My Top 30 Shows Of The Decade! (2010-2019)

Now that we’ve ticked over into a decade that actually has a name it’s time to process a time that many have named a “golden age” in television. By the way, if you’re one of those people who actually think the twenties start in 2021 then stop reading this blog because you are clearly insane and need help. And a calendar. When we’re born we’re not suddenly aged one are we?! There’s a bit of time between! They’re called months!

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Sorry, where was I? Ah yes. Here is my personal list of my favourite shows of the last ten years. There’s no Fleabag because no matter how good it is there’s the inescapable feeling that it is overrated. There’s no Game of Thrones either. I saw the first episode and once you’ve seen Emelia Clarke naked it’s not going to get any better than that is it?

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This has been an intense work about a great passion of mine.. TV that is – not Emelia Clarke’s bum. That’s a blog for another time. Feel free to debate, disagree and even rave about the show’s in my list. It’s all a matter of opinion. There will never be a definitive list because art speaks to us in many different ways. These are the show’s that made my heart beat faster, made me laugh and made me cry. God bless television…

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30: What Remains (BBC1) 2013

David Threlfall couldn’t be further from Frank Gallagher here. As Detective Len Harper he finds himself on the other side of the law in this claustrophobic whodunnit. When the decomposed body of a woman is found in an apartment all of the houses residents are suspects. Intriguingly and thoughtfully paced, What Remains is an underrated work.

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29: Catastrophe (Channel 4) 2015-19

From a dysfunctional couple to an even more dysfunctional family, creators Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney put their namesakes through the mill with a mixture of highly developed intelligent comedy and plenty of potty mouthed goodness. A warts and all look into modern relationships.

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28: People Just Do Nothing (BBC3) 2014-18

The mockumentary on a mock pirate radio station kurupt FM. Consider yourself mocked with strange garage beats and the ridiculous adventures of a gang with the common sense of school children. Funnier that Craig David’s back catalogue, People Just Do Nothing has a unique flow and poetry to its comedy.

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27: Rhod Gilbert’s Work Experience (BBC Wales) 2010-18

It’s official, Rhod Gilbert can make anything funny. In one of the episodes he works in a hotel and changes beds yet manages to weild more laughs than Basil Fawlty achieved before serving breakfast. He flies a plane, becomes a vet and even poses as a male model. However, what truly makes the show is Rhod’s gruff, cynical and quick-fire narration. His unrelenting one-liners prove he should stick with being a comedian.

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26: Doctor Foster (BBC1) 2015-17

Suranne Jones gives a powerhouse performance as a woman betrayed by the equally screen stealing Bertie Carvel. It’s a small town show with grand ideas, some of them absolutely barmy, but Mike Bartlett’s script pushes the intrigue and suspense to extreme levels. It’s a theatre play portrayed as a glossy small screen spectacle. Doctor Foster is about the complexities of adult relationships but with a heightened, melodramatic fizz.

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25: Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (BBC2) 2009-2016

You know Stewart Lee, you’ve seen him. On the telly. His Comedy Vehicles are thirty minute, meandering diatribes and they are essential. Between his takes on “The UKIPS” and Chris Moyles, Lee berates himself and the audience in ever decreasing stages of madness. Iconic television that deserved more love.

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24: Broadchurch (ITV) 2013-17

It’s easy to forget the cultural impact of Broadchurch back in the first season. The nation was hooked on the mystery of Danny Latimer’s death but it was in the harrowing effect on the local community where writer Chris Chibnall really struck gold. David Tennant and Olivia Colman as Hardy and Miller, two cops thrown together, were the definition of chemistry.

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Yes, series two was a bit of a letdown but the change of direction in the last run got the show back within touching distance of greatness again with a difficult subject handled with class. Series one won’t just be a classic of the last ten years, it will forever be a classic nonstop.

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23: Taskmaster (Dave) 2015-

Put a bunch of comedians in a room and you’re bound to be entertained. Get them to do ridiculous tasks and put them in a room to talk about doing the ridiculous tasks and you have an instant comedy franchise. Greg Davies and Alex Horne monitor proceedings in the hope things get out of hand and they often do. For instance, that time Liza Tarbuck got Alex to sit on a cake with his naked bottom.

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22: Bang (S4C) 2017-

A multilingual crime drama based in Port Talbot, Bang was an intense thriller which was essentially about one single gun and the chain of effects it has. Dark, twisty and so beautifully shot the town itself was a main character. Stories are rarely told from these corners of Britain and the good news is there’s a second series starts in early 2020.

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21: Stranger Things (Netflix) 2016-

It was acceptable in the 2010s. Hmm, not quite so catchy is it? The Duffer brothers piled on the nostalgia and dayglow horror to provide Netflix with one of their biggest ever hits. While evil tree branchy type things are the focus of the show’s evil, Stranger Things is all the classic buddy movies brought to the small screen.

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Let’s face it, things with child actors are usually fucking awful but the show’s biggest success is how wonderful the main cast are. The third series saw an evolution and change of direction so hopes are high for the future of Stranger Things.

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20: Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish (Dave) 2013-17

Imagine Black Mirror if it was much more obscure and performed by a comedian. That’s the pitch. Dave Gorman is in the form of his life as he studies the intricacies of modern day living with his own unique perspectives. Be it online shopping, hassling Alan Sugar with billboards or furrowing the real depths of the internet – the comment sections. Cynical but warm, opinionated but friendly. Modern Life is Goodish was most excellentish.

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19: Cucumber (Channel 4) 2015

Russell T. Davies wrote a study on modern day homosexuality through they eyes of Henry (the excellent Vincent Franklin) a middle-aged man who has his life turned upside down after a party that involves a death. He flees his previously stable relationship to house share with a flat full of young strangers led by 19 year old Dean.

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In typical Davies style Cucumber is laced with innuendo and high energy plotting. It’s some of the bravest drama commited to television. It’s funny and heartbreaking and leaves you on a constant seesaw between the two. There is one particular scene that is so shocking it’ll effect you for days. You’ll know it when you see it.

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While being crude without ever being tasteless, Cucumber was always about the bigger message. By challenging society’s perceptions of gayness and all sexuality it stands the test of time. The last, subtle line uttered by Henry is quite the ending for this one and done series.

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18: Spotless (Netflix) 2015

Jean Bastiere’s life was perfect on the surface with his lovely family and big house but appearances are deceiving. His job could almost be a metaphor for he runs a business that cleans up after crime scenes. His world is turned upside down when his brother Martin visits with a freezer and a dead body inside. Like you do. What follows is a chain of events that spiral out of control, so much so they end up working for a mob by clearing up their dirty work.

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Spotless is dramatic, cinematic and full of bleak humour in the darkest of circumstances. It’s the compelling story of a good man taken way out of his comfort zone but it’s Denis Menochet who plays Martin’s scruffy womanising bad boy with glee that steals the show.

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As compelling as it was gory, a second series was on the cards but sadly it seems network wranglings have put paid to those hopes. We’ll have to keep Spotless as an eternal sunshine of our minds.

