elaborate paper trails that make the Legends believable. “Erin is a secretary who has worked in the civil service for about six or seven years,” shares Blackborough. “Despite being really bright, for various reasons she has learned to suppress it in order to fit in or blend in”. Joining the Legends mission finally gives him the chance to embrace his intelligence. She adds, “It opens up some things inside her and she lets out this extremely curious little girl that maybe she used to be and gets really excited about all of this.”
Legends will arrive on Netflix on May 7, 2026. Check out our full preview and first-look here.
