Black Doves star Keira Knightley has said the fight sequences are the “joy of the series” and were important to get right.

Knightley, 41, stars in the Netflix thriller as Helen Webb, a dedicated mother, wife and professional spy who has been passing on her politician husband’s secrets for 10 years to the organisation she works for – the Black Doves.

She reprised her role, alongside Ben Whishaw who returned as assassin Sam Young, for the action-packed second season where her character faces even higher stakes as her husband Wallace (Andrew Buchan) prepares to step into 10 Downing Street as the new UK prime minister.

Speaking to the Press Association at the firework-fuelled series launch event in central London, Knightley said: “I think it was important that the fight sequences are very much part of the series.

“The strangeness of the fight sequences and the fact that Helen Webb is being Mrs prime minister’s wife and then going off and and murdering many people.

“I think that’s the joy of the series.”

Knightley shares the screen, including a fight sequence at the start of the show, with One Day star Ambika Mod, 31, who joined the series as Laila, an anarchic Black Doves agent sent to help Helen on a mission.

She added: “It was important to get that one right.

“I loved it when I read it, and it was very fun with Ambika trying to figure out how we managed to kill so many people without even getting our clothes or our hair out of place or any blood on our clothes or anything. It was amazing.

“I think that’s what’s fun about it.”

Wearing a collarless black Chanel jacket with red cufflinks and suit trousers, Knightley said exploring the complexity of these characters and bizarre situations they find themselves in is part of what she loves most about the series.

She added: “I think for me the show is about these complex creatures and the fact that people can be many different people at once and many different versions of themselves.

“I think that’s true in life, hopefully, not in such an extreme way, but this is kind of taking that concept to the extreme and I think that’s what I like about it.”

Mod, who attended the launch event in a vibrant red sleeveless midi dress with matching heels, said the stunt-packed scenes were one of the reasons she wanted to join the series in the first place.

She said: “The stunt experience was my favourite bit.

“It’s the reason I wanted to do the show. I had never done anything like that before, the choreography, or the training, or the fighting.

“I was hooked, and it’s so satisfying when you do it, and then you watch it back and you see it all put together. Like, it’s really, it’s really, really exciting.”

One of the skills she picked up while shooting the series was “good gun etiquette” including how to use guns properly.

Black Doves season two is out on Netflix from November 5.