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17: Misfits (E4) 2009-2015

Not all superheroes wear capes – some wear boilersuits. Cruder than Superman in a brothel, more disgusting than Batman’s coke habit but funnier than Ardal O’ Hanlon in My Hero. Seriously.

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Five juvenile offenders team up to do community service but a freak thunderstorm gives them powers they don’t understand and the magical ability to kill all their probation officers. Clumsy.

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If Misfits had been American then it’d have been glossy and the superpowers would have been useful. Instead these delinquents botch their way through misadventures while trying to shag eachother.

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Misfits flows with energy and off-kilter weirdness. From the bizarre (sample line: “Fuck the Tortoise, Alex”) to the blasphemous (THAT nativity scene).

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While it didn’t quite adjust to an entirely new cast with as much comfort as a certain show that is higher on this list, Misfits was and will always be a riot.

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16: My Mad Fat Diary (E4) 2013-15

An eye-catching take on teenage life based on the real-life experiences and book of Rae Earl. It’s Sharon Rooney’s task to express Rae’s issues with body image, mental health and self-abuse and she does so with great dignity and humour. If this had been a movie and not tucked away on E4 then all the awards would have been falling at Rooney’s feet

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Set in the nineties, My Mad Fat Diary tells the story of her interegration into a group of school friends, one of whom is Chloe, played by the then up and coming Jodie Comer. You may have heard of her?

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Colourful, brash and highly inventive yet all that still ignores the kick ass nineties soundtrack. By using The Charlatans’ ‘One To Another’ as the theme song it was never going to do wrong was it?

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15: Sherlock (BBC1) 2010-17

These Sherlock Holmes adventures set in present day London were full of writer’s Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ usual sense of wonder and wilful deception. Everything clicked from the first minute and in Benedict Cumberbatch a rising star shone brightly.

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The feature length episodes flew by with the help of brilliant dialogue and eye-catching cinematography, a lot of which has been copied to death since. Sherlock was fun and over the top but it’s extremity was what made it a trendsetter. Incredibly crafted plotlines took unexpected tangients and series 4, which many hated, was all the madness spilling over. Did it jump the shark by the end? Yes. Was it still highly watchable crime drama with twists galore? Absolutely.

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14: Uncle (BBC3) 2014-17

Nick Helm plays the dishevelled Andy who is forced to be young Errol’s (Elliot Speller-Gillott) uncle in nature more than just in name and a beautiful if strange friendship results. So far, so very twee you’re thinking? Except it’s done under the influence of alcohol and drug addiction while bursting into inappropriate songs. Dylan Moran even appears as a wizard. Potty mouthed but full of emotional resonance, Uncle was a family pack of laughter.

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13: Black Mirror (Channel 4 & Netflix) 2011-

Black Mirror’s first ever episode involved the Prime Minister fucking a pig and that’s one of the more normal plots that bears resembence to our times. Charlie Brooker’s anthology series on mankind’s relationship with technology might have dystopian overtones but sometimes the stories reflect the news in the months that follow transmission.

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Dark, twisted, satirical, frightening and sometimes, just sometimes funny. A constant parade of strong casts and intriguing plots mean Black Mirror continues to be worryingly relevant and episodes such as ‘San Junipero’ and ‘Hang The DJ’ prove it’s not all doom and gloom.

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12: Luther (BBC1) 2010-2019?

Idris Elba is commanding as detective John Luther. Sure, his personal life is complex but it gets a lot weirder when he runs into Alice Morgan (played with a devilish viguer by Ruth Wilson). Alice is a murderer our antagonist can’t lock up. Against all odds they form a crime fighting partnership which surprisingly doesn’t follow rules.

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In short, Luther is a mad show. A crime drama that’s permanently heightened and that’s where the fun lies. Writer Neil Cross revels in the world of this alternative London with a dark hearted crime drama that’s both thrilling and extremely gory. It’s a near perfect balance of murder mystery and action. You’re either not into Luther or you’re along for the whole ride. Just don’t get the night bus, eh?

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11: Happy Valley (BBC1) 2014-

Writer and creator Sally Wainwright had a prolific decade of not just hit television, but top quality television at that. Last Tango In Halifax, Scott & Bailey and Gentlemen Jack add to what was an already impressive CV but arguably the high-water mark is Happy Valley.

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Sarah Lancashire is sensational as police sergeant Catherine Caewood, a woman struggling with her daughter’s suicide and living with her alcoholic sister. Tommy Lee Royce, played by James Norton who is clearly enjoying going dark side. Tommy has recently been released from prison. The thing is, he raped Catherine’s daughter and was ultimately responsible for for her death, not that he got locked up for that. His new found freedom causes fractures in catherines personal and work life.

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Gritty is a word that could sum up Happy Valley as the backdrop for all this is a small working class town riddled with poverty and addiction. These are themes that run through the show.

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The dialogue is so masterfully constructed and real to life and an impressive cast brings life to this little world with big problems. Wainwright has such a natural ability to make characters real and not just half-arsed sketches.

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Despite such a huge chasm of time since the last series there is a third in the works but it’s likely we’ll have to wait at least a couple more years. The pace of life in the country is slower to be fair.

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10: Inside No.9 (BBC2) 2014-

From the, let’s say perverse, minds that gave us The League Of Gentlemen and Psychoville came a horror anthology as shocking as it was surprising. Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton dreamt up the surreal, the creepy, the mad and everything else on the bonkers spectrum.

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By it’s very nature there will be episodes that disappoint, it’s range of tone and subjects won’t translate to everyone at all times, but if you don’t take to one episode it’s likely you’ll fall in love with the next. When it excels it’s one of the best things committed to telly. The variation and depth of material is to be respected.

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The silent episode ‘A Quiet Night In’ was the first hint that we had something special but the tone always shifts. Take ‘The 12 Days of Christine’ which is genuinely heartbreaking. Or Zanzibar which is a hotel based farce spoken entirely in spoof Shakespearian. In ‘Diddle Diddle Dumpling’ a man becomes obsessed with a stray shoe. There’s plenty more where that came from.

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2018’s live Halloween special could have been the moment Inside No.9 ate itself but they mastered every detail to perfection and so high was the concept they got viewers switching off in droves. That’s art that is.

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The new decade will usher in the fifth series and as usual we have no idea what to expect other the the number nine being involved. Who knows, maybe even that’s not a guarantee.

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9: Detectorists (BBC4) 2014-17

In a decade where cynicism grew exponentially, MacKenzie Crook offered an obscure form of light relief. Tucked away on BBC4 and offering a comforting hug to those who discovered it in the ditches of the TV schedules, Detectorists was never really about metal detecting – it was about friendship. Hapless though Lance and Andy were the important thing is they were nice. That’s it. It’s not very fashionable is it? We willed them to be better with women. We hoped they would find their pot of gold.

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Through stunning shots of the English countryside Detectorists brought a warm glow even if the weather conditions were drizzly. Lance and Andy nattering about nonsense was the heart of the show of course but no show is complete without a nemesis and in the ridiculous form of the ‘Antiquisearchers’ (or Simon & Garfunkel to be more precise) they definitely didn’t meet their match. So much comic gold was mined when the pairs squared up against each other.

