Can you crack TV’s most addictively baffling murder mystery?
BBC1’s Line Of Duty ends tomorrow. And, whether you’re already hooked or just catching up, JAN MOIR’s A-Z is packed with tantalising clues
AIS for AC-12, the specialist unit which investigates police corruption. As DS Steve Arnott says: ‘The easiest way to get away with killing someone? Be a police officer.’
BIS fOR BALACLAVA MAN, the woolly-masked villain who has murdered two women and abducted another. He also beat up DS Arnott with a baseball bat and threw him down three flights of stairs. The investigation into his capture, led by DCI Huntley, appears deeply flawed.
CIS fOR CuLPRIT. Viewers have been encouraged to believe that sex offender Michael farmer (Scott Reid) is being framed as Balaclava Man by Huntley — but why? Is she shielding her husband, Nick? If so, she’s not doing a very good job, cos she arrested him for murder last week.
DIS fOR DeAD, which is what forensic officer Tim Ifield (Jason Watkins) is. He tried to convince Huntley that farmer was innocent, then he tried to kill her with a chainsaw, as you do, but was somehow murdered himself. By her? Your guess is as good as mine. Tim had his secrets, including a burner phone for secret calls and there were hints of an obsessive relationship with one of the victims. Is he Balaclava Man? He certainly owns a balaclava and behaved with the clammy creepiness one would expect of a serial predator.
EIS fOR eVIDeNCe. Huntley has been v. v. busy with the cotton buds and rubber gloves — but she’s not been cleaning her ears. Our girl has been planting evidence, tampering with evidence and generally leaving no evidence of her evident meddling. Surely her luck must run out soon?
FIS fOR feLLA, which is what Hastings calls men he doesn’t much like, which is nearly everyone. Women are called ‘wee girl’ and sometimes ‘darling’, which is thrillingly sexist. f is also for frozen body parts, which keep turning up.
GIS fOR THe GReAT BAfTA MYSTeRY. Why wasn’t critically acclaimed Line Of Duty nominated for any? Writer Jed Mercurio says he prefers big audiences — nine million consolidated every week — to big awards. However, there is no doubt he has — somewhat ironically for a crime writer — been robbed.
HIS for Hastings, Huntley and Hilton.
SUPT TED HASTINGS: Ted is old school, a man who knows there is a line between right and wrong. He is sexist, in the way that a man of his generation would be — but he is not a bad person or boss. However, he is not perfect. In the last series his links to freemasonry were exposed. He also had a gambling habit, and a wife who left because of it.
Likelihood of being H? Over my dead body, fella. DET CHIEF INSPECTOR ROZ HUNTLEY: Roz is a crisp and efficient officer — with a terrible secret. ‘I just want it to be over,’ she said to her husband in the first episode. But what — and why?
She is also a violent husbandbeater who has enmeshed herself in layers of lies. The arm injury she received while fighting with Tim Ifield (see D for Dead, left) turned into a suppurating wound, and her hand was amputated. elsewhere, she appears to have admitted to an affair she is not having — to hide the fact that she killed someone?
Likelihood of being H? She is the Killer Queen — but is she highranking enough to fit the bill? ASSISTANT CHIEF CONSTABLE DEREK
HILTON: Currently trying to shut down AC-12. He was station chief back in series one, when frozen body parts and masked men featured in another corruption case. With both those motifs back in full force, does Hilton have something to hide?
unknown to Ted, Hilton had an informant inside AC-12. He is also close friends with Huntley. What sour history binds them together, despite his unrequited crush on her?
Likelihood of being H? The obvious suspect, but is that too obvious?
IIS fOR INTeRROGATION SCeNeS, the jewel in the Line Of Duty crown. Last year, one lasted a remarkable 23 minutes. This year Huntley turned the tables on Ted, by interrogating him during her interrogation. unbearably tense, the scenes provide the show’s best moments of pure drama.
JIS fOR JARGON. ‘Laddering’ is finding someone who has committed a crime, then loading more offences onto his charge sheet. Phone triangulation is how you locate a suspect. A Regulation 15 notice — ACC Hilton has
just served one on Ted — informs an officer that they will be investigated over a complaint or conduct matter.
Kis for Ds KaTe fleming, the trusty sidekick who was recently promoted — but has just failed miserably undercover.
she secured the dying confession from Dot Cottan in series three (let’s not go there) which revealed that the mastermind of cop corruption was someone called ‘H’.
Lis for lawyer. Crikey, what is solicitor James lakewell (Patrick Baladi) up to? apart from delivering some of the best lines in the series?
He told a ranting Ted to ‘dial down the ian Paisley’ and even called wheelchair-bound steve ‘ironside’.
more importantly, he’s everywhere — he’s got links to chief suspect michael farmer, is close friends with roz and nick Huntley, and his build is oddly similar to Balaclava man’s. something smells fishy, and it’s not a red herring.
Mis for misogyny. Themes of sexism in the workplace float through this series. steve is annoyed that Kate is now his equal, and has asked for a promotion himself. when Ted calls roz Huntley ‘darlin’, she snaps: ‘i’d thank you to use gender-neutral language.’ m is also for maneet. wPC maneet Bindra (maya sondhi) has turned snitch, giving Hilton and Huntley information to use against aC-12. Huntley also sneers at Kate, citing her estrangement from her children as evidence of inferiority.
Nis for newBie DC Jamie DesforD (royce Pierreson). He has stormed off after Ted accused him of being the leak in aC-12. However, is there more to him than meets the eye?
Ois for oPeraTion TraPDoor, the official name of Huntley’s investigation into Balaclava man.
Pis for Poor niCK HunTley (lee ingleby), the henpecked husband.
His marriage to roz seems decidedly abusive, yet he clearly has much to hide.
His alibi for one of Balaclava man’s murders was proven false, he was outside Tim ifield’s flat on the night of his killing, and Ds steve arnott was attacked in his office block.
Qis for quesTions we’d like answered. why is there no security camera in the forensics unit where evidence is being fiddled with? and what kind of healthcare did Huntley and steve receive? Both were back at their desks superquick, despite one losing a hand and the other the use of his legs.
Ris for riDiCulous. Ted visited steve in hospital and showed him a photo of a man in a balaclava. ‘is this the man who attacked you?’ he wanted to know.
Sis for Ds sTeve arnoTT, the hotblooded waistcoatwearing crime fighter. He is always right and everyone else is wrong — but is his judgment off? and will he be stuck in a wheelchair for ever?
Tis for Tunnel, where Kate meets colleague steve when she is working undercover.
Uis for unDerCover — which, did i mention, Kate is not very good at. in fact, she’s about as much use as knickers on a kettle.
Vis for viCTory which is what aC-12 are hoping for against the forces of evil — but the odds are stacking up against them. ‘if we go down, we go down fighting,’ says Ted. why? Because . . .
Wis for wrongDoing. at the heart of this drama sits the accused, a simpleton called michael farmer.
He can’t even drive and loves his nan, but his name is in the frame. and that upsets Ted. ‘a young lad might go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and if police wrongdoing is part of it, i want to know.’
Xis for urgenT exiT. Can this series beat the outrageous final scenes of the last one, in which Dot died and Kate nearly did, too?
Yis for young CoP, namely DC Jodie Taylor (Claudia Jessie). Bespectacled and weedy, she is roz Huntley’s loyal sidekick. Could she be Balaclava woman? oh stop it.
Zis for Z Cars, that stalwart of sixties and seventies BBC cop drama. Because sometimes, just sometimes, all this confusion makes us long for a simple life and a plotline that doesn’t turn our brains into spaghetti.
Line Of Duty is on BBC1 at 9pm tomorrow.