Legends tells the story of how four basically untrained Customs Agents in 1990 Britain managed to bring down a huge drug smuggling ring by working undercover. It’s a tense crime drama of six episodes.

Legends begins with heroin overdoses making the news in England. Some were around London, some around Liverpool. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wanted to break up the drug smuggling ring, to bring in a big win for her government.

Don (Steve Coogan), who had once been undercover himself, was picked to lead the team. He found four people he thought could do the job from a big group of volunteers. All of them came from boring jobs, like inspecting luggage at the airport. Each of them got about 5 minutes of training and a legend. A person’s legend was their cover story for their undercover role.

The government gave Don little money, few resources, and a limited time frame to perform this capture.

Guy (Tom Burke) had the most dangerous job. He interacted daily with the criminals and had to maintain his cover every second in the face of some murderous tough men. His wife Sophie (Charlotte Ritchie) was also a Customs Officer and supported his decision to do this dangerous job.

Kate (Hayley Squires) and Bailey (Aml Ameen) worked as a team. They did mostly surveillance and sneaking into various places looking for evidence. That sounds a little safer than what Guy was doing, but they eventually ended in the thick of things.

Erin (Jasmine Blackborow) was data and logistical support. She used computers and every other kind of data she could find to help the three out in the field do what they were doing safely.

The investigators quickly learned that there were two gangs responsible, not one. One was run by a group of Turks. The other was headed by an English man.

They sprang Mylonas (Gerald Kyd) from prison to be a contact and informant for the Turkish gang. Guy worked with him.

Bailey and Kate didn’t have that advantage at the start, but eventually one of the English guys who was a drug dealer himself started informing on his boss. This man, Eddie (Johnny Harris), turned when he lost his son to a heroin overdose.

Guy managed to convince the two rival gangs to work together to bring in a huge load of uncut opium. It was more tons of drugs than had ever been brought into Britain and it was worth millions of pounds.

Even hampered by crappy equipment, bad weather, and constant danger, this team managed to get the job done. Then, with no fanfare, the group was sent back to their former boring jobs on the next Monday. The story of what this crew accomplished is just coming out now.

Neil Forsyth created the series, which you can see on Netflix.