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Let’s also not forget the oddball characters that made up the Danebury Metal Detecting Club and their awkward, mostly pointless meetings. It all added to a small world with a big heart. This should go down as an all-time classic comedy, one that gave our flawed antiheroes the ending they deserved.

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8: Community (NBC & Yahoo Screen) 2009-2015

Meet Jeff Winger, a lawyer who finds himself at Greendale Community College after having his degree revoked. Jeff stands as the morale conscience of the show despite not having many morals. He meets dipsy Troy, geeky Abed, grouchy Pierce, bubbly Shirley, cutesy Annie and not so brittle Britta. They’re the seven dwarfs of pop culture references and meta comedy.

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What starts out as pretty standard fare soon blossoms into a programme full of creativity and fierce intelligence. Community starts descending, or rather ascending into a world of crazy parodies and obscure ideas with the crazy dial up at eleven. There’s the spectacular episode where we visit many different timelines including Abed’s darkest. There’s the paintball episodes where Greendale keeps becoming a surreal shooting range. Then there’s the episode that is entirely animated. If these sound a bit too gimmicky then there’s the bottle episode where they’re in one room just looking for Annie’s pen.

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Creator and lead writer Dan Harmon (now in charge of Rick And Morty) was absent from the often ridiculed fourth series which the show itself later referred to as “the gas leak year”. We had six seasons in the end but will we ever get the movie?

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7: Mongrels (BBC3) 2010-11

RUSSELL HOWARD’S EYES! Yes this is a high placing and it’s fully deserved. Welcome to the back garden of a pub in the Isle of Dogs, this way madness lies. Maybe “welcome” isn’t the word because being called a cunt may not be considered de rigueur in polite society… and this isn’t polite society. Only posh fox Nelson could fall under that category for he’s a metro-sexual il Divo fan.

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The rest of the puppet reprobates that make up the cast are Vince the sweary fox, Kali the bad pun pigeon and Destiny the selfish dog but the less said about her the better (if only they’d followed up on the hint that she’d died at the end of series one) Lastly, and certainly not least there’s Marion the bin dwelling cat who is many furballs short of common sense.

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While clearly influenced by fast-paced American comedies, Mongrels revels in the shitness of Britain. It’s crude, lewd and even offensive if you’re of a certain disposition. No subjects are off limits and it proved more cutting than any satirical show out there. They managed to do this in stories about Marion getting stuck in a wheel and training Michael Jackson’s monkey to stop masturbating.

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It’s scattered with pop culture references, some of which have admittedly dated in the past ten years but many still stick. There’s also lots of brief appearances from celebrities willing to be ridiculed. Let’s face it, some are more known than others. Who’s Paul Ross?

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Then there are the songs, oh boy, those songs. Marion’s ode to his underage sweetheart Lollipop, Nelson’s tourist advertisement for Millwall (“No-one’s been stabbed here since Friday / Arson is on the decline”). The previously mentioned monkey singing of his desire to murder Justin Bieber. There are so many slices of inappropriate should have been hits.

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The attention to detail in both the puppetry and blink and you miss them visual jokes show a real creativity that’s gone into making of the show. The voice work is exceptional too with nods to Rufus Jones as Nelson and Dan Tetsell’s baffling transilvanian accent for Marion being the true stars of the show.

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Mongrels was cut short when in its prime as the best things often are, like Princess Diana and Fuse bars.

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6: Utopia (Channel 4) 2013-14

Meeting people you know online in real life isn’t as frowned upon as it once was but if Utopia is anything to go by, perhaps it should be. Foul mouthed Becky (Alexandra Roach), straight laced Ian (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and the paranoid Wilson Wilson (Adeel Akhtar) had been chatting together on a forum about ‘The Utopia Experiment’. This is a graphic novel which allegedly predicted the disasters of the previous century but it’s the unpublished follow up which everyone thinks will save the human race, that makes people lose their minds.

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This new strange alliance sets out to find the manuscript for good reasons but ‘The Network’ want it for bad and go on a killing spree. Neil Maskell is fascinating as the sullen Arby, the murderer who has his own catchphrase in “Where is Jessica Hyde?!” We, the viewer soon find her and she’s played with relish by Fiona O’ Shaughnessy.

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In keeping with the comic book theme, the palette in Utopia is visually striking with its bright, bold colours where yellow is the stand out. Look very closely and you’ll see how much it subtly filters into virtually every element of the show. It adds to the uniqueness of a thriller that would stand on its own anyway.

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The brilliant soundtrack supplied by Cristobal Tapia de Veer is another important factor. The electronic glitches and uneasy bleeps sit perfectly with the oddness of the world Dennis Kelly has created. Imagine The Chemical Brothers on antidepressants.

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Utopia is darkly comic and comically gruesome. While not the fastest moving of shows, the storytelling, humour and sense of farce are what give the urgency. Never a show to play it safe, so much so that the first episode of the second run was a genesis story featuring none of the main cast. From humble beginnings to eugenics and the dark forces behind it, this was a television masterclass and it’s influence on television dramas that followed is clear.

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Everyone on the screen is playing a blinder (that’s an in-joke for fans) but there are two stand out performances. Alexandra Roach embodies the opinionated and strong willed Becky with classic one liners and Adeel Akhtar’s nerdy, complex Wilson Wilson is so good they named him twice.

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If Utopia has one major flaw it’s that there was no resolution. The story hadn’t finished and that is an insult to the writer, cast and fans. Series two ended on a cliffhanger and then Channel 4 pulled the plug. The Network were evil commissioners all along. There was talk of a streaming site taking it on but nothing ever materialised. There is however an American remake in the offing but that must be greeted with cynicism. The original story wasn’t fully told, why start a new one? There wasn’t a show like this before and there hasn’t been one since. Utopia is small screen paradise – if paradise involves a lot of bad language and killing.

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5: Peaky Blinders (BBC1) 2013-

Back in 2013 the thought of Cillian Murphy playing a gangster would have seemed like we’d entered Abed’s dark timeline again. “Remember I’m an actor” he told writer Steven Knight when doubts were raised and what an actor he is. This slight, pretty man inhabited the demons of Tommy Shelby and made him walk tall into TV history.

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Peaky Blinders tells the story of a family between two wars. Brothers Tommy and Arthur are struggling to cope after returning as soldiers. Their PTSD manifests itself in different ways, Tommy is the brains of the operation and Arthur is the attack dog. The Shelby Company limited sets up an illegal bookies and they also start exporting booze and drugs. Needless to say they get caught up with all the wrong kinds of people. Or wronger kind of people.

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Peaky manages to be extremely violent and yet sumptuous to watch. It is crafted to near perfection to create a believable if grim world. Aesthetically no other show can compare as a period piece with this amazing interpretation of the times.

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Backed up by a stellar cast including Helen McCrory and Sophie Rundle and guests such as Sam Neil, Paddy Considine and some bloke called Tom Hardy, Peaky Blinders continues to deliver shocks and emotional gut punches. Should we care so much about a criminal gang? Of course not but the combination of Knight’s writing, the remarkable direction, loud as fuck soundtrack and perfect cast means we can loosen our morals a little.

