In their view, it was ponderous, clumsy, overladen with exposition and backstory, and despite that, the character development was ill-conceived. They just couldn’t accept Coogan in his role as a former undercover agent, suggesting that it was just too difficult to divorce him from his Alan Partridge comedy creation. They weren’t won either to some of the characters involved in the show and from there they contrasted the high standard of American television making to the, in their opinion, far less accomplished, British shows, of which “Legends” was the latest disappointing effort.

At one point Peter Lalor mused that it worried him that one of his friends thought he might like “Legends” because it suggested that they really didn’t know him at all. The irony, Gideon had recommended the show. That excoriating review made me sit down late at night to have a look at the material which had elicited this reaction.

I have just finished “Legends”, 6 episodes, so not such a substantial investment, and I’m surprised that I’ve kept with it. I decided to write something about this experience which probably ensured that I was committed despite not being interested in what is a cop show, once removed and with a slight twist.

The first episode sees Coogan, a former undercover agent, pulling together his team of ordinary customs agents with no serious training at all, to take on the assignment of infiltrating the drug gangs. Coogan’s Don Clarke has been there, experienced everything and knows what it takes to do the job.

The term, “Legend” refers to the identity one assumes to allow infiltration without detection. There is an underlying theme here about the psychological toll using a “Legend” takes on the agent and it raises the question of what these people are actually doing i.e. they are acting, method acting, and that raises other questions which again I might return to at another juncture..

So, the leaders of the drug gangs, former Liverpool club bouncers, who took over the “doors” of the clubs and then went on to become drug dealers are suitably psychopathic and ruthless, prepared to exploit the desperation emerging from the resultant poverty in the working class estates brought on by Thatcher’s neo-liberal economic onslaught.

There are plenty of clunky moments, and some of the character traits adopted by the actors struggled to convince me. I didn’t think Coogan was totally believable and I think his appearance in this show was both an asset and a curse, like many a substantial talent who has cemented a particular character in the psyche, you do have to work a little to accept him in this particular role.

One of the things American television does particularly well is make the most unappealing characters likeable, The Sopranos for example. Here there are very few likeable characters which I thought made it a tougher watch, again an issue to return to.

It is certainly stacked with back story, which seems to be used to develop the characters reasoning for taking such monumental risks. Strangely, much of this type of dialogue comes in the later episodes, and the series does have its fair share of clichéd dialogue which can be quite irritating. The Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary are extremely obvious; uncaring and uncommitted, and oblivious to the suffering of the local communities, or the sacrifices of the customs agents.

A couple of issues which intrigued me were the briefly referred to growing campaign against the drug dealers in the estates they controlled. I thought that might be worth investigating. And Thatcher’s demise is mentioned without any reference to the Poll Tax riots which finished off her leadership. I think on balance that Cricket ET Al’s Gideon Hague and Steve Lalor’s assessment has a more accurate ring to it than many of the reviews I read, but I would add that it didn’t feel like time wasted and as an after effect of watching the series, I have considered buying the book the show is based on, “The Betrayer: How An Undercover Unit Infiltrated The Global Drug Trade” by Guy Stanton, and from there I have been thinking I should do a bit of research on that period and what role the anti drug campaigns had in bringing down the crime gangs.

In other words, was it ordinary people who brought about their demise or was it the heroic actions of the ordinary untrained customs officers as portrayed in this show.

The Turks and the Kurds who are responsible for the importation of the drugs from Afghanistan or Pakistan, all appear to operate on a different cultural plane to their English counterparts, at certain points ancient customs seem to be in play, but like their English counterparts, they are relatively small scale operators in the process of moving into large scale, national and international, drug smuggling and distribution. Effectively part of a period of Globalisation.

The general argument seems to be that using individual drug mules and bypassing airport customs is amateurish and they need to move to infiltrating shipping and the docks organising large shipments of drugs, avoiding detection and then building large street networks for distribution.

The series moves along at a fair clip, condensing about a decade of activity into a few months. There are various menacing situations, potentially fatal mishaps, and the dangers associated with committing to your “Legend”, your undercover identity, as fully as is needed to allow the ruthless gangsters to believe and trust you.

And of course there are bent cops who aid the psychopathic drug lords and there are the heroic activities of the ordinary customs agents who have to outwit the gangs. So were the generally favourable reviews in the press accurate or would the cricket podcasters opinions be closer to the mark.

There are plenty of clunky moments, and some of the character traits adopted by the actors struggled to convince me. I didn’t think Coogan was totally believable and I think his appearance in this show was both an asset and a curse, like many a substantial talent who has cemented a particular character in the psyche, you do have to work a little to accept him in this particular role.