Music

The 'Legends' Soundtrack Is A Slice of '90s Nostalgia

We run down all the bops included in Neil Forsyth's newest series, 'Legends.'

Ani Bundel

09 May 2026 — 2 min read

Steve Cooghan in 'Legends' (Netflix)

Legends dropped on Netflix only days after the far more high-profile adaptation of The Lord of the Flies debuted, and with little fanfare. However, much like some of the other streaming services’ British-made series, it’s got all the makings of a sleeper hit. Like Bodyguard, Supacell, and Sex Education, Legends is a new spin on a simple formula – the amateur spy called on to save their country – with an A-list cast and a great script from the man who somehow kept Luther going until it reached six-seasons-and-a-movie status. (Well, five seasons, but the point stands.)

Based on the real-life top-secret operation the U.K. ran in the early 1990s, the series is about the country’s effort to take down European drug smugglers. A small team of Customs employees were sent undercover, normal men and women, plucked from ordinary lives around the U.K., put through a basic training regime, and tasked with building new identities in the criminal underworld.

Starring Jasmine Blackborow (Marie Antoinette), Tom Burke (War & Peace), Hayley Squires (The Miniaturist), Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You), and Charlotte Ritchie (Grantchester) as the everymen and women who were selected for this mission, it’s a fantastic thrill ride of a series made all the more mindblowing by being true.

Perhaps most importantly, because this is Netflix and they have these kinds of budgets for this express purpose, the 1990s-set series has an absolutely banging nostalgia soundtrack, ranging from EMF’s “Unbelievable” to mid-career Depeche Mode.