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