Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bent copper Buckells... & it’s brilliant
WHEN last man standing DSU Ian Buckells smugly asked Supt Ted Hastings if he would like a glass of water, I honestly thought the gaffer might lean across the desk and punch that smirk clean off his face.
Viewers were utterly transfixed as the case closed on Line of Duty series six, finally exposing “the fourth man” (wrongly codenamed H, yes I KNOW!) and solving Operation Lighthouse.
In a brilliantly tense, drawn-out scene, after AC-12 finally discovered which bent copper had been pulling strings for the OCG, it was seemingly blundering buffoon Buckells, flanked by armed prison heavies, who entered the interrogation room. And 15 million jaws dropped to the floor...
A strong-box containing a pistol and knives from several OCG murders proved that Carl Banks had shot Gail Vella, while fingerprint-covered laptops in Buckells’ cell and home were hauled in as evidence.
Years of writing and typing “definately” led to his downfall – bet he wishes he had paid more attention to his spellings.
It was, of course, rookie officer DC Chloe Bishop (played by Shalom Brune-franklin) who pretty much cracked the case singlehandedly, while DI Steve Arnott and DI Kate Fleming were busy having their friendship crisis in a dank underpass. Someone give the girl a promotion.
Under interrogation, Buckells (Nigel Boyle) mostly muttered “no comment” like a slightly gormless psychopath as he was grilled by AC-12. Shout out to Kate (Vicky Mcclure), queen of the cutting remark, who snarked: “Always the same crap suits, dad cars... you never put your hand in your pocket when it’s your round.”
Buckells finally blurted: “Yeah right, I’m a blundering fool, I’m only the one who’s made total mugs out of you lot.”
He didn’t exactly admit to being “the fourth man”, but did reveal: “I just pass things on. They just kept asking me to sort bigger and bigger stuff.”
He blamed the multiple OCGS for the actual dirty work and – the bloody cheek of it, fella! – asked for witness protection.
“It’s me you’re gonna need protection from,” yelled Supt Hastings (Adrian Dunbar).
It was a glorious moment when it slowly dawned on Buckells that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place – confess to conspiracy to commit murder and lose immunity, fail to co-operate and lose witness protection. “No one makes mugs of AC-12,” said Supt Hastings – “interview terminated”. Mic well and truly dropped.
The trio of interrogators marched out of there like caped crusaders, superheroes in bad suits, and then straight to the pub (this is a British show after all).
Then Kate and Steve (Martin Compston) called each other “mate” about 17 times and Kate teased a return to AC-12.
In other good news for anti-corruption, Marcus Thurwell was indeed dead, no more than a Spanish decoy in the easiest acting job James Nesbitt has ever had.
And Hastings came clean about that dirty money he gave Steph Corbett, and revealed he did tell Lee Banks the OCG had an informant, but didn’t name John Corbett. We all believe him because, quite frankly,
if we didn’t, our whole world belief system would crumble.
He told robocop DCS Patricia Carmichael (Anna Maxwell Martin) what he had done, but she probably won’t be bothered with the extra paperwork.
Meanwhile, pitiful Acting DSU Jo Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) was heroically saved from the OCG and their bolt cutters after a nail-biting high-speed chase between the prison van, balaclava men in Range Rovers and dynamic duo Kate and Steve.
A frightened Jo believed her real dad was old lech Patrick Fairbank, who had (possibly selective) amnesia about the whole thing.
Jo ended up under witness protection, living out a countryside utopia with a girlfriend, a dog and a cosy Fair Isle jumper. Some criminals have all the luck.
The upshot of the season finale was that lots of loose ends were neatly tied up, for which we must be thankful.
Terry Boyle went home, PS Farida Jatri was back at work, Darren Hunter and Buckells were banged up, and there was a wee glimmer of hope for AC-12.
We got a police chase, a lengthy interrogation scene, a couple of “mother of Gods” and our heroes aren’t bent or dead ( for now).
And for six weeks viewers of the BBC1 show have had an absolute blast.
But cunning creator Jed Mercurio would never hand us all of the evidence... where would be the fun in that?
Hastings said ‘No one makes mugs of AC-12’. And they marched out like superheroes in bad suits