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4: No Offence (Channel 4) 2015-18

Crime Dramas have been ten a penny the last ten years but creator Paul Abbott had his own take on the genre. Sure, there were elements of ‘Shameless’ in the DNA but this was like no show ever seen before. No Offence was chaotic, bizarre and hard hitting. It was fast moving and dialogue heavy, so much so it could almost be disorientating. Hilarious one liners and ludicrous situations mixed effortlessly with big issues such as the murders of girls with Downs Syndrome, child slavery and far right politics.

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With all that going on you need the performances to pay off so step forward Joanna Scanlan as Viv Deering. Viv is intense, playful, hard as nails and vulnerable. Most of all though she’s funny as hell. There’s so many wonderful quotes that there’s no point going into them all. If she’s not using breath spray on her privates she’s breaking the rules in her own style. Deering has to go down as one the TV greats.

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It’s not all about Viv though. No Offence is an ensemble piece and everyone has their moments. Elaine Cassidy as the intensely moral but wayward Dina gives the performance of her career. Alexandra Roach as the innocent but kick ass Joy is a revelation. Then there’s Paul Ritter having the time of his life as Miller, a man who revels in the moribundity of it all and takes everything that bit too far. He is outstanding and one of his greatest moments came when he shouted “I’VE GOT GOAT ON ME!” before licking it off his coat “No, it’s Curry” Oh, by the way, they blew up a goat with a bomb. Of course they did.

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Sadly this year Channel 4 announced that No Offence was not coming back and that is a dreadful loss. Television needs brave, visionary storytelling like this. One day it will be considered as a classic and when it is Viv will be raising a wry smile knowing she was right all along. As always.

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3: Car Share (BBC1) 2015-18

On paper Car Share had all the appeal of being stuck in traffic with Jack Whitehall as a your passenger. Frankly, the premise of two colleagues going to and from work is hardly something to get the pulse racing. In an age where comedies are fast paced, abruptly edited and over the top, Car Share proved there’s hilarity in the mundane and plenty of heart in the normal. While it defied genre norms it also set a benchmark by smashing iPlayer viewing records.
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If you’re looking for epic plot twists and convoluted storylines then you won’t find them on the not so mean streets of Bolton. If however you want to see someone accidentally drink some piss then this is for you. It’s the mix of slapstick and intelligently observed long-form conversation that gives Car Share a warm, comforting feel and that’s nothing to do with the urine.
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Charm is a word used way too often in TV circles but this has it in spades. Two opposites collide and the results are fun and often bizarre. John (Peter Kay) is a grumpy cynic worn down by years of middle management. Kayleigh (Sian Gibson) on the other hand is the bright, perky and sometimes irritating angel on his shoulder. John’s view out of the windscreen is a foggy grey mist whereas Kaleigh sees sunshine and rainbows through the same glass. The actor’s real-life friendship shows on the screen. Opposites attract as the wise prophet Paula Abdul once said.
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Speaking of pop music, let’s hear it for the show’s third main character – Forever FM. The local radio station it’s ok to listen to. It’s upbeat music and oddball adverts soundtrack the show’s feel good tone perfectly. While your ears digest the cheese your eyes are distracted by ridiculous road signs and billboards. Ugly city landscapes are turned into comedy art. The attention to detail isn’t just in the script. Just don’t mention that dirty back window.

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While Peter Kay is on top form, the undoubted star of the car is Sian Gibson. Her portrayal of quirky Kayleigh is totally endearing. No-one has delivered a line about an iceberg lettuce quite so beautifully.
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There are so many classic moments from John’s loudspeaker call to his boss to Kayleigh’s neighbour going dogging. The standout might just be Reece Shearsmith’s appearance as a smelly fishmonger with anger issues. His scenes are full of such joy and the three of them together is comedy gold. Who doesn’t need a whiffy rendition of ‘Here Comes The Hotstepper?’

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They almost messed things up by giving the second series just four episodes that culminated in an unhappy ending. Due to public demand they came back with two specials in order to prevent the politest riot ever. Curiously one was an unscripted special which basically amounted to a DVD extra. The finale made up for everything though with an ending that was happy but not overly saccharine.
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Car Share first aired in 2015 and if you feel weighed down by all the gloom of current affairs then why not treat yourself to a rewatch and transport yourself back to more innocent times. Yes, it’s been a really long decade indeed but thank God John and Kayleigh were there to make us smile.

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2: Line Of Duty (BBC1) 2012-

First put out in 2012 during what will potentially be our last ever summer of love, Line Of Duty was the antithesis of the countries mood. While everybody was preoccupied with the Olympics and being proud of our country AC-12 were rooting out bent coppers before it was fashionable.

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Comprised of Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) the anti-corrupton unit were hot on the tail of Tony Gates, a man they believed to be fiddling the figures. What seemed like a fantastic one series arc soon bleeds onto the new story of series two. Keeley Hawes took on the role of the hunted for one of the best moments of her career. From then on each new run catches you off guard and pulls your pants down. Everything, no matter how unconnected it seems, turns out to be part of a far bigger conspiracy.

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Jed Mercurio’s writing is so intricate and clever. Things don’t make the final draft for no reason. The sheer audacity to stick to the conspiracy whilst throwing in curveballs as bullets is the sign of a master at work. In Line of Duty he has created a vibrant, suspenseful thriller, the like of which has not been seen before. Far from being boring, thirty minute interrogation scenes are heart racing slabs of perfect melodrama. The beat to those interviews are almost hypnotic.

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Adrian Dunbar is in great form as Ted, a man so full of principles he might burst and let some secrets out. He’s authoritative, charming and has many a catchphrase to cause a chuckle in the most heated of moments. But every good man needs a nemesis and AC-12 has had its fair share so it’s worth mentioning that Lennie James, Keeley Hawes, Daniel Mays, Thandie Newton and Stephen Graham have all been worthy adversaries. All villains with shade and complexity. If they walked on stage at a panto they wouldn’t get booed. They’d be greeted by confusion. Mainly because five year olds won’t have watched Line of Duty. Craig Parkinson’s excellently sinister Dot would not only get booed but kicked out the theatre – by the children’s parents.

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2020 will see our favourite anti-corrupton unit (BOO TO AC-9!) return. Is Ted really dodgy? Will Arnott buy some more waistcoats? Just remember one thing – don’t trust anyone.

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1: Being Human (BBC3) 2009-2013

“So a werewolf, a ghost and a vampire decide to live like humans do. They get jobs, a house and a TV license. They make friends they will lie to, take lovers they will infect-in fact, the only part of humanity they successfully adopt is its ability to deceive and destroy”

A small scale domestic drama with a supernatural twist. It’s a simple houseshare premise but this time the inhabitants are a vampire, a ghost and a werewolf. The scope of creator Toby Whithouse’s vision meant BBC Three’s modest little show transcended it’s humble beginnings. The balance between mundane domesticity and ambitious science fiction is just part of what makes Being Human truly special. This isn’t grandiose Dracula style mythology nor is it tepid Twilight / Vampire Diaries nonsense.

