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Keira Knightley Hopes Helen Can Finish Off Dani in ‘Black Doves’ Season 2: ‘I Don’t Think It’s OK That She Tried to F— My Husband and Kill Me on Christmas Eve’

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Keira Knightley Hopes Helen Can Finish Off Dani in ‘Black Doves’ Season 2: ‘I Don’t Think It’s OK That She Tried to F— My Husband and Kill Me on Christmas Eve’

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from “Black Doves” Season 1, now streaming on Netflix.

“Black Doves,” Keira Knightley’s first television series in more than two decades, has already proved a massive success for Netflix, which, knowing it had a hit, had ordered a second season from Knightley and creator/showrunner Joe Barton before the show even premiered.

Over the course of six episodes, viewers have been entranced by Helen (Knightley) as she balances her competing roles: elegant wife of Wallace (Andrew Buchan), the Minister of Defence, doting mother of twins, supportive friend to semi-alcoholic assassin Sam (Ben Whishaw), passionate affair partner to her lover Jason (Andrew Koji) and ruthless spy for a mercenary organization called the Black Doves.

After Jason is mysteriously murdered, Helen is hellbent on revenge before realizing she has stumbled into a global conspiracy that could possibly result in World War III, and pits her against the Black Doves and its brusque, cold-blooded leader, Mrs. Reed (Sarah Lancashire). As well as fighting off both U.S. and Chinese assassins, plus some murderous U.K. gangsters, she also goes to head to head with fellow Black Doves member Dani (Agnes O’Casey) who has designs on Wallace and is keen to see Helen out of the picture. (We won’t even mention the London-based crime organization the Clarks, who also want Helen dead.)

Following her Golden Globe nomination this week, Knightley sat down with Variety to talk about how much she knows of Helen’s murky past, hopes for Season 2 and whether she’s swapped corsets for guns permanently.

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Firstly, congratulations on the Critics Choice and Golden Globe nominations! Were you expecting it?

They’ve both been a total surprise. And what a lovely thing. Because you make it for people to enjoy. Quite often they don’t; a lot of times it goes wrong. It’s really nice when you get one where you’re like, “Oh, look, we intended to do that, and people are liking it, and that’s just great.”

You’re being called the new Queen of Christmas, since this is your fourth yuletide project after “Love, Actually,” “Silent Night” and “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.” Are you ready to take Mariah Carey’s crown?

Yeah, 100% I’m ready. As long as nobody expects me to hit those notes in that song. Apart from that, I’m totally ready.

Given you’re so closely associated with “Love, Actually,” did you hesitate when you saw “Black Doves” was also set at Christmas?

No, because I didn’t really think about the Christmas of it. It’s funny, you don’t think about the Christmas of it in the script until you’re actually watching it, and you’re like, “There’s Christmas lights all over it.” And we were very much living in Christmas for six months, because that’s how long we were shooting it. But no, I didn’t quite realize it was as Christmassy as it was. I mean, it wouldn’t have been a turn off for me, but it wasn’t intentional.

Keira Knightley and Andrew Buchan in “Black Doves”
Courtesy of Netflix

Joe Barton told me when I interviewed him recently that he was a bit Christmassed out by the end.

I feel like we were all a little Christmassed out. I mean, six months of Christmas baubles was quite intense. I think if he chooses to go back to Christmas [for Season 2], we could just about do it again. Who knows?

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Joe seemed to think it wouldn’t be Christmas, but he’s open to Easter.

I mean, sure. We could have some big bunnies running around it, it’ll be great.

He also mentioned that you were specifically looking for a contemporary project, rather than something period, when he sent over the pilot for “Black Doves.” Have you hung up your corset for good?

