"Many Photos" - Jed Mercurio has done it again with Line Of Duty 5, by Jim Shelley

Line Of Duty came blazing back.

Jed Mercurio packed so much intense action and intrigue into Series Five’s opener even his wily, steely Superintendent Ted Hastings was left reeling and expressing his objections in a scathing summary of events.

‘So we have a betting shop robbery,’ he began, as if addressing his creator. ‘We have the recruitment and blackmail of a civilian administrator. We have a hijack. We have narcotics traded. We have a rival organised crime gang framed. We have three police officers murdered, one other seriously injured.’

Thrilling: Jed Mercurio packed so much intense action and intrigue into Series Five’s opener even his wily, steely Superintendent Ted Hastings was left reeling and expressing his objections

‘And that’s just the first episode!!’ he should have concluded.

Mercurio clearly wasn’t interested. Ted didn’t know we also had two corrupt cops already: one with her throat cut, as ordered by the other.

PC Maneet Bindra had always been a popular minor character, and she was finally given a bigger part to play in the storyline. Unfortunately for her...

Drama: Ted didn’t know we also had two corrupt cops already: one with her throat cut, as ordered by the other

She admitted suppressing a lead into the hijack/murder (in order to cover up her cousin Vihan’s involvement) and passing confidential information to Assistant Chief Constable Derek Hilton in the previous series.

This left her, inevitably, being sacked from AC-12/the force by Supt. Hastings and, he barked, facing ‘God knows what criminal charges!’

It was difficult to see how her night could get worse but being caught trying to bug the gang that bribed Vihan and having her throat slashed did it.

Welcome back: PC Maneet Bindra had always been a popular minor character, and she was finally given a bigger part to play in the storyline. Unfortunately for her...

... she admitted suppressing a lead into a hijack and murder in order to cover up the involvement of her cousin Vihan (pictured) and passing confidential information to Assistant Chief Constable Derek Hilton in the previous series

Maneet thus became the latest victim of the prolific killer lurking in the background during all the Line Of Duty storylines so far. As with DC Georgia Trotman (thrown out of a tower block window in 2015), she had suffered one of Jed Mercurio’s shock eliminations/assassinations.

The whole episode bulged with Mercurio’s trademark traits.

The first scenes were a variation on the thrilling sequences in Series Two. Instead of Lindsay Denton, PC Jane Cafferty was the female officer in charge of a convoy of heavily armed police losing the cargo they’d been escorting (£10m worth of heroin rather than a key figure in witness protection) when they were hit by a violent ambush.

Relentless: The first scenes were a variation on sequences in Series Two. Instead of Lindsay Denton, PC Jane Cafferty was the female officer in charge of a convoy of armed police losing the cargo they’d been escorting when they were hit by a violent ambush

Also like Lindsay Denton, and equally suspiciously, Cafferty survived.

‘Balaclava Man’ from the fourth season had become ‘The Balaclava Men.’

Add in a kidnapping in broad daylight and it was basically like Line Of Duty’s Greatest Hits.

It took less than five minutes Adrian Dunbar as Hastings to give the characteristic cry: ‘Mother Of God!’ and, when he heard about Maneet’s betrayal, follow it by exclaiming: ‘Oh Jesus, Mother and Joseph!’

Action packed: Add in a kidnapping in broad daylight and it was basically like Line Of Duty’s Greatest Hits

Increased numbers: ‘Balaclava Man’ from the fourth season had become ‘The Balaclava Men' 

The pre-requisite Line Of Duty conspiracy commenced when Det. Supt. Alison Powell told AC-12 she was ‘not at liberty’ to grant their request for CCTV footage of the gang - on the grounds that it jeopardised an operation featuring an officer working undercover.

‘Listen Alison, I didn’t float up the lagoon on a bubble!’ Hastings raged. ‘If a UCO is committing crimes that’s the business of AC-12!’

Mercurio set a new Personal Best for the use of cop terms in a drama.

Here we go: It took less than five minutes Adrian Dunbar as Hastings to give the characteristic cry: ‘Mother Of God!’ and, when he heard about Maneet’s betrayal

The superintendent threatened to issue ‘REG-15s’ when the ‘DSU’ refused to say when the ‘COM’ had last spoken to the ‘UCO’ embedded in the ‘OCG’ that had stolen the consignment of H known as ‘ED905.’

Episode One contained three classic AC-12 interviews/interrogations.

‘No one’s accusing you Jane!’ DS. Steve Arnott reassured PC Cafferty in hospital.

‘...yet !’ she scoffed, presumably having seen him doing the same thing with Lindsay Denton and numerous other suspects down the years.

Confrontation: The pre-requisite Line Of Duty conspiracy commenced when Det. Supt. Alison Powell told AC-12 she was ‘not at liberty’ to grant their request for CCTV footage of the gang

Viewers’ hearts may have sunk when they realised the season five debut saw Mercurio already referencing some of them. (Keeping track of one storyline with Line Of Duty is often hard enough.)

We even saw a clip of LOD 4 showing Maneet being questioned about ACC Hilton.

She then confessed she had in fact deployed Jamie Desford’s log-in to download confidential files which she passed on to Hilton - after Hilton used Malhotra to blackmail her.

Interrogation: We even saw a clip of LOD 4 showing Maneet being questioned about ACC Hilton

Hastings told the squad that this ‘finally’ confirmed that ACC Hilton had been the mystery mastermind known as ‘H’ behind the internecine conspiracy of the previous series.

Whether this turns out to be true, or he really believed it, is another matter. (Ted’s surname was one factor that persuaded me he was ‘H.’)

When Hasting pinned Derek Hilton’s mug-shot on to the AC-12 board of shame, next to former miscreants such as Sergeant Danny Waldren, Deputy Chief Constable Mike Dryden, and the iconic Detective Inspector ‘Dot’ Cottan it was like seeing a bunch of old friends again.

Well not friends exactly...Bent coppers.

The stolen smack, the UCO who had gone rogue embedded in the OCG, plus Hilton’s connection to Mulhotra and Maneet Bindra meant the conspiracy in this year’s storyline had already spiralled out of Series Five’s orbit into the realm of Season Four, and probably beyond.

After only one episode we were already seeing Mercurio at his peak: Mercurissimo.

 

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News Photo Jed Mercurio has done it again with Line Of Duty 5, by Jim Shelley
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