Season 2 spoiler note: This article discusses Laila Joshi’s home, wardrobe and character details.
Ambika Mod’s Laila Joshi arrives in Black Doves with no interest in making herself easy to classify. She is a sharp-tongued, casually dangerous operative who punctures Helen Webb’s polished spy-world manners. Yet some of the most revealing details about her are not weapons or one-liners. They are a spacious central London flat, designer clothes, a collection of trainers and a drum kit.
Those objects sketch a character whose tastes refuse to fit a tidy stereotype. Stylist describes Laila as Helen’s younger, working-class counterpart, but she also enjoys luxury items and a home with room for personal interests. The tension is not a mistake: she can be scrappy and self-assured without pretending to dislike nice things. Her personality is built around contradictions rather than a single class or political label.
What is inside Laila’s flat?
The details discussed in a Radio Times interview are unusually specific: designer clothes, a trainer collection and a drum kit, all housed in a spacious central London flat. Trainers suggest collecting and personal taste. Designer clothes show that Laila is happy to spend on appearance, even though she rarely behaves as if she needs social approval. The drum kit is the most surprising object because it hints at a private life beyond assignments and violence.
The flat is also a practical part of the story. Netflix’s official location guide identifies Laila’s base with Chinatown, while explaining that the production combined real Soho-area streets with interiors filmed at Truman Brewery. Condé Nast Traveller likewise identifies Truman Brewery on Brick Lane as the interior location used for Laila’s base. The screen home feels connected to a recognizable London neighbourhood while remaining a controlled space for the show’s action.
There is another neat piece of production trivia: Mod told Stylist that Laila’s flat was also used as Dexter’s flat in One Day. The same interior has therefore carried two very different fictional lives. That reuse adds an extra layer for viewers who recognize the earlier Netflix series, but it does not mean the characters share a story-world.
The trainer collection is a character detail, not just wardrobe decoration
In a show where clothing signals professional identity, Laila’s trainers help distinguish her from Helen. Helen’s public-facing life requires composure: she is a political spouse performing normality while managing a covert job. Laila is much less interested in looking as though she belongs in a room. Her style is personal, casual and sometimes deliberately disruptive.
A collection also suggests choice. It is not just one practical pair selected for an action scene. Collecting implies preferences and the pleasure of owning something for its own sake. For someone whose work involves treating danger as routine, those ordinary interests give her a life beyond the job.
The series’ costume language makes the contrast sharper. Stylist describes Laila’s look as a mesh-heavy, grungy mix, with a slicked-back ponytail and an attitude that makes her stand apart from the more controlled image Helen has to maintain. Mod told the magazine that the character’s look required extensive hair and makeup preparation. The clothes are not incidental: they help establish how Laila moves through the world.
Why a drum kit is the most revealing object in the room
The drum kit turns Laila’s apartment from a fashionable set into a character clue. An instrument takes up space and suggests a hobby that involves noise, repetition and physical energy. In a series full of people who keep secrets, the idea of Laila owning something designed to be heard is a neat contradiction.
The show has not supplied a full backstory explaining the kit. We do not know whether Laila plays regularly, whether she is good, or whether it is an old passion or a recent purchase. It would be misleading to invent an explanation. What its presence does establish is that the character has interests beyond weapons, surveillance and the work she treats so casually.
It is efficient visual storytelling. Instead of giving Laila a long speech about her private life, the set gives viewers a few concrete objects and lets them ask questions. The trainer collection feels personal; the designer clothes signal taste; the drum kit is unexpected. Together, they make her apartment feel occupied by a person rather than designed for a generic assassin.
Is Laila really working-class?
Stylist explicitly describes Laila as the younger, working-class counterpart to Helen. That is a useful frame for the contrast between the two women, but it does not provide a complete biography of Laila’s upbringing or finances. The show has not explained every part of her background, so the label should not be stretched into facts the series has not established.
In a separate Radio Times interview, Knightley described Helen as “pure capitalist,” while Mod suggested that Laila might have something more socialist about her. Mod then acknowledged the apparent contradiction: Laila likes luxury items and has a spacious flat, but that does not automatically make her a straightforward capitalist. She joked that viewers might learn more about Laila’s politics in a possible third season.