I haven’t hung up my corset for good. I’ve never got a plan outside exactly what I’m looking for at that precise moment. I wanted something contemporary. I wanted something that was entertaining. I was quite interested in violence, and I wanted it to be set in London, because I didn’t want to have to take the kids out of school. So it was quite a specific group of things, and I didn’t really think I was going to find anything. And then my managers from America phoned up and were like, “Do you know Joe Barton?” and I’d literally just watched “Giri/Haji.” I was like “Yes!” [They said] “He’s just handed in this pilot, and it’s violent and it’s set in London and it’s contemporary and it’s Joe Barton.” And I was like, “Oh my God.” It’s’ been one of my favorite jobs to do. It was just wonderful. And I think partly because of the silliness of it. I mean, the ridiculousness of it is what made it so fun.

Were you conscious of treading the line between that melodramatic silliness and grounding it in reality?

Yes, but I think that’s what Joe’s work does so beautifully. Because when you watch “Giri/Haji” or you watch “Lazarus,” it’s a tightrope that he walks. Very few people can do it, and you recognize it as soon as you read it. Because the dialogue is so delicious, but the whole setup of it is like, “This is wild.”

I’m always thinking, “OK, what’s the reality?” So with the fight scenes, I was like, “How does somebody my size beat somebody that size?” [In Episode 2, during a knife fight between Helen and Elmore Fitch, played by Paapa Essiedu], as soon as they said knives, I said, “OK, so like a butcher. So I’d learn where the tendons were, and I’d slice the tendons and as long as I got that then they’d be debilitated and they’d bleed out and that’s fine.” And Joe was like, “But that’s horrible?” And I went, “Well, yeah.” And he was like, “No! You just hit him with a dish towel, and he gives up.” So he’s very good at balancing it, going, “Yeah, I get that that’s real. But actually, we don’t need to go that far.” I will always offer up slicing tendons, and they can reject it. That’s fine as well.

Paapa Essiedu in “Black Doves”
Courtesy of Netflix

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How much did you know about Helen’s backstory when you started shooting? And are we going to see more about what happened with her stepfather and her sister in Season 2?

I mean, I’m assuming so, but I don’t know. The backstory was growing and changing as we went, which was quite interesting. My big question was always, did I kill the stepfather? Because that’s quite a big character point. He went “Absolutely not. You didn’t kill the stepfather.” And then at some point we did shoot a scene where I say I killed the stepfather. I’m like, “Wait a minute…” And then he was like, “Oh no, actually, I’m taking it out again.” So it was up in the air. I suspect I probably did.

What would you like to see Helen do in Season 2?

I want to kill Dani. I don’t think it’s OK that she tried to fuck my husband and kill me on Christmas Eve. So [Joe and I] are having a very funny text line at the moment where I’m basically saying, “Let me kill Dani.” And he’s like “Errr.” I’m going murderous, and he’s like, “No, wait a minute!”

To be fair, those are good reasons for Helen to kill Dani.

She’d definitely kill Dani! It’s not OK to fuck her husband, or try to fuck her husband. I mean, I get to have affairs, but he does not, obviously.

Do you think Helen loves Wallace?

I think everything for her is real. I think she does love her husband. I think she does love her children. I think there is a world where she is a very good wife and a very good mother. She’s just also a horrific wife and a horrific mother, and she is betraying him at all times. So that relationship I find really interesting.

We went through a lot of discussions of exactly what this relationship would be, and I think what we came up with was, I think it is [love]. I think she stayed for a reason — because she could have gone — and so the reason that she doesn’t go is fascinating, and again, something that I think we can dig more into.

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Courtesy of Netflix

Aside from the fact she’s a spy and her husband is the Minister for Defence, it’s a very relatable concept: “Do you ever really know the other person in a relationship?”

I think that’s what’s lovely about the whole thing. Yes, it’s in the ridiculous, large world of spies and all the rest of it. But ultimately, it’s about the different faces that we all wear, and that you are never known fully. The fascinating thing about this one is the only person that knows her whole self is Sam. So it’s this platonic relationship in the center, which is the only place for both of them where they can be entirely themselves.

[Helen and Sam] are desperate for that love, but they’re never going to get it, because they’ve got this side of themselves which cannot be known to the person who they’re in love with. So the melancholy of that and the loneliness of that — within this silly world of explosions and all the rest of it — is actually what gives [the show] a heart at its center, which is what I loved about it.

The scene in which Helen gives up her plan to run away in order to come and help Sam is really touching. What was it like wielding both a baby bump and a gun?

I had a prosthetic belly and prosthetic boobs and all incredibly heavy and enormous. But it was quite amazing shooting the scene, because people were really shocked by the image of it. Actually that scene came in quite a long way after we started filming. There were whispers of it, but we hadn’t quite seen how it was going to work. I think it was between [director] Alex Gabassi and Joe going, “She’s got to be pregnant.” And I think they were completely right, just judging from the set and everybody’s faces going, like “What the hell is that?” It was a good kind of shocking thing.

In literature, pregnancy is sometimes treated as the ultimate expression of femininity — and here it’s juxtaposed with you murdering assassins. Did you think about that dichotomy while shooting the scene?

It did go through my head. I’ve just never found pregnancy to be a “soft” thing. I got sciatica in my second pregnancy — I was so angry at the end of it. I was in so much physical pain, and I was so angry that I remember being in a swimming pool — the only time that I was not in pain was if I was floating in a swimming pool — and for some reason, I had to get out. And I just remember really shouting at my husband. I was like this angry hippopotamus full of rage at this whole thing. And I think that’s actually more what was in my head. I understood the rage, the discomfort of needing to piss every five seconds, having your sciatica being completely blown to pieces. I think I’m much more interested in that reality of pregnancy, and therefore that kind of violence that she’s experiencing. I could connect to that in a way that isn’t the soft, fuzzy version of pregnancy that you’re used to seeing in popular culture.

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Courtesy of Stefania Rosini/Netflix

Given the potential repercussions of Sam killing Trent in the season finale, could Season 2 see Sam and Helen set against each other?

Yes! I mean, this is just fun for me and Ben — this is not me saying that this is what’s going to happen in Season 2, because I actually don’t know. But we were constantly going, “Is there a price that they’d turn on each other?” Because they are fundamentally capitalist extremists. There is no morality. So there is a price for everything. And there is nothing higher than their own ego and their own selves. They’re mercenaries. So is there a world where they turn on each other? Joe, when we talked about it, said “Absolutely not. They’re completely best friends.” But you plant a seed with Joe, and then he goes away, and he’s like “Hmmm.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own.

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Czech Dam Project Was Stalled by Bureaucracy. Beavers Built Their Own.

For years, officials in the Czech Republic had pushed a dam project to protect a river south of Prague, and the critically endangered species living in it. But the project, hamstrung by land negotiations, stalled.

In the meantime, a group of chisel-toothed mammals — renowned for their engineering skills and work ethic, and unencumbered by bureaucracy — decided to take on the task. The beavers of Prague simply built dams themselves.

The rodents’ fast work saved the local authorities some 1.2 million euros, according to a news release from the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic, a government agency responsible for conservation across the country. “Nature took its course,” Bohumil Fišer, the head of the Brdy Protected Landscape Area, where the revitalization project was planned, said in the statement. The beavers, he added, had created the ideal environmental conditions “practically overnight.”

The project, on a former army site on the Klabava, a river about 40 miles southwest of Prague, the Czech capital, was drafted in 2018 and had a building permit, but had been delayed for years by negotiations over the land, which had been used as a military training grounds, Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday. Officials had hoped to build a barrier to protect the river and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds, A.F.P. reported.

The beavers began working before the excavators could even break ground. It was not immediately clear specifically when the dams were built and how long it took to build them.

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The new wetland created by the dams covers nearly five acres, the conservation group said. It is twice as large as the area that the humans had planned, Agence France-Presse reported. “It’s full service,” Mr. Fišer told A.F.P. “Beavers are absolutely fantastic and when they are in an area where they can’t cause damage, they do a brilliant job.”

Despite their remarkable ability to construct dams, beavers often draw the ire of landowners and farmers for destroying trees, eating crops and flooding roads and fields. But in thinning a tree canopy, the rodents can often help to diversify an ecosystem by allowing in sunlight in so that other plant species can thrive, said Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota.

“They’re fundamentally changing the way water and life moves through that landscape,” she said.

To build a dam, the beavers, whose weight as adults can range from about 40 to 80 pounds, begin by piling small stones across a river or stream, packing those stones in with mud, and repeating the process to construct a pond, which they then expand to become a wetland, Dr. Fairfax said.

They are motivated by their fear of predators: Beavers are adept swimmers and can hold their breath underwater for 15 minutes. On land, their ungainly waddle makes them easy prey. “They’re basically a big chicken nugget for predators,” which include bears, mountain lions and wolves, she said.

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The Czech dam is not the first time the rodents have assisted in building a wetland. Beavers in California have helped to restore a floodplain about 30 miles northeast of Sacramento. In that case, the beavers’ work also helped local officials save money. “All they had to do was let the beavers be there,” Dr. Fairfax said. In other cases, beavers often did work that went unacknowledged. “We sort of have a blindness for beavers,” she said, noting that they were often considered a nuisance because of their alarming size and capacity to rapidly change the landscape.

“They’re powerful, they’re big, and they’re elusive,” Dr. Fairfax said, noting that, despite the beavers’ engineering prowess, they presented a challenge for conservation groups when planning restoration projects.

“Oftentimes we don’t want to allow the beavers to make the choices, because it’s hard to plan around that uncertainty; it’s hard to turn over control to a giant water rodent,” she said. “But that’s when beavers are at their best.”

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Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time'

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Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: 'No more time'

Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, urgently pleaded for President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining Oct. 7 captives held by Hamas amid fears the current ceasefire deal is disintegrating.

“They have no more time. And please don’t go back to war. Please. Because if that happens, if we go back to war, the hostages could die. The hostages that are alive could die,” she told Fox News Digital. “That’s what happened last time. Last time we saw that after the hostages came out and war started, so many hostages died and were murdered by Hamas. So we cannot let this happen. Please do everything in your power and do something for my son. He’s in the tunnels. He’s crying for help.” 

Idit Ohel said she received confirmation that her son is still alive from released hostages Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, two of the three gaunt, frail-looking Israelis forced to speak Saturday during a Hamas hand-over ceremony in Gaza. 

The mother said the released hostages, who were held with her son for part of their nearly 500 days in captivity, told her that Alon Ohel is unable to see out of an eye after being struck by shrapnel when Hamas was closing in on Oct. 7, 2023. Alon Ohel, a civilian, was attending the Nova music festival when terrorists attacked, and he took cover in a bomb shelter. Hamas pounded the shelter with grenades and gunfire, and he “was taken, wounded, with blood all over him,” Idit Ohel said. 

ISRAEL SLAMS PALESTINIAN ‘DECEPTION SCHEME’ OVER CLAIM IT HALTED TERROR REWARDS PROGRAM

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A placard of Alon Ohel seen during a rally marking his 24th birthday in Tel Aviv. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Alon Ohel’s ancestors survived the Holocaust, including his great-grandfather who weighed just 30 kilos [about 66 pounds] when he was released from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Idit Ohel said. “So if he was alive today, he would probably die instantly just knowing that his great-grandson in the year of 2025 is starving,” she said. “Alon has these genes. So he’s fighting. He’s fighting for his life every day.” 

Under the deal, another three hostages were due to be released by next Saturday, but Hamas said Monday that the group would not let them go, accusing Israel of violating terms of the ceasefire agreement. 

Concerns that fighting will resume are rising. Trump has since said that Hamas must release all remaining 76 hostages by noon Saturday, or he would demand the ceasefire deal be canceled and “let all hell break out.” Netanyahu backed the demand. 

Israeli media is reporting that Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is being dispatched to Israel and Qatar this week to prevent the ceasefire deal from unraveling. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Israel on Saturday. 

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To Trump and Netayanhu directly, Idit Ohel said, “Do something and bring them home. Please. Please.” 

Alon Ohel's mother speaks at Tel Aviv rally

Idit Ohel speaks to the crowd during a Tel Aviv rally marking the 24th Birthday of her son Alon Ohel who is held hostage by Hamas. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Give him a chance. It’s unbearable. Something has to change. You have to do everything in your power to bring him home to me, to his family,” she said. “There’s still hostages alive. There’s still hostages alive. Please. Please, do something.” 

Idit Ohel said she learned her son is being held in tunnels without medical attention and little food and has been “tortured, chained and starved.” 

“It’s not humane. There’s so much food getting into Gaza, and he’s not getting any of it,” she said.

HAMAS SAYS IT’S DELAYING NEXT HOSTAGE RELEASE, CLAIMING CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS

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“Alon, right now as we speak, is still being not fed, sleeping on the floor, being chained, constrained. So he cannot move for 494 days,” Idit Ohel said. “My son is important. My son is only an innocent civilian. He went to the Nova festival to have fun. He’s a pianist. He loves music. He did nothing wrong to nobody. We need to get him out now. He cannot continue. This is humanitarian.” 

Days before Trump took office, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. Former President Joe Biden said at the time that the first phase involved a “surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza” – something Idit Ohel stressed her son is not getting. 

She said the International Committee of the Red Cross “have never seen Alon and have never seen any of the hostages – [he] didn’t get any treatment.” 

Tel Aviv demonstration in honor of Alon Ohel's 24th birthday

Israelis stand under placards with photos of hostages during a rally in Tel Aviv marking the 24th Birthday of Alon Ohel, who is held by Hamas in Gaza.  (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Where is he? Why is he not coming?” Idit Ohel added. “I do not understand it. I will never understand it. This is wrong. This is not moral.” 

Ohel rallied thousands in Tel Aviv over the weekend on her son’s 24th birthday – the second birthday he has spent in captivity since the Oct. 7 attacks. 

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“I wanted to say happy birthday to my son. I couldn’t even talk [to him] and see and hear his voice,” she said. “When I heard about his condition, I fainted … I haven’t been sleeping for days … I cannot control what Hamas is doing to my son.” 

“Every mother in this world. Think just for a second. If there’s one night that your son or daughter doesn’t eat, you can’t even live with yourself,” Ohel added. “My son has not been getting food for 494 days.”

The mother also delivered a message directly to her son. 

“If you’re listening to me, you know I love you and your father loves you. And we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that you’re home alive. You’re coming home. And there’s so many people all over the world and in Israel that are with you and are praying for you,” Ohel said, asking fellow musicians to play songs in her son’s honor in the coming days. “And you are not alone, Alon. You are not alone.” 

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Anti-Trump demonstration ahead of NATO meeting in Brussels

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Anti-Trump demonstration ahead of NATO meeting in Brussels

The demonstration happened on the sidelines of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s address at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels.

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Dozens gathered for an anti-Trump demonstration in front of the Brussels-Central station on Wednesday, calling for the defence of democratic values in the United States.

Spokesperson for Democrats Abroad Belgium Robin de Wouters said “we really want to protest the Trump administration’s attack on our constitutional values and American values.”

De Wouters added that the American population has entrusted the US president after a democratically held vote, but stresses the importance of representing all of its citizens, “and that’s not by alienating a vast majority of Americans.”

“He has to respect the rule of law. He has to respect the decisions of the court. He has to respect due process in Congress. And he cannot assert himself as an autocrat,” he concluded.

The demonstration happened on the sidelines of newly appointed US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth’s visit to Belgium.

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Speaking at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels, Hegseth said that Ukraine’s desired return to its pre-2014 borders as well as NATO membership are “unrealistic” goals that should be excluded from any future peace settlement. He also underlined that US troops would not be a part of any peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.

The meeting came a day before defence ministers are set to meet in the Belgian capital to prepare for the NATO Summit that will be held in The Hague in June.

“It is important that we send a strong message that we are a strong NATO member, that we will abide by the treaty, and that we are not going to undermine NATO,” former chair of Democrats Abroad Belgium Pauline Manos told Euronews at the rally.

“This cannot happen again,” she added, referring to Trump’s policy during his first term at the White House in 2016. “We will stand with Europe.”

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