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 3.3 (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?