Steve Coogan left Netflix Legends boss panicked as writer opens up on reaction to role: 'I was waiting!'

Steve Coogan left Legends creator Neil Forsyth momentarily panicked after he agreed to join the Netflix crime drama in a rather unexpected way, the writer has revealed.

The six-part series, which premiered on May 7, 2026, follows a secret Customs and Excise operation in the early 1990s, where ordinary civil servants are recruited into undercover roles to infiltrate Britain’s heroin networks.

Speaking to GBNews.com and other press, Mr Forsyth recalled the unusual moment he first learned Mr Coogan had come on board for the role of Don Clarke.

“It was quite an inauspicious start, actually,” he said.

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“I’d been told he was going to email me, and I was waiting for this email to then speak to him about doing the part.”

But instead, Mr Forsyth found himself on what he initially assumed was just a routine call.

“It was January, a really wet night, and I was waiting for this Amazon delivery,” he said.

“And this Amazon driver kept calling me. He was calling, calling, calling.”

Eventually, the writer picked up.

“I said, ‘Where are you?’ and he said, ‘I’m in my car.’ I said, ‘Where are you?’ and he said, ‘Steve Coogan.'

“I said, ‘I thought you were an Amazon driver,’ and he just said, ‘Not yet.’”

Mr Forsyth said the confusion quickly turned into relief once the Alan Partridge actor confirmed he had read the scripts and wanted to take the part.

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“He just read the scripts and got in touch,” he said.

The writer added that Mr Coogan’s approach to the role was refreshingly straightforward, with the actor choosing not to overanalyse the character.

“He just came in and played it,” Mr Forsyth said.

“I don’t think he massively overthought everything. He knew the part and came in as part of the ensemble.”

The writer added that Mr Coogan's shift from comedy work made him particularly suited to the tone of Legends.

“It was quite exciting,” he said.

“It’s a great cast, and it felt like a chance to see actors doing something slightly different.”

Legends is inspired by the real-life accounts of undercover officers who infiltrated criminal networks in Britain during the 1990s.

Mr Forsyth said the series was built from extensive research, including interviews with former operatives and real testimony from those involved in the operations.

“They were just so normal on the surface, but had these incredible backstories,” he said.

The show was filmed across locations in London, Hampshire, Surrey, and Morocco. It stars actors Tom Burke, Hayley Squires, and Tom Hughes.

Mr Forsyth said the ensemble cast was key to bringing the true story to life.

“When you’ve got a big ensemble like that, it’s about how they fit together,” he said. “And Steve just became part of that world very naturally.”

When asked about scrutiny around how broadcasters, specifically the BBC, portray real communities on screen, Mr Forsyth said: “I think you just need to be brave in the telling of it and not worry too much."

He continued: "You’re not traducing an entire community by correctly recognising that there was a criminal network within it. You've just got to trust the research."

He also spoke about how real experiences were shaped into characters for the screen, explaining: “I always get quite annoyed when people talk about these shows and say, ‘Oh, some of the characters are fictional,’ because almost none of the characters are fictional.

“They’re all based on real people, but usually based on more than one, and it’s a compositing of people.”

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