Con O'Neill Confirmed to Join Netflix's 'Legends' as Filming in Liverpool Continues

Netflix initially announced it was commissioning Neil Forsyth's Legends at the 2024 Edinburgh Film Festival, more than six months before the principal cast was confirmed. Filming on the series, which is based on the real-life decision by Her Majesty's Customs & Excise department in the late 1990s to charge ordinary employees with coming up with alternate personas, and going undercover in some of the most notorious drug cartels in order to stop the flow of illegal narcotics into the U.K.

If this seems rather desperate, consider what the British government faced in 1997. Not a single penny of The Gold (Forsyth's last hit series) had been recovered, and instead, one of the most expensive areas of London was rising up along the docks. Computization was coming to government agencies, including the post office, whose main program did not work. This is all ongoing while the tabloids were obsessed with Princess Diana, former U.K. Queen-to-be, dating a man, Dodi Fayed, who was not white and whose father owned department stores, breathlessly asking if she was going to get remarried until the froth took a deadly turn, killing both Di and Dodi. Of course, this escalating crisis operated unnoticed by the public.

Legends is set in London and Liverpool, and since switching to the coastal city, the series has added three new cast members to the roster: POBS favorite Con O’Neill (Our Flag Means Death), plus up-and-comers Paddy Rowan (Time) and Robbie O’Neill (Adolescence)*. 

(*No relation to Con O'Neill.) 

Here's the series' synopsis:

Legends is inspired by real-life criminal investigations following a group of British Customs employees sent undercover to infiltrate some of the U.K.’s most dangerous criminal drug gangs. In the early ’90s, her Majesty’s Customs and Excise was losing its battle with illegal drug smuggling across Britain’s borders. The solution was extraordinary. In a top-secret operation, a small Customs employee team was sent undercover. Their task — to infiltrate Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs.

But these were not trained spies. They were normal men and women, plucked from ordinary lives around the UK, put through a basic training regime, and tasked with building new identities in the criminal underworld. These identities were called legends.

Legends will be fronted by Charlotte Ritchie, who fans will recognize from Grantchester, alongside Tom Burke (War & Peace), Hayley Squires (The Miniaturist), and legendary comedian Steve Coogan (Brian & Maggie). Other PBS favorites include Tom Hughes (Victoria), Jasmine Blackborow (Marie Antoinette), Gerald Kyd (Ridley), Douglas Hodge (The Great), Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You), and Johnny Harris (A Gentleman in Moscow).

Forsyth penned all six episodes of Legends with directors Brady Hood (Prime Target) and Julian Holmes (Noughts & Crosses) splitting helming duties and Charlie Leech producing. Forsyth and Ben Farrell executive produce for Tannadice, and Richard Bradley does the same for All3Media stablemate Lion Television. 

Legends is currently filming in the U.K. The series is expected to debut on Netflix in 2026.