‘Black Doves’ Review: Blood Actually
It is a truth annually acknowledged that at Christmas, British people must be miserable. If you’re a resident of the East End, there’s a good chance you’ll be dead by last orders at the Queen Vic. Do you live in a draughty period building? Have fun with your seasonal haunting! Emma Thompson didn’t weep over her good-for-nothing husband to the downbeat notes of Joni Mitchell’s “River” at Easter, did she? So in flies Black Doves, a yuletide spy thriller in which Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw attempt to shake off the winter blues by shooting ’em away.
Knightley plays Helen Webb, the saintly wife of Tory MP Wallace (Andrew Buchan) and mother of young twins who spends a lot of her time at cocktail receptions and dashing out to buy Christmas presents (in another life, this woman singlehandedly saves our high street). Helen is also employed by the Black Doves, a shadowy secret-selling organisation run by Reed (Sarah Lancashire), which presents a few scheduling complications and one big dilemma. Namely, the murder of her lover Jason (played in flashbacks by Andrew Koji), which is the just-intriguing-enough mystery that kickstarts this thriller. Helen is miserable, and she wants answers. Whishaw meanwhile plays Sam, Helen’s colleague and a “triggerman”, who accompanies her on this yuletide adventure at the request of Reed. They make a good pair: co-dependent criminals.
Created by Joe Barton (the British writer behind Giri/Haji and The Lazarus Project), the six-part series is energetic, propulsive, and smartly balances the silly with the serious. As Knightley herself noted in a recent interview with Esquire, “there is a silliness to it which you just have to accept: they get blown out of buildings and there’s not even a scratch on them.” The plot, when it finally unravels, is not especially satisfying – and I am sure there are more holes than your childhood stocking – but that’s beside the point. The appeal here is in Knightley and Whishaw, two actors who are very watchable on their own but compulsively so when they are on-screen at the same time.
Sam is good with a gun though less brilliant at handling his personal life. In his rearview is ex-boyfriend Michael (Omari Douglas), now settled down with a child, though does something still linger between these two? They circle each other warily. Part of the joy of this series is delving into Sam’s personal life. He’s just got back into town, catching up with old mates over red wine and lines of cocaine and wondering what his life should look like now. Aren’t all of us every day making a decision between murder and co-parenting? Whishaw sells the hell out of it, anyway. There’s both bitterness and tenderness – a whiff of Paddington perhaps? – in his performance, which brings a depth to some of the more ridiculous plotting.
And Knightley is especially good as the Helen, both efficient and rapidly-unravelling. Does she love Wallace? She sure finds it easy to sell his secrets. Did she love Jason? Did she even know him? Will she make it to the 25th without being blown up? As more secrets come to the surface, those become harder questions to answer. The British movie star transfers her big-screen emoting to the streaming age with ease.
And if some of the furnishings slip into cliché, well, at least the clichés are appealing. Well-delivered one-liners, cockney gangs, international conspiracies. London looks especially nice – well-appointed pubs, townhouses with balconies! – and there is a suitably chilly atmosphere throughout. The finale sets things up nicely for a second season, neat as a gift-wrapped bow, which will no doubt arrive just in time for next December.
But you know what’s on our Christmas list? A British television series where everyone is at least medium happy during the festive season. I’d love that actually.
‘Black Doves’ is available to watch on Netflix from 5 December
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