Spy Shows Are Back: Joe Barton & Jane Featherstone Talk Netflix’s ‘Black Doves’ & The Return Of Espionage

deadline.com:

With Black Doves, The Day of the Jackal and The Agency all hitting TV screens in the space of a few weeks, premium spy shows feel in vogue.

Jane Featherstone and Joe Barton concur. They are the producer and creator behind Netflix‘s Black Doves, which stars Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw as agents who operate amid a whirlwind of secrets. “It’s back,” Featherstone told Deadline. “Everyone’s making ’em.

The world is in a place where you need spies because there are so many barriers and nation state issues it just feels like the time.” Featherstone, who runs Black Doves maker Sister, said these trends come in circa-25-year cycles, citing Spooks, the hit BBC series she produced in the 2000s.

She said she is “definitely” being pitched more spy shows at present but there is room for plenty. Black Doves had a two-season order before it even premiered, The Day of the Jackal has already landed a second season order from Peacock and Sky, while The Agency, which is based on France’s The Bureau, launched on Showtime over the weekend and boasts a splashy cast including Michael Fassbender and Jeffrey Wright. “Much like you can have 25 crime shows I think you can have very disparate espionage shows,” added Featherstone. “Black Doves is corporate espionage not nation state, Jackal is a spy show but more cat and mouse, and The Agency is more conventional.” Barton pointed out that Knightley and Fassbender appeared on The Graham Norton Show last Friday promoting two different spy shows, neatly demonstrating the in-vogue nature of spies. “It’s an interesting genre,” said Barton, who was also inspired by Damian Lewis-starring ITV-MGM+ series A Spy Among Friends. “I like working within established genres but trying to put a twist on them