KEIRA FIGHTLY!

The Pirates of the Caribbean star is earning some of the best reviews of her career as a knife-wielding, butt-kicking secret agent in modern spy drama Black Doves. It's a far cry from her costume drama roots

-  Kat Hopps

DRESSED in a stylish brown-belted leather jacket, she stabs one of her two female attackers in the thigh before striking the other one's gun out of her hand. She ducks and dives, delivering more punches and kicks, knocking one assailant to the floor in a millisecond. Then as she is charged by her still-standing opponent, her old friend and hitman Sam arrives to save the day with a shotgun blast that leaves her smeared in blood like a scene from Carrie.

Welcome to Black Doves and Keira Knightley as you've never seen her before.

Once the queen of period dramas, such as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, and an object of desire in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the English actress is back to kick ass in this black comedic sixpart thriller as a politician's wife who is secretly a murderous spy.

And it's fair to say the show is creating a buzz around Knightley not seen in years.

Since its release on December 5, Black Doves has become a commercial and critical success. It was Netflix's number one show in its first week, while fans are raving about Knightley and Ben Whishaw as her assassin sidekick Sam Young.

Netflix has already commissioned a second season. But if this fast-paced racy romp through London's streets, set aptly at Christmas time, has proven anything it's that there is life after corsets and bonnets for Knightley who proves a credible lead and knife fighter.

In fact, her strong performance has earned the 39-year-old actress a Golden Globe nomination for Best Female Actor in a television drama series, her first major award nomination in a decade. And critics are just as excited.

Film review website Roger Egbert said playing Webb offered Knightley a "role of a lifetime, one that forces her to balance her comedic chops with her physicality".