Black Doves starring Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw is a spy thriller that surprises in unexpected ways. While steeped in the intrigue of espionage, it is in essence a story of love and the lengths that people will go to protect the ones they cherish.

The defence minister’s wife is a spy

Created by Joe Barton, the six-part series revolves around Knightley’s Helen, married for nearly 10 years to Wallace Webb (Andrew Buchan), Britain’s defence minister who is next in line to be the prime minister. Their family comprising their twins looks picture-perfect at first glance but soon you learn that Helen is a secret member of Black Doves, a covert organisation led by Mrs Reed (Sarah Lancashire) that spies on the government, gathers sensitive information and sells it to the highest bidder.

The show opens with Jason (Andrew Koji), a civil service agent with whom Helen was having an affair, being shot dead on London’s South Bank. This murder, linked to a much larger conspiracy, prompts Mrs Reed to call her former assassin Sam (Ben Whishaw) back from Rome to protect Helen, whose entanglement with Jason poses a threat to her life. Sam partners with Helen and two lesbian assassins, Williams (Ella Lily Hyland) and Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy), whose infectious energy and dry British humour are a treat to watch.

Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador is found dead in his office, which is being covered up by other government officials, while his daughter Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei) has been kidnapped. Everything is about to change for Helen, who has been quietly stealing government secrets from her husband for 10 years now. With killers on her toes and Wallace getting a hint of her affair, Helen’s cover almost starts to slip.

Two love stories at its heart

In Black Doves, everyone has an agenda — protecting themselves or their loved ones at any cost, even if it means harming others. The lines between hero and villain often get blurred. Is Helen, who deceives her husband for her job, truly the antagonist? Or is the government, which covers up the Chinese ambassador’s death, the real villain?

Knightley’s Helen is “not who you think I am”, as she says in an intimate moment with Jason. Her marriage to Wallace is just another espionage mission, and though she has had kids with him, Helen was ready to run away with Jason. His death sends her on a personal quest for answers and as the story unfolds, she can no longer live with her lies.

Parallel to Helen’s story is Sam’s complicated past with his ex-boyfriend Michael (Omari Douglas), from whom he hid his identity as a ‘triggerman’ (hitman) and left when a mission-gone-wrong put Sam’s life at risk. Years later, when Sam gets back to London to protect Helen, he gets in touch with Michael and the old feelings resurface.

A guilt-wracked Sam wonders whether killing for money makes him a bad person and his apology to Michael for hiding his real identity makes for one of the series’s most emotional moments.

Ben Whishaw’s Sam is not a gay best friend trope

Sam and Helen are more than spy partners — they are best friends, bound by trust and loyalty. Black Doves subverts the ‘gay best friend’ cheerleader trope by giving Sam a central role in Helen’s journey. He trains Helen in combat and supports her as an equal, making you crave a friendship like that. “There’s an intimacy they don’t have with anybody else,” Knightley said of their bond in a statement to Netflix Tudum.

Their friendship is also a source of comic relief. For instance, when Helen pops her dislocated shoulder back in place after jumping from an exploding flat, Sam says, “Impressive”. Helen gives it back, quipping, “You should’ve seen me when I pushed two entire human beings out of my vagina on the same afternoon”.