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Initially set in Bristol with Mitchell (Aidan Turner) George (Russell Tovey) and Annie (Lenora Crichlow), series one could almost be classed as the innocent times. Innocent here translates as bloody killings, haunting your ex from the grave, being accused of fiddling with kids and a gruesome battle with an arch enemy. The masterstroke is that all these things happened between conversations about mouli graters and Marigolds. This balance continued perfectly throughout all five series. Switching between brooding intensity and full-on funny within seconds came naturally to a show that never played it safe. There were two mass murder sprees and a baby was blown up yet this doesn’t come close to describing the blood shed or services rendered as Mr. Snow might say. This deep mood is darkened further by composer Richard Well’s atmospheric original score.

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Being Human evolved further with a move to Barry Island and enforced cast changes that would’ve been a stake through the heart of most shows. In series four and five we were gifted with newcomer Damien Molony and his awkward bromance with Michael Socha’s Tom which, along with a move deeper into science fiction territory gave proceedings a new lease of life when it wasn’t thought to be needed. Kate Bracken’s Alex soon completed a new trio that weren’t given enough time together because the axe fell in 2013. While general consensus lies with the original trio being the best, what followed them is extremely underrated. The first three years may have been more consistent but when the last two years peaked the episodes were equal to and sometimes even better than the original incarnation. ‘Making History’ stands atop a very busy podium.

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One of the biggest factors in Being Human landing the top spot is the dialogue. Oozing with quotability and natural conversation, everything flows so bloody well. There isn’t a show around with dialogue this special. Take Hal’s tense reunion with Mr Snow in the cafe. Take George calling Mitchell “deadly furniture”. Take Herrick’s last speech in the cellar. Take Alex berating Hal for causing her death. Take the epic Captain Hatch speech in the finale. Take Ivan’s shruggles to stay clean (“I’m this close to wiping out an entire branch of Argos”) Take it all for goodness sake and annoy your friends by quoting it all the sodding time. Who cares if they have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.

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It goes without saying how strong the aforementioned actors are but Being Human was chock full of talent everywhere you looked. Sinead Keenan’s Nina was an undervalued character but a vital part of the story. It may be because she dumped George and challenged Mitchell as to why praise wasn’t heaped on in spades but it’s easy to forget that she started out human. Nina is us, the viewer, except she actually inhabits this strange world for the first time but still with all her natural instincts and moral convinctions at her core. In the second and third installments particularly Sinead deserved equal billing.

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Then there was Herrick, the greatest baddy there’s ever been. On the surface he looked about as threatening as a lamppost but Jason Watkins took a great villain on paper and twisted him into something special. He acted his socks off with knowing smiles and wicked grins. So good was Watkins that on Herrick’s grand return he made us think the old rogue could have some redemption inside his cold, cold body. Silly us.

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The acting credits are an impressive rollcall featuring respected names such as Donald Sumpter and Phil Davis to early roles for up and coming performers. Craig Roberts played a perverted teenager in his forties, Alexandra Roach fell apart as a decomposing zombie, Sacha Dhawan hunted vampires so badly they slayed him and Sara Pascoe was a widow ghost mum. There are too many to mention because it’s bewildering and that’s before you hear who some of the writers are. As you ask, Tony Basgallop, Lisa McGee, Sarah Phelps and Jamie Mathieson to name some.

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Long story short, if you haven’t watched Being Human then make a start on it today. If you have watched it then do it again and again until Toby Whithouse is in 10 Downing Street and its script is taught on every school syllabus. SHOW NO MERCY.

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TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.6 (BBC2)

The timing of this series, with its critique of corruption by those in authority must have been been ordered by the topical gods. In the week that, twenty seven years too late the family of Hillsborough received their first step to justice, in this fictional land the sexual abuse victims are still to get their justice because of cover ups. Will they in the end? And speaking of corruption, will the Caddy finally get found out or will he be let loose on the course for series FOOOOUR?! Little golf joke for you there to lighten the mood.

When a series finale has so many threads to tie together they are rarely completely satisfying, Line Of Duty has set itself the unthankable task of doing this with three whole series. Jed Mercurio has played the long game while running off at what seemed to be either tangents or actually not even connected at all. He’s pulled the wool over our eyes and we’ve bleating with joy at all the twists, turns and lingering close ups of worried faces.

From the aching suspense to the masterful direction (take Cottan’s feet approaching the stairs on his way to arrest Steve) the atmosphere is palpapable. The nerves and angst reach out from the screen and strangle our emotions. The core of this ninetey minute monster has two interviews as it’s centrepiece. First up the knive is twisting on Arnott as he’s paraded before his work colleagues. In twenty three glorious minutes he’s subjected to Cottan’s planted evidence and his confusion soon spirals to anger. Everyone is bloody marvellous. Compston’s panic, Parkinson’s cool smugness, Dunbar’s controlled anger and McClure’s steady nerve as her doubts mount. The interrogation ebbs and flows through a storm of statistics, information, shouting and silence. We all screamed as one at the telly as Steve challenges Dot on his working practices. We scream at the screen for Kate to work it out. We scream at the screen for Ted to twig what’s wrong and when Dot let’s slip about the envelope we punch the air. Well, I did anyway. Brilliantly there’s barely any music going on to alter our mood, just gut wrenching acting and writing of the highest calibre.

There were plenty more showdowns than the two main ones and Ted soon tears into Cottan for sequestering evidence. He is on the warpath and armed with morality. He’s Hastings, like the battle afterall. Gill is next in the firing line (a firing line, that’s what started all this kerfuffle) and when he tears into her with “Why don’t you write a nice letter of resignation to the PCC or I’ll swear to god i’ll will drag you down with the rest of them” we all punch the air. Well, I did anyway. There was also Cottan’s show down with his imagination when Lindsay appears to his cold sweated self in zombie like form (the walking Denton?). This was the only thing that felt slightly out of place, as if air lifted in from another show but its purpose was clear – to show that even a person who is inherently bad has a conscience.

So to the headline act, Dot who has wormed his way from the short grass of series one to become the show’s main player and who is now the one on the other side of the table under questioning from the ever diminishing AC-12. True to form he is calm and calculated at first but thanks to Nige and his “imm-un-i-ty” it starts unravelling and when Ted says DI” Cottan stay right there…” it’s a heart stopping moment. Kate has clearly regained her poker face and we discover that she’s been looking into Dot’s behaviour as well. With workmates like these who needs enemies?  And then the twist of twists.. under the guise of looking at the calandar on his phone, Dot sends three words. Not ‘I love you’ to Kate (it’s safe to say the whole will they/won’t they ship had pretty much sailed) but “urgent exit required”. All of a sudden one of the armed guards is shooting the place down as Dot makes a run for it.

