Helen embarks on a passionate affair with a man who doesn't know her secret identity. Caught in the crosshairs when her lover falls victim to London's dangerous criminal underworld, Helen's employers call on Sam to protect her. Bingo, the owner of the guitar shop where Sam gets his guns, is played by Rat Scabies, a member of The Damned. In The Graham Norton Show: Cher/Keira Knightley/Michael Fassbender/Josh Brolin/Jalen Ngonda (2024). Fairytale of New YorkWritten by Jem Finer, Shane MacGowanPerformed by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl. STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Average ** Poor * Terrible'Helen Webb' (Keira Knightley) lives with her husband, Defense Secretary Wallace (Andrew Buchan), and their two children. All seems idyllic, until her former commanding officer Reed (Sarah Lancashire) re-enters her life and informs her that her secret lover Jason (Andrew Koji) has been killed, along with two others, forcing her to resurrect her old life as a secret spy, seeking revenge. Reed reunites her with Sam (Ben Whishaw), a hitman and her former handler, and together they navigate a complex web of political espionage and murder. The spy thriller has fallen out of favor over the years, but it still has the potential to work in new and different formats. Black Doves came out of nowhere, with a massive ad campaign, and became the latest major Netflix production to top the charts, which aims to revive the genre in the modern era. The result is a genre-bending mash-up that holds your attention throughout its pleasantly concise eight episodes, but doesn't really manage to mask the script's flaws. Overall, it's a fairly standard spy story, with some fairly standard swashbuckling tropes, that anyone familiar with old spy novels will recognise and even embrace with affection. The big problem is the uneven tone. The script veers unevenly between tongue-in-cheek action comedy and dark, ponderous spy thriller that leaves you too bewildered to really understand it. It makes up for it, though, with some stylish, flashy action sequences, with Whishaw and Knightley making a convincing pair of mismatched professionals, with Lancashire solidly supporting the icy, detached M-type commander. The spy thriller remains a thriller with limitless possibilities, and Black Doves, despite its flaws, is a solid addition to the core, with an interesting mystery at its heart, with good performances and action to match. ***