- Title: Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw premiere spy series 'Black Doves' in London
- Date: 3rd December 2024
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 3, 2024) (REUTERS) KNIGHTLEY WALKING OVER TO REPORTER VARIOUS OF KNIGHTLEY SPEAKING WITH REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, SAYING: "She is a wife and she is a loving mother. She also happens to be a deep undercover spy, although I'm not a deep undercover spy, and she might be a sociopath and I don't think I'm one of those you know, I could completely go, look, I'm a parent of two young girls and I've definitely got a child friendly face when I'm with them. And then there's other parts of my personality and they still exist. They just don't necessarily get the air that they used to." ACTOR OMARI DOUGLAS SPEAKING WITH REPORTER ACTOR KATHRYN HUNTER SPEAKING WITH REPORTER BARTON SPEAKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) WRITER, CREATOR AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER JOE BARTON, SAYING: "I'd read a story, well, not a story, this woman had written into a newspaper, a letter, into a sort of advice column. And her predicament was that her partner had passed away, the man she'd been with for a number of years but the sort of twist was they'd been, he'd been married to someone else. And so their relationship had been an affair, essentially. And so she was sort of describing how she had to grieve in secret and couldn't tell anyone. And I just sort of found that was such a incredible sort of human story and there was so much there so that little kernel of an idea was partly inspiration for it."
- Embargoed: 17th December 2024 20:18
- Keywords: Ben Whishaw Black Doves Black Doves Netflix Black Doves premiere Black Doves series Black Doves show Keira Knightley
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: UK
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA005355029112024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: British actress Keira Knightley says her new thriller series "Black Doves" stands out for its tongue in cheek take on the world of espionage.
Knightley, who also executive produced the show, plays Helen Webb, an undercover spy working for a secretive intelligence organisation called the "Black Doves". A loving mother of two, Helen has been married to a prominent British politician for years, pilfering and passing on his classified government data. When her lover, a mysterious civil servant, is assassinated, Helen finds herself in the middle of a web of conspiracies and risks her cover being blown.
"I was looking for a series to do, I read the pilot and thought it was exactly what I was looking for. It's fun, it's a thriller, but it's got this kind of amazing wit. It's faintly ridiculous but in the most delicious kind of way," Knightley said at the series' premiere in London on Tuesday (December 3).
British actor Ben Whishaw plays Helen's sidekick Sam, a triggerman distracted by his past and tangled love life.
"It's so unlikely forward slash absurd because I sort of kill a whole small army of assassins by myself. All of them are sort of twice the size of me," Whishaw said. "This show has an energy and a sort of twinkle in its eye that means that it knows it's being a bit ridiculous, but it's going to go there anyway."
Knightley, 39, said she identified with her character's capacity to compartmentalise the different parts of her personality.
"I'm a parent of two young girls and I've definitely got a child friendly face when I'm with them. And then there's other parts of my personality and they still exist, they just don't necessarily get the air that they used to," she said.
The six-part series, which has already been confirmed for a second season, is created and written by Joe Barton, whose previous credits include "Giri/Haji" and "The Lazarus Project".
Barton said he was partly inspired by a letter sent by a woman to a newspaper advice column which detailed her having to grieve the passing of a man she'd had an affair with for many years in secret.
"I just sort of found that was such a incredible sort of human story and there was so much there so that little kernel of an idea was partly inspiration for it," said Barton.
"Black Doves" is set in London in the lead up to Christmas and Barton said he wrote the screenplay "on a bit of a whim" between Boxing Day and New Year two years ago.
"I felt like the setting sort of works quite interestingly against the spy stuff, it's all the jolly and the tinsel and stuff, and it's quite a dark time of year in a way, like, where everyone's quite emotionally fraught anyway. So it kind of adds to the tension," he said.
Many connect Knightley to Christmas through her 2003 romantic comedy "Love Actually".
"It's so much a part of people's Christmas traditions, which is like absolutely amazing. I've only seen it once, which is nothing to do with it. I've only watch anything I've done once. But so it's amazing that it has this whole life that's, you know, completely outside me," she said.
"Black Doves" starts streaming on Netflix on Dec. 5.
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