For all the wordy, near half hour interviews, one can forgive the extravagance of the final fifteen minutes. Bordering as it does on Bad Boys scrapping with James Bond. Kate hitches a ride on a truck in pursuit of the caddy who could have done with a golf buggy to help his escape – now that would’ve been a sight. Everything in Line Of Duty is more layered than a ten foot lasagne and even though Dot bows out with a bullet in him he dies with some sort of penance by saving Kate and dobbing on Fairbank with his final declaration. Personally speaking, I’m glad the Caddy story has reached a natural conclusion as he couldn’t keep getting away with it for another run. The decision to end his life is in keeping with Mercurio’s brave writing and challenging themes.  This little BBC2 show has excelled as a spectacle far more than many of the great shows and films of not just our age, but of any age. The cast should be showered with BAFTAS but as we know all too well, justice is hard earned. We could just bribe the judging panel and end up with an AC-12 investigation against us. One thing’s for sure – it’d be an entertaining way to spend our wait for series four. 10/10

 

REDACTED FILES

• Nobody shiftily sips water like Craig Parkinson. Sir, we will miss you.
• Is it normal to go round calling everyone ‘fella’? and if not I’m not going to stop doing it.
• I never liked Gill which proves I’m an excellent judge of fictional characters.
• Kate has taken to guns almost as quickly as Danny carked it.
• Everything was wrapped up nicely but for Hari’s story. He just disappeared.  What happened to him?
• Lovely moment with Nige and his lawnmower. Gardening has never been so poetic.
• Promotion for Maneet in series four please.

 

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.5 (BBC2)

Breathing is the most natural thing on earth, so much so that we don’t know we’re doing it most of the time. Tonight’s penultimate episode was such a masterclass in tense wonder that many times I realised I was not breathing due to the sheer quality of drama on offer. Not breathing is a dangerous thing to do which is apt because pretty much everything in Line Of Duty is dangerous too.

Performance wise, everyone brought their A game here. Adrian Dunbar’s face sold a million words and his words cut all around to size. From his upset at having to suspend Arnott and the shock at the Fairbank revelations to the venom in which he accused Gill. Though flawed he may be, Ted stands above everyone else in the show as the high point of morality even if there’s not much competion in that area. Then we have Martin Comptson’s paranoia seeping into upset as Arnott sheds tears in the meeting room. Craig Parkinson plays his dodgiest cards yet as Dot holds it together by spreading idle gossip while squrming as his cover is quickly slipping. Then of course there’s Keeley Hawes once again cutting through the atmosphere with biligerence and cunning. There’s so much to admire.

In True LOD style it was the showdowns that formed the most spectactular set pieces. Arnott’s disbelief and anger at being served a ‘Regulation 15’ and hitting out at Cottan who shrugged and smirked his way out of the room was the masterful moment Steve finally clicked that Dot was a wrong ‘un. Then our recently suspended hero soon meets up with his recently freed from prison nemesis. Lindsay spits “I want justice and I don’t care how unjustly I get it”. She is using Arnott to prove her innocence and he is using her to solve his case. As ever, there’s more agendas going on than a twenty four hour long episode of Question Time. Back in the offices, Fairbank was a stuttering blind man leading himself a pack of lies during a less than fruitful interview. It was another mesmerising scene. He feigned complete ignorance and forgetfulness to the growing frustration of Fleming and Hastings but one senses his selective non memory might get a lightbulb hovering above it soon. Ted was incredulous and we couldn’t take our eyes off him during his diatribe against bent politicians and celebrities with loose morals.

Speaking of which, peadophile rings are not a new subject mater in TV dramas but never has a story cut so raw to the bone or so uncomfortably close to reality. Not only content with referencing members of parliment, there is a surprise moment where an image surfaces of Roach and Fairbank posing with Jimmy Saville. Ficton has been photoshopped in to reality to make a very brave statement, especially so considering this is a BBC programme. It is a jaw dropping moment and may prove controversial to some. If it was done simply for shock value in the name of entertainmemt then it would be questionable but this is about the wider picture and that is being sensitively handled. We’ve seen the affects of the abuse on Danny Waldron and we see it tonight as another victim throws up at just the sight of Fairbank in a photo. It’s highlighting the wheels within wheels behind those who abuse their power and the suffering of people who get dragged into its slipstream. There is also the direct comparision to the workings of AC-12 itself at play here. The villians are hiding in plain sight. The politicains and celebrities were working from inside the system just as Dot is doing and of course there’s the not very small matter that he’s the major linchpin between it all.

The closing stages ratchet up the unbearable sense of impending doom further and from the moment Dot took it on himself to follow Denton’s footsteps it felt like the grim reaper was lurking in her shadows and so it proved. No matter how much we will miss the mad adventures of Lindsay (and we really will) we must not forget that she went out a hero of sorts. In not accepting another bribe and forwarding ‘the list’ to AC-12 with her last text and testament she proved all her cynics wrong. She said she’d never go to jail again and sadly that’s beyond doubt now. We bid farewell but don’t be sad her story’s over – be happy that the mighty combination of Mercurio’s writing and Hawes’ portrayal happened. Denton will rightly become known as a classic character of our time. As for Dot, he may have swapped some registration plates over but there’s the small issue of his fingerprints all over the car. And the issue of the envelope. And the.. oh you get the idea. Surely he’s cornered himself into oblivion now? Come out with your slippery hands up.

For next week’s finale we have an extra thirty minutes because obviously our nerves aren’t shredded enough are they? We already know series four has been commissioned so its guaranteed there will be plenty of loose ends left dangling seductively for the next two years. We are all rooting for Arnott to be vindicated and for Dot to get the comeuppance that has been three series in the making but will he get away with it again? If so, surely we will have to rename the show ‘Carry On Caddy’?  Whatever is in store expect shocks by the gun barrel load.  You’ve got a week to calm you nerves and stock up on inhalers. Exhilarating, gripping and many more words ending with ing, Line Of Duty continues to astound without resorting to cheap tricks.  This is event television at its creative best. 10/10

REDACTED FILES

• Kate pulling back from Dot’s “affections” suggest she might be on to him. Is she investigating both Cottan and Arnott with much more grace than she did the firing squad?
• So all that was on the audio was “a little fumble?” Disappointing
• Maneet was back. Thank goodness. Just a stomach bug. Nothing to worry about everybody. False alarm.
• Will Dot get to the email before anyone else? Let’s hope not.
• Hopefully after being told of the Fairbank information, Hasting understands Arnott isn’t the bad guy afterall and if the Superintendent follows last week’s character profile his gaze should now turn to the real villian.
• Worst case scenario: Steve goes down for Dot’s transgressions.
• Who else thought for a fleeting moment that Dot was going to shoot himself?
• Would it be weird to hold a candlelight vigil in honour of Lindsay Denton? Asking for a friend.

 

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.4 (BBC2)

The walls are starting to close in on AC-12’s elite team – that is, if they don’t eat each other up first before they get squished. How did we get here? It’s a brain frazzle of lies and mind games that has lead us down roads we never knew possible. These aren’t twists for the sake of twists like many of those twenty plus episode American series are built on, these are masterfully built building blocks – like crime jenga you could say. But these blocks are wavering under all the intensity.

