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.