"Many Photos" - JAN MOIR reviews hit drama Line Of Duty as it returns to BBC1

Line Of Duty

Rating:

Mother of God. Line Of Duty (BBC1) is back for a fifth series and the show’s ten million viewers will be pleased to see that police corruption still flourishes at Polk Avenue Station like a thin blue line through a rotting Stilton.

Thank goodness, otherwise AC-12 boss Superintendent Ted Hastings (‘like the battle’) would be out of a job and nobody wants that, least of all me.

As always, this most superior police procedural was tightly plotted, skilfully produced and complete with a shocking death at the end. 

Stephen Graham is the dream guest lead for this show, a truly gritty actor always adept at dissolving into his role, on whichever side of the police tape he finds himself. And here he is, starring as a nasty piece of work called John Corbett – an enigma wrapped in a balaclava

Writer and creator Jed Mercurio – the man who killed off the Keeley Hawes character in his hit series Bodyguard – has never been afraid of the swift despatching of key figures.

This is one of Line Of Duty’s many strengths, as viewers never know quite who or what is going to blow up next.

And it was certainly not that lovely PC Maneet Bindra (Maya Sondhi) would expire on a wooden jetty at the hands of an underworld heroin gang, her throat slit in gruesome jihadi fashion, her lifeblood draining away into the swirling waters below.

Another gasping moment from this darkest of dramas.

In a thrilling opening episode, AC-12 found themselves accidentally embroiled in Operation Peartree, a long-term investigation into criminality and drug dealing.

Kate (Vicky McClure), Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) and Steve (Martin Compston) are pictured abovein the show's new series. As always, this most superior police procedural was tightly plotted, skilfully produced and complete with a shocking death at the end

Straight away we were plunged into the delicious perplexity of cop shop jargon. 

‘Is there a UCO embedded in the OCG that carried out the heroin hijack?’ wondered Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure). I think she means is there an Under Cover Officer working in the Organised Crime Gang who stole the heroin originally seized by police 18 months ago?

‘Correct, Superintendent Moir. Awaiting further instructions ma’am,’ she replied, but only in my dreams.

Speaking of which, Stephen Graham is the dream guest lead for this show, a truly gritty actor always adept at dissolving into his role, on whichever side of the police tape he finds himself.

And here he is, starring as a nasty piece of work called John Corbett – an enigma wrapped in a balaclava who turns out to be the UCO that Fleming was GOA (Going On About).

Is he a rogue rogue going rogue? I’m a bit confused already.

In the last series, Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) was peeved that Fleming was promoted to his rank.

By day, the action takes place in a nameless northern town amid a bland officescape of Venetian blinds and tapping keyboards. By night, there is naught but the desolation of fractured lives. Stephen Graham, playing John Corbett, is pictured above in a balaclava

Two years later, Detective Inspector Fleming is now his superior and he has compensated by growing a dapper beard and putting big boy gel on his hair.

Fleming signifies her higher rank by walking into rooms first and saying things such as ‘Steve, are you okay to open a case number?’ He calls her ‘boss’ and seems to be taking it well. So far.

Meanwhile, Operation Peartree appears to open a door into the bigger question that has fuelled the show’s dense plotlines since the first series: who is H, the corrupt cop mastermind behind, well, everything?

Series Four seemed to conclude it was Assistant Chief Constable Hilton, who then obligingly killed himself.

However, suspicions continue to bubble. Could H be Ted H, for Hastings? Now and again, orb-eyed Fleming gives him her special zombie stare while Arnott signals his puzzlement by pushing his eyebrows together like gables. 

What! Surely the villain cannot be Old Testament Ted, a man whose only mission in life is to catch bent coppers?

As played by Adrian Dunbar, Super Ted is still the star of the show; the no-nonsense Ulsterman who churns through lies and venality like a craggy figurehead on the prow of an icebreaker. He’s good at the barking argument, supreme at pithy colloquialisms.

‘I didn’t float up the Lagan on a bubble,’ he said last night. When he gets really angry, his hair stays in place but his punctuation goes to pot.

‘That was. Information. That put. Three. Officers. In the MORGUE,’ he roared, when confronted by Maneet’s hapless treachery.

Threaded through are tantalising glimpses of the private lives of our three crime fighters.

Kate appears to be back with her husband and small son; she goes home to a hot dinner and a warm welcome.

In a thrilling opening episode, AC-12 found themselves accidentally embroiled in Operation Peartree, a long-term investigation into criminality and drug dealing. Straight away we were plunged into the delicious perplexity of cop shop jargon

After a beating put him in a wheelchair in the last series, lonely Steve is still suffering back problems. At home he is taking painkillers and online dating, the latter without much enthusiasm.

Ted is living in a single room in the dreary Edge Park Hotel, complete with a broken toilet, an unpaid bill, a trouser press and the divorce papers from the wife he still loves.

That’s the thing about Line Of Duty. There is nothing beautiful nor diverting here.

By day, the action takes place in a nameless northern town amid a bland officescape of Venetian blinds and tapping keyboards. By night, there is naught but the desolation of fractured lives.

It is not lyrical, sometimes it is not even credible.

Yet amid the MDF desks and the acrylic carpeting, we are gripped by something much bigger and more profound – the eternal battle between good and evil.

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