Did we expect Lindsay to wander cockily in the their offices and demand a showdown that is both forceful and quite comical. Denton pushes for apologies as if they were naughty school children and all the power is back in her court.  It was hardly “a healing process for all parties” as stated and she knows this only too well. Just what audio has she got on her phone? Is she bluffing and appealing to his Steve’s paronia? Hastings fumes as his kick-off-o-meter is starting to crank the levels. “He can be an irritating wee gobshite when he wants to be” he barks and we’re all sat here thinking “you ain’t seen nothing yet, Ted”.

Cottan watches in on an interview, surveying his own lies being picked apart through the form of  Hari. Did we expect Hari to admit to the murder of Danny Waldron so soon? While he denies his part in the death of Rod he is arrested for that too. Dot’s grimace turns to relief, his mischievous magic playing wonders again. He’s also circling the office once more like a vulture around Maneet and picking up the information Arnott requires. In this case Linus Murphy’s blood found with the envelope that he’d already stole the all important list from. As my mother used to say – your lies will always  find you out in the end and in Dot’s case he has enough of them to bury in a football pitch sized hole.

After such a confident opening saga from Denton did we expect to see her landing back into the real world with such a grim bump? She cries in her bedsit and is soon cleaning the aisles of a supermarket. More grimy though is her confrontation with a seedy support worker. Just when all men thought you’d be able to get a blowjob from Keeley Hawes for a tenner the fantasy is ruined when she soon breaks his balls.”I’ll take your human rights act and raise you section four of the protection from harrasment act 1997!!” she sneers and we all cheer her on!  Admit it. You did. Now take your pale arse and be gone with you creepy guy! She might maintain the posture of a world weary soul but she is fighting back and AC-12 and Cottan should be very fearful indeed. Most staggering of all are the hints that Denton and Arnott could form the world’s most uneasy alliance. Did we expect that? Just in case you’re not following – the answer is no.

Did we expect to see the return of Nige and his walking stick? Well, yes because his name was in the opening credits but we’ll overlook that. He’s questioned over misinformation he gave about the Caddy’s identity. Once again Cottan is on the inside, questioning a man who knows all his secrets. It’s an episode that has some comedic moments amid all the murk and Nige coldy declaring his “I’m extremely remorseful” mantra was one of the highlights.

Did we expect the credibilty of Hastings to be questioned?  It transpires that he has connections to Roach and Fairbank who are names that link to the whole suspected peadophile ring malarky. Ted “interview bombs” (erm, just go with it) Fleming and Arnott with a handshake to Fairbank that can only be described as masonic. Please not Hastings too. Don’t ruin all our hopes Jed, please.

Arnott gets a rough ride this week but when doesn’t he? His girlfriend is being cold and Kate is in even more of a grump with him than usual (some of which is being masterfully coerced by the Caddy himself). Finally, in the world’s most unsubtle presentation, Dot bullet points all the reasons why Steve is the caddy. Did anyone elses’s heart break when Ted glanced suspiciously across the room? Our leading AC-12 trio are unravelling with all the weight of suspicion. Anti corruption have been corrupted. Is it beyond repair? 9/10

REDACTED FILES

• Does Arnott have a south eastern accent? He’s always sounded Austrailian to these ears!
• Who interviewed Linus and why wasn’t it in any files? Is Hastings involved?
• It is annoying when people walk on your freshly mopped floors but I wouldn’t fancy my chances of survival if they were Denton’s freshly mopped floors.
• Not really digging the romantic storyline for Ted. There is the potential for a conflict of interests so it’ll probably have a good pay off.
• Can Denton really be the one to help capture the identity of the Caddy?
• Dot must know Nige will have kept a back up? Maybe he really should have shot him? Will that be his downfall?

 

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.3 (BBC2)

Line Of Duty excels at many things but its prime success lies in confounding your expections and then confounding what it has just confounded. Half way through the series and we still aren’t sure who the lead character is yet, nor the motives of virtually anyone who has screen time.

Episode three plays out as a three parter. Firstly, Arnott uncovers Joe, who suffered abuse at Sands View which was a care home where Danny Waldron too was a a victim. For the first half an hour it almost feels like we are watching a standard police procedural with Arnott piecing together information of its dark history. It is a fully affecting change of pace. When he tells Joe “Danny’s mission is now my mission and I promise you I will get these bastards” it comes from the heart but it’s soon followed by his aggravation that the main culprit Dale Roach has recently suffered a stroke and is unable to communicate, therefore will never recieve the justice owed to him. This storyline bravely has strong parallels to famous celebrity cases and is not hiding from this fact. No punches are pulled, not many blanks are left on the page to decipher the similarities.

Just like last week, Denton suddenly arrives pretty much on the thirty minute mark and we are back at the retrial. Lindsay is intimidatingly powerful in the dock until questioned on her honesty with AC-12 when she buckles under the pressure. The jury give their verdict and she is released with immediate effect on license. Of course she is. It’d be no fun if Denton stayed in prison. Hawes would’ve been too underused , like James Norton was in series two of Happy Valley. Denton is too big a personality to be confined, she need lots of open space in which to reach her ambiguous peak.

There’s not too much that’s ambiguous about Dot. Maybe he is series three’s big player? Maybe he’s finally the headline act?  The strong suspicions we had last week that he’s the cranky caller at the end of the line are revealed to be true. Most shows would drag that one out for weeks but Jed Mercurio has so much more lined up that this counts as just one of many stabs into our emotions. In a spectacular showdown the squad chase down Hari only for Cottan to intervene and trap him all for himself. He Manipulates like a pro on the spot with each fresh new dilema he faces, twisting and slithering like the snake in the grass that he is. He plays the hero and is treated like one too. The reception that greets him back in the office is both sickening and hilarious.

Where do we go from here? As if we know. Where would be the fun in that? It does feels like Hastings is gearing up for some major shouting action but will it be aimed at the man deceiving under his own nose or the wrong target? Now Lindsay is free we can now revel at the thought of a fresh battle of wills with Arnott. “585 days and on every single one I thought about what I’d do when this moment finally came” she hisses before softening her face and stating “I forgive you”. Does she really? Does she fuck. The stare that followed said it all and Arnott is on the back foot (not just with his work colleagues and girlfriend).  Denton’s release is scaring the bejusus out of Dot too and as the news filters through all his phones chime loudly and he sits there panicked like Noel Edmonds hiding from a load of angry bankers. Pass the cheesy nibbles, this could get nasty. Bring. It. On. 9/10

 

REDACTED FILES

 

– “I’ve got a pot on the simmer” – I hope for Dot’s sake his curry is better than his chat up lines.

– Is Kate really flirting with him or is she on to him? She is a very good liar afterall.

– Arnott could also be twigging to Dot’s wicked ways after his failure to sort the post mortem and all the increasingly nervous behaviour.

– Kate’s tactics have to be questioned this series what with the blatant questioning of suspects and  how she watches suspects from a mere 50 yards away with the world’s most massive binoculars. Should have gone to Specsavers.

– Tommy Hunter and Lindsay Denton are names that run through Line Of Duty’s history as if it were a stick of rock.

– Nooses. There were nooses in series one. Perhaps it is Cottan’s trademark?

