A new spy thriller series will be arriving on Netflix soon which can count Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw and Sarah Lancashire among its cast.

Black Doves will be set in London against the backdrop of Christmas and follows Helen Webb (Knightley).

For 10 years, she’s been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to a shadowy organisation she works for - the Black Doves.

However, when her secret lover is assassinated her spymaster Reed (Lancashire) calls in Helen's old friend Sam (Whishaw) to keep her safe.

Together, Helen and Sam set off on a mission to investigate the killing leading them to uncover a vast, interconnected conspiracy linking the murky London underworld to a looming geopolitical crisis.

Speaking with the Radio Times about her role, Knightley shared: "One of the things I liked about Helen is taking that thing you experience a lot, particularly as a mother or a father – you’re in the car doing the school drop off, you’re screaming at your children, you’re so angry, you’re all screaming at each other and you get out of the car, and there’s all the mums at the school gate and it’s instantly, ‘Oh, hi!’ [perky voice; mega-watt grin]. And in life it’s those double faces that you have.

“Then suddenly you’re at work and you’ve got your work face on and then you’ve got your kid on the phone and you’re, ‘Oh baby, are you OK?’ So it’s that thing I think we all know and that we all do, but ramped up to ten, or 11 or 12. And that’s what I liked. It made me giggle."

She continued: “We all do it. For me, I’m on a film set and then it’s, ‘Oh, you passed your spelling test – I love you so much!’ Whereas this is, ‘Darling, I love you so much and they’re just about to kill me. Kiss darling, goodbye.’”

Black Doves full cast list

  • Keira Knightley as Helen Webb
  • Ben Whishaw as Sam Young
  • Sarah Lancashire as Reed
  • Andrew Buchan as Wallace Webb
  • Kathryn Hunter as Lenny Lines
  • Ella Lily Hyland as Williams
  • Gabrielle Creevy as Eleanor
  • Omari Douglas as Michael
  • Andrew Koji as Jason Davies
  • Tracey Ullman as Alex

  • Luther Ford as Hector Newman
  • Adeel Akhtar as Richard Eaves
  • Paapa Essiedu as Elmore Fitch
  • Callum Coates as Thomas 
  • Sam Troughton as Stephen Yarrick 
  • Charlotte Rice-Foley as Jacqueline Webb
  • Taylor Sullivan as Oliver Webb
  • Molly Chesworth as Marie
  • Isabella Wei as Kai-Ming
  • Dan Li as Chang Hao
  • Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Zach
  • William Hope as Mitch Porter
  • Agnes O'Casey as Dani
  • Adam Silver as Arnie
  • Hannah Khalique-Brown as Maggie
  • Thomas Coombes as Phillip
  • Steve Wall as Frank
  • Justine Mitchell as Emma

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When will Black Doves release on Netflix?

Black Doves will be arriving on Netflix at 8am on Thursday, December 5 with all six episodes being able to stream immediately.

Netflix has also revealed that a second series of the show is already in the works.