That exchange is more interesting than a simple label. A person can enjoy expensive trainers, designer clothes or a comfortable home without having a consistent political philosophy. Laila’s tastes do not cancel out the working-class framing; they make her harder to reduce to a stock character. Her choices seem personal rather than designed to prove ideological purity.
How Laila’s home contrasts with Helen’s world
Helen’s home life is tied to public performance. Her marriage to Wallace, his rise to prime minister and her secret work make domestic space feel exposed. Even at home, she is managing appearances and calculating what other people know. Laila’s flat feels different: it is a private base that reflects her own tastes and habits.
The contrast is not simply rich versus poor, or formal versus casual. Helen has learned to make herself legible to powerful people. Laila seems much less interested in being legible at all. Helen’s world depends on controlling information; Laila’s personality often works by saying the thing other people would leave unsaid. Their differences create friction, but they also make them useful foils for one another.
That is why the flat matters beyond its décor. It gives viewers a glimpse of a character otherwise introduced through action and attitude. The space suggests preferences, habits and a private rhythm, while leaving room for a future story to explore where Laila came from and how she built her life.
What the Chinatown setting adds
Netflix’s official location guide says Laila’s Chinatown scenes use real Soho-area streets, while the flat interiors were filmed at Truman Brewery. Condé Nast Traveller also identifies the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane as the interior location. This distinction matters: a story location and a real filming location are not always the same place.
The busy streets around Gerrard Street give Laila’s home an unmistakably central-London context. The interior, meanwhile, can be controlled for filming and action. That combination lets the series connect her to a recognizable neighbourhood while meeting the practical demands of a thriller set.
For viewers interested in the real locations, read our Black Doves Season 2 filming locations guide. For more on the character dynamic, read Helen and Laila’s generational clash and why Laila keeps roasting Helen.
Why these small details make Laila memorable
Action scenes establish that Laila is dangerous. Her dialogue establishes that she is funny, impatient and difficult to manage. The trainers, designer clothes and drum kit do something different: they suggest a life the plot has not fully opened up yet.
The strongest reading is not that Laila’s taste contradicts her politics, or that expensive possessions cancel out a working-class identity. It is that she refuses to fit a tidy category. She can be self-interested and anti-establishment in the same breath, enjoy luxury without chasing respectability, and be frighteningly effective at work while keeping a drum kit at home. That combination gives Mod’s character room to surprise us.
Frequently asked questions
What is in Laila’s flat in Black Doves Season 2?
The details discussed in interviews include designer clothes, a collection of trainers and a drum kit. Her flat is described as a spacious central London home associated with Chinatown.
Who plays Laila in Black Doves?
Ambika Mod plays Laila Joshi, a sharp-tongued, unpredictable operative who works with Helen in Season 2.
Where is Laila’s flat supposed to be?
The story places Laila’s flat in Chinatown. Netflix’s location guide says the production used real Soho-area streets and filmed the interior at Truman Brewery.
Was Laila’s flat filmed at Truman Brewery?
Yes. Netflix’s official location guide and Condé Nast Traveller identify Truman Brewery as the location used for the flat’s interior scenes.
Does Black Doves explain why Laila owns a drum kit?
No detailed explanation is given in the sources reviewed. The instrument works as a character detail, but the series has not established a full backstory for it.
Is Laila described as working-class?
Yes. Stylist describes her as Helen’s younger, working-class counterpart. The show has not yet supplied a full biography that explains every part of her background.
What does Laila’s trainer collection say about her?
It suggests a personal interest in style and collecting, and helps distinguish her casual, individual look from Helen’s controlled public image.
Sources and further reading
- Stylist: Ambika Mod on Laila’s costumes, her flat and working with Keira Knightley
- Radio Times: Ambika Mod and Keira Knightley discuss the differences between Helen and Laila
- Netflix Tudum: Black Doves Season 2 filming locations
- Condé Nast Traveller: Where Black Doves was filmed
- Glamour UK: Ambika Mod interview
- Gary Kirk’s Ambika Mod photograph on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
By Shivam Das