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.2 (BBC2)

If there was a graph to register the jaw dropping moments in tonight’s episode then it would have recorded four extremely high, off the scale readings. It is notable that the severed head in a coolbox didn’t even even come close to episode two’s sensational peaks. Where do we start?

It has to be with the death of Danny Waldron in the opening minutes. Or ‘peak one’ as it’s otherwise known. Not only is it wonderful that this wasn’t another of those fake, quickly resolved cliffhangers but the sheer bravado of killing off the person everyone thought was the new lead this early on is beyond stunning. The way it was handled adds to the gravitas. There was no soaring music, just a view of DC Arnott’s face from the ambulance as the bleeping stopped and a voice says “Life extinct. 08.34”. It was so softly done yet had an impact capable of breaking twitter. Was Danny a bluff by Jed Mercurio? To some extent maybe but the bigger picture of his story might already be etched back in series one.

Just when it seemed to be going all Broadchurch 2 with two separate stories ( a current case and a trial) the cat is let out of the bag and suddenly a volte face towards the camera finds steely Keeley is back in the house. Or in this case prison cell.  That’s right, Lindsay Denton is back (‘peak two!) to mess with our collective consciousness again. It is frankly extraordinary that with all the hype that surrounds shows nowadays they kept the whole thing such a closely guarded secret, serving as a reminder in this spoiler obsessed world that the element of surprise must never be taken for granted. It turns out we are at her retrial and Arnott’s methods are in question, as is every bloody thing in this show.  To be critical, the court case literally came out of nowhere and its introduction felt clunky but the shock factor in the Denton reveal made it worth it. She’s soon playing the jury just as she did us two years ago, Hawes revelling in her all consuming shiftiness. Welcome back Lindsay – you wonderfully problematic creature you.

Peak three is the apparent suicide of Rod after his late night meeting with Hari. Could the family man really be on a murder spree? His world is unravelling as he seems to be paying for the “one mistake” he made. We don’t know what that mistake is yet? Or do we? Don’t worry if you’re not keeping up, there’s a lot to take in and the things we are supposed to take in usually serve as a red herring. Some lines that seem throaway are essential with regard to the plot. A facial expression is also worth its weight in gold. Take Dot’s wry smile as he’s told the Ronan Murphy file is a dead end. It’s wry for reasons we don’t know yet. Feck it. We don’t know anything. There’s plenty to ponder on Cottan alone. Why did he take the list from the envolope? What is his connection to Danny? Was he in the same football team as him? Was that Dot on the phone to Hari at the end? Will he finally be found out for the villain he is? How disrespectful is it to waste a good cup of tea? Then there’s the rest. Is there a peadophile ring connection going on?  What is Hari’s dark secret? And not just the one about him killing Waldron. Is he all set to be the main player this series? Did he kill Rod or was it really suicide? Is Kate’s line of questioning the most unsubtle ever undertaken by a plant? Will Denton find freedom? Is Arnott’s job on the line? Murphy’s dog turned out to be alive but whose going to look after it now? Has anyone else got a headache?

For peak four it is fitting that in this massive circle of deceit we end on Lindsay Denton alone in the cell rehearsing her lines as if she were an actor about to go on stage: “I had no prior knowledge of the operation to remove Tommy Hunter” Yes, Tommy Hunter. We are back there again. The camera closes in on that name as Dot burns the list. An unexpected full circle it may be but Line Of duty isn’t treading old ground, it’s heading in a straight line to classic TV status. 9/10

 

BEST LINES:

Steve: There’s evidence of prolonged torture. The cause of death isn’t clear.

Dot: Cutting his head off can’t have helped.

_ _ _ _

Hastings:  None of my people would plant evidence. They’d know I’d throw the book at them.. followed by the bookshelf”

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.1 (BBC1)

Television drama has come a long way in recent years, the plodding footsteps of The Bill have long petered out and in its place have charged (pun intended) a plethora of police dramas full of fresh twists and plenty of style in what is now a crowded market. Some with more success than others of course, Suspects should be respected for its attempt to turn the genre on it’s scripted head but sadly the execution was a misfire. We love a good cop show even if most of us don’t love cops. In 2014, Line of Duty proved itself a cut above with the extrordinary story of Lyndsey Denton whose shiftiness was played to a masterful degree by Keeley Hawes. This time round there is a different bad guy to steal the limelight and the lines, on first impressions are much less blurred. This time we know our subject is guilty but what stirs the procedural pot is the question of his motivation and the lives he is dragging into this mess.

There is no misfiring here, certainly not by Danny Waldron who charges ahead of his team and shoots suspect Ronan Murphy in cold blood despite the fact he had discarded his gun. Once his team turn up he convinces them with vicious confidence to alter the crime scene. Rod and Leanne fire hollow shots, Hari doesn’t but is implicated by being there. It’s a sensational opening, holding all the tension and action of a Hollywood thriller but with a naturalistic feel that adds to the atmosphere. The car chase isn’t glamourous or overdone and is all the better for it.

The AC-12 are back, the anti police corruption clan (probably not their official title) remain the same in the shape of DS Arnott, DC Fleming, DS Cottan and supt Ted Hastings.. Their entrance signals a complete shift in pacing as an intense twelve minute interogation scene follows. It’s a sensational exchange of accusations and rebuffing. Twelve non stop minutes of manic wordplay and withering looks and it is a brave move so early on. Mays portayal of Waldron is fierce, showcasing the nastiness and brute ingtelligence that might just get him out of this fix. Simply, he is an arrogant bully but one in a position of power and with weapons at his disposal.

After such an intense opening they are surely playing their aces too early? Not a bit of it. The twists unravel as the politics of everyone involved gets more clouded. Hari won’t testify aganst Waldron and it’s clear there’s a history there. Also, Waldron is snooping outside his house with intention to snipe and that isn’t the act of a good friend really is it? Kate joins the firearm squad to spy information and watches the team falling apart under the pressure of the lies. She also nearly accidently shoots a child but Danny stops her in time so at least he has some boundaries, eh?

Not content with one murder in an hour, Waldron kills another man connected to his first victim, raiding his house, kicking him in the balls then God knows what, as we are spared the gory details. He fed the dog though which was nice of him – even if it will starve anyway once he leaves. So is Danny killing off officer’s of an old case that affected him? Did he, in the speech he delivered when ordering his second victim to take off his clothes, recall previous sexual abuse that had hapeneed to him or someone close? When he says “I was being sent to meet him with a gun” he comes across as a one man police extremist, intent on a justice that the law itself can’t bring. Notably he later says to Martin “When this is all done I will suffer for my actions, I’m under no illusion of a happy ending”.

In all this havoc there was little time for personal stories. There was no hint of the troubles that Hastings had last time round and we only get a smooch in the car park for Martin and a brief phone call home from Kate. This was all about setting up a new case and HOW. In sixty minutes the show achieved the impossible and upped its game further. A bit melodramatic? Absolutely. An edge of the seat, gawp at the screen moment of triumph? No doubt about it. Has it jumped the shark? Not at all. It’s jumped a skyscraper which has twelve double decker buses on top and the result is bloody spectatcular. And that conclusion was bloody and spectacular. 10/10