This new series centres on a group of customs officers, led by Steve Coogan's Don, who go undercover in some of Britain's most dangerous drugs gangs in the 1990s, in order to bring them down from the inside.
But how closely does the series actually stick to the facts, and are the central characters based on real individuals or have they been fictionalised?
Read on for everything you need to know about the real-life inspiration for Netflix drama Legends.
Is Legends based on a true story?
This was established since the organisation had been charged by Margaret Thatcher's government in the early 1990s to stop the flow of heroin into Britain, as an epidemic was increasingly taking shape.
As part of the programme, more than 12 tonnes of heroin was seized, equitable to a street value of over £1 billion.
Is Legends based on a book?
The book was published in 2022 and is available to purchase now.
The series has subsequently been inspired by further research conducted by the show's creator Neil Forsyth and his team, and, as with all dramas, includes some elements which have been fictionalised.
What has creator Neil Forsyth said about the true story behind Legends?
"I conducted lots of interviews, some with people who were happy to talk to me publicly, others who needed to be a bit more clandestine. I have a great researcher – Adam Fenn – who spent months trawling through all sorts of records, from court transcripts to newspaper archives, but it’s a largely unknown story.
"I did need to condense and simplify it, because otherwise it would be extremely complicated and we’d have far too many characters. It’s about working out how to take the true story and make it manageable in terms of six episodes of television, because real life is very messy.
"So we did the research, gathered up everything that happened and all the people who were involved, and decided which characters to concentrate on. In some cases these are composites of real-life people, to give a real breadth of experience, while being completely true to the spirit of what happened and the major incidents that occurred."
Are the characters in Legends based on real people?
"Guy’s an extraordinary man, and is very much at the forefront of the show," Forsyth said. "His character goes deepest into Legend, and the audience really sees the effects it has on him. The real Guy worked undercover as a Legend for many, many years, along with maybe a half dozen other people, and really ‘lived the life’.
"When you have an experience like that, it shapes you for the rest of your life. I think over time some of these experiences have become easier for him to manage, but it definitely defines how he looks at the world.
However, when it comes to a lot of the rest of the major figures, while they have been inspired by a variety of real-life figures, they are not themselves real individuals.
He continued: "They saw first hand the devastation that the drugs were causing, which gave them some of the personal motivation that drove them. A lot of the real life Legends also talked about the camaraderie they had with each other, which I think Hayley really lands with the lovely dry humour she brings to the role of Kate."
"What I find really interesting with Bailey’s character is watching him grow in confidence throughout the series," Forsyth said. "He’s got a unique position in the show, in how he looks at the work that the Legends are doing. Without giving too much away, he plays a really integral part at the end of the series, by slipping into Legend seamlessly."
He continued: "It wasn't enough to simply act the part when working undercover; you needed to be backed up by paperwork, administration, licences, bills... All the elements that dress a normal person's life, in addition to the job-specific research. As we discuss in the show, the Legends had access to almost every area of government paperwork.
"Erin is responsible for extracting all that information and using it to support those operating out in the field. This also allows the Legends to fight criminality while staying within the law, which is difficult to do. The lines inevitably get blurred, which leads to some of the conflict that we embrace within the show."
"He also then has to manage the team. That in many ways is the hardest part of that job; managing people who are in the field, facing all the psychological pressures and the conflicts within the team."
"I think it’s very important that all your characters are rounded to some degree, and capable of surprise," Forsyth said of creating these characters. "It doesn’t matter if they’re on the right or the wrong side of the law, or somewhere in-between. You have to find that nuance to make them interesting.
"While he is a longstanding informer to the Customs department, particularly to Blake, he also has one foot firmly entrenched in the criminal world."
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