Inside the ‘deceitful’ and ‘wrong’ UK true story that inspired Netflix’s Black Doves

So much darker than the show

12 seconds ago

Kieran Galpin | Entertainment

Though Black Doves is a work of fiction, and Keira Knightley is not running around with a gun in her purse, it was technically inspired by a real-world UK event.

In Black Doves, which currently has season two streaming on Netflix, Keira Knightley plays Helen, who works for the spies-for-hire organisation. Married to the Secretary of State for Defence for the United Kingdom, Helen uses that connection to flog national secrets to the highest bidder. It’s dark, it’s gritty, and yet it’s got nothing on the story that inspired it.

“I had been reading as well about those spy cops, those guys, and they infiltrated that environmental group and had ended up having children with it,” show creator Joe Barton said after season one dropped.

“I mean, a really horrific story, much darker than this. But I was like, OK, that idea, that duplicitousness of having a pretend marriage lasting years and years and years and then it’s disappeared. That was really part of, I think, the inspiration for it as well.”

Credit: Netflix

What was the 2010 spy cop scandal?

At the end of 2010, going into 2011, bombshell reports alleged that undercover police officers had infiltrated various predominantly liberal and left-wing groups. In a bid to extract information and maintain their cover, those officers even entered into relationships with the members of said groups.

Some even got married and had kids with the people they were spying on. Most of the fathers simply “vanished” when their roles were complete.

The first officer identified became the most famous

Mark Kennedy was the first officer to be identified in the scandal, and he infiltrated many groups between 2003 and 2010 as part of the police service’s National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU).

In those seven years he spent in an environmental protest group, Mark travelled to 22 countries and ingrained himself in the community. He created friendships and relationships, and was thought of in a positive light by those in the group. During his undercover deployment, he had sexual relationships with around 10 members, and was in a serious relationship for two years with one campaigner, Kate Wilson.

Members of the group eventually discovered his lies, and he was exposed as the cases he helped build fell apart in court. His exposure subsequently led to the grander and more sinister policing scheme at work.

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It’s not clear what Mark Kennedy is up to today, but his entire life fell apart. He left the police force, his wife divorced him, the groups he’d spent years in abandoned him, and the relationships he’d formed crumbled. He was left without a job and blamed the police force for abandoning him.

Though Mark never faced charges, there’s an ongoing 2026 CPS investigation about undercover officers. Mark is among those named.

What groups did they infiltrate?

In 2015, the Metropolitan Police force apologised to the people affected by the undercover operations carried out by the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU).

“Thanks in large part to the courage and tenacity of these women in bringing these matters to light it has become apparent that some officers, acting undercover whilst seeking to infiltrate protest groups, entered into long-term intimate sexual relationships with women which were abusive, deceitful, manipulative and wrong,” the Met said.

“In light of this settlement, it is hoped that the Claimants will now feel able to move on with their lives. The Metropolitan Police believes that they can now do so with their heads held high. The women have conducted themselves throughout this process with integrity and absolute dignity.”

Over the course of 25 years, the operatives infiltrated mostly left-wing groups such as: