Bonafide Developing National Crime Agency Drama

Bonafide Films is developing an original, contemporary, true-crime drama based on research from access to the real people at the U.K.’s National Crime Agency.

The series promises to reveal the inner workings of the agency working against serious and organized crime. The story focuses on the 2020 infiltration of the encrypted phone system EncroChat and how it gave them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to decimate the criminal underworld. BAFTA-winning writer Nick Leather (Murdered for Being Different, Nightsleeper) is attached to write the series.

Leather and Bonafide’s executive producer, Tom Dunbar (The Walk-In, The Reckoning), have been given access to senior NCA officers who led the response to EncroChat’s takedown.

Bonafide Films is in discussion with a number of broadcast platforms.

Leather said: “Spending time within the NCA, digging into this landmark operation and finding out what and who is right at its heart, has been an absolute delight. This is one of the great success stories of modern policing—how the best of British came together to bring down the worst. And I can’t wait to tell it.”

Dunbar added: “We’re delighted to be working with the immensely talented Nick on this groundbreaking project that will reveal some incredible characters and thrilling stories at the U.K.’s equivalent of the FBI. We’re hugely grateful for the access the NCA has given us and recognize the careful path we need to tread in order to show the world some of what they do without giving away trade secrets. Some of these people are everyday heroes who are protecting the public from serious and organized crime, and we want to highlight the incredible activity going on just below the surface and how shockingly advanced and mercenary the criminal underworld truly is.”