The stylish but shocking real story behind Line of Duty
Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty (BBC Two) was clearly intended as a companion piece to Jed Mercurio’s police corruption thriller and the three-part documentary’s near namesake. But a pacy and gripping first episode owed less to Ted Hastings and AC-12 than to shaggy-mopped Seventies favourites such as The Sweeney.
Ford Cortinas and sideburns were everywhere and phrases like “you’ve got me bang to rights, Guv” were deployed without irony. Fittingly, the geezer-ish narration was courtesy of Philip Glenister, aka anti-hero DI Gene Hunt from Life on Mars.
Yet for all the cheeky vintage touches, the story that director Todd Austin set out to tell was entirely serious. By the late Sixties the London Metropolitan Police reeked of corruption. A “firm within a firm” in the Met regarded criminals not as a social ill but an asset to be exploited.
That remained the case until The Times reporters Julian Mounter and Garry Lloyd convinced small-time crook Michael Perry to record his meetings with a trio of detectives extorting him for cash. When the story broke, the Met vowed to weed out the bad apples.
Alas, straight-as-an-arrow Inspector of Constabulary Frank Williamson – the real life equivalent of Line of Duty’s Ted Hastings if ever there was one – found himself frustrated at every turn. Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Moody was, outwardly, an enthusiastic ally of Williamson, but in reality he was deep in the pockets of the criminals (which explained the fancy cars and champagne parties).
Austin painted an unflattering picture of the police as a reactionary institution that regarded the white working-class as their natural enemy. Obviously, minorities had it even worse: in one shocking scene, representatives of the black community ask that police stop using racial slurs. A laughing copper responds by spouting those same insults to their faces.
Amid so much racism and corruption, this could have been a bleak snapshot of a bygone age.
But Austin took the risk of injecting a note of fun. The retro charms of the period were emphasised with a funk soundtrack and shots of classy old-school motors zipping along the mean streets of Seventies London.
If it wasn’t for the questionable policing and rampant xenophobia, Bent Coppers almost made you yearn for a simpler, more swaggering era.
Masterchef (BBC One) fans were left in suspense for longer than planned when the broadcast of the 2021 final was delayed to make space for rolling news and tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh on the day of his death. Finally airing in a midweek slot, in the event the decider lacked for dramatic tension with eventual winner, Newcastle-based Tom Rhodes, the clear front-runner throughout.
Rhodes and fellow finalists Alexina Anatole from London and Mike Tomkins from Guildford were predictably dazzling in the kitchen. But the actual episode proved pretty stodgy. It began with the standard rapid-fire biopics of the trio, in which we met their proud parents and oohed at old childhood photos. And then it was on to the all-important cooking challenge, in which the contestants each had 180 minutes to rustle up the three-course meal of their choice.
The sense of anti-climax appeared to have rubbed off on judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode. Usually brimming with enthusiasm, they seemed more reserved than usual. Their most notable contribution was probably Torode’s lockdown hair, as experimental as anything on the plate.
Winner Rhodes’s speciality was Western food with Japanese infusions. He prepared a starter of oysters followed by “reverse” rib-eyed steak and olive oil ice-cream. As is the Masterchef way, it looked ingenious rather than delicious. Presented with the finished dishes, Wallace and Torode reached for their ripest compliments The steak was “shockingly modern”, the ice cream a “work of absolute genius”.
Rhodes was understandably chuffed. As a front-of-house restaurant worker, the lockdown has thrown his career into chaos. So he had wisely used the opportunity to try something different by entering Masterchef. And now, if he wants it, a career in high-end cooking surely beckons.
It’s a shame that Masterchef didn’t make more of this charming humaninterest story. In an unprecedented year for the restaurant industry, the final was solid, but tasted a little bit too much of business as usual.
Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty ★★★★
Masterchef ★★★