HIGHLIGHTS Duty calls...
A NEW twist on the standard police procedural drama, Line Of Duty follows anti-corruption unit AC-12, run by Kate, who was promoted at the end of season three, and colleagues Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) and DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston).
In the explosive series finale, AC-12’s DI Matthew ‘Dot’ Cottan (Craig Parkinson) was finally exposed as ‘The Caddy’, the corrupt officer who’d been covering up historic child sex abuse.
The Caddy had already killed Keeley Hawes’ character DI Lindsay Denton, who’d been the target of an AC-12 investigation, and then tried to frame DS Arnott.
“Towards the end of the writing process, it was still in play that The Caddy would elude detection and point the finger at someone else,” writer Jed Mercurio explains of the decision to tie up the storyline that had stretched throughout the first three series.
“At the end of writing episode five, there was a possibility that The Caddy would have Steve killed and Lindsay would be blamed for it, but it landed Lindsay back where she was in series two, which was going to prison again. It felt too circular.” JED is excited to be starting “a new chapter”, and states: “I’m so grateful to the fans, to be in a position where an audience discusses your series and speculates on what might happen next, that’s really why you do this job.” In the first episode, we’re introduced to the main ‘antagonist’, DCI Roz Huntley, played by series newcomer Thandie Newton, who follows in the footsteps of Lennie James, Keeley Hawes and Daniel Mays as the focus of an AC-12 investigation.
Having been off work to bring up her children, she’s under pressure to climb back up the career ladder and crack a case called Operation Trapdoor, while coming up against Forensic Co-ordinator Tim Ifield (fellow newbie Jason Watkins).
“One of the higher aims of this series is to look at that theme of, what is truth? What is objective reality? If you weren’t in the room, and you didn’t witness what happened, how can you derive an understanding of what actually happened between those two people?” says Jed, who acknowledges his theme echoes the era of ‘fake news’ and post-truth.
“Over the years, I’ve been getting more and more exasperated at the lack of respect for facts and proper research, being able to tell the difference between an opinion and a fact. Unfortunately for the world, that has become a bigger issue now than it was.” THE series is shot in Belfast, and Jed starts the conversation over plot lines with long-standing cast members Adrian, Vicky and Martin long before they get there.
“Often when I’m starting to construct the overarching story of the season, we’ll meet for a drink and I’ll get a sense if there’s something they want to delve into for their character.
“Usually that is Martin saying, ‘I want a gun’, and then the other two p**s themselves laughing and I say, ‘No, Vicky can have the gun’, and Martin gets the hump!”
As DS Fleming, Vicky has to go undercover, and her all-action turn in series three saw her tipped to play the next James Bond. But the truth is a little different for the actress.
“Last year, I’m under the bridge and say, ‘I’m too knackered to run’. Jed knew I would be knackered, and I delivered that with conviction every time!”