Line of Duty, episode 1 recap: there's usually a major death in the opening episode – this was different

Anticipation was higher than ever as Jed Mercurio’s police corruption thriller returned for a fifth run. But can one of the tensest dramas on TV keep us hooked once again? Based on what happened at the end of episode one, we're betting the answer is yes.

The heist started the series with a bang

There are no gentle introductions with Line of Duty. Viewers were flung head-first into the action with the heart-pounding hijack of a police convoy, transporting cargo “ED-905” – heroin with a street value of £10m, we would later learn – to an incineration facility. What could possibly go wrong?

There was a tense moment when lead officer DS Jane Cafferty (Requiem actress Sian Reese-Williams) thought they were being followed. Phew, false alarm. Passing a crashed hatchback at roadside, Cafferty ordered the convoy to drive on – until the car’s bonnet burst into flames and she realised the driver was struggling to rescue her baby from the back seat, so stopped to help.

Cue the first of what will doubtless be many twists: the “baby” was a doll. Armed assailants wearing masks – welcome back, Balaclava Men – popped up from behind a hedge, gunned down the cops and escaped with the lorryload of drugs.

Three officers were murdered but Cafferty took a bullet to the leg and lay wounded. “If she’s alive, finish her!” yelled gang leader John Corbett (the reliably superb Stephen Graham) to the accomplice who’d posed as a panicking mother. Lisa McQueen (impressive newcomer Rochenda Sandall) hesitated before replying “She’s a goner!” and fleeing. An act of mercy which soon came back to haunt her.

Who you gonna call? Cop busters

The raid required inside knowledge, so anti-corruption unit AC-12 were called in to investigate possible police collusion. Enter our familiar heroes: Supt Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure with a new rank and haircut) and DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston with new beard but the same waistcoats). There’s only one thing they’re interested in and that’s – you’re way ahead of me here – catching bent coppers.

From her hospital bed, Cafferty gave a description of the mixed-race woman who’d set the trap but saved her life. Arnott and Fleming concluded that the gang knew the convoy would be led by a female officer with children, who was more likely to stop for a fellow mother in distress.

The heroin had been seized 18 months ago and the style of the audacious heist indicated it was carried out by an organised crime syndicate, possibly taking back their goods. In fact, new AC-12 recruit PC Tatleen Sohota (Taj Atwal) discovered that a similar method was used in a recent betting shop robbery. A woman diverted staff with a sick baby (which again turned out to be a doll) before masked gunmen burst in. Just one problem: access to CCTV footage of the previous crime was blocked. But why?

Officer was deep undercover in crime gang

The trail led to Det Supt Alison Powell (Susan Vidler, aka the junkie mother in Trainspotting) – a steely senior cop based in a secret police building. AC-12 had stumbled into a sensitive undercover operation, hence those restricted files.

Powell reluctantly admitted that a covert officer was embedded within an organised crime gang but reassured AC-12 that nothing unlawful was occurring. The officer “wasn’t authorised to encourage, enable or commit criminal offences”.

Arnott and Fleming inferred that the undercover cop must be the mysterious female gangster. She couldn’t break cover to stop the hijack, so the best she could do was spare Cafferty and limit fatalities. Former undercover specialist Fleming felt for her. She should have saved her sympathy.

Rival mobs faced off over drug deal

Cut to the gang’s HQ in a grotty office behind a print shop. McQueen caught a glimpse on TV of PCC Rohan Sindwhani (played by Ace Bhatti, a Mercurio favourite since his Nineties medical drama Cardiac Arrest) giving a statement about the three dead officers – and one who survived. McQueen realised she needed to come clean to Corbett and the ruthless gang boss wasn’t happy. “She’s seen your face,” he snarled. “She can ID you.” McQueen twitched nervously and frankly, who could blame her?

There was business to do first, though. They went mob-handed to meet the biker-style gang run by Slater (Barry Aird). The heroin was their “merchandise” and they wanted it back for a finder’s fee of 10 per cent. Corbett stood his ground and demanded half. After all, they’d “put resources into recovering it”. Slater growled: “I’ve got no problem with conflict.” Refusing to be intimidated, Corbett retorted: “Me neither. Three dead coppers tell you that.”

The gang were soon celebrating in a seedy nightclub with cocaine, champagne and lapdancers (just a regular wrong ’uns’ night out) yet there was lingering tension between Corbett and second-in-command McQueen. “We’re getting into business with bad people,” she said. “We’re bad people,” bristled the pitbullish Corbett.

AC-12 identified the leak

During background checks into those who knew about ED-905, on-the-ball Tatleen homed in on Vihan Malhotra (Maanuv Thiara): a civilian administrator who’d been disciplined for poor time-keeping and fiddling expenses. When Malhotra fled from informal questioning – cue a humiliatingly brief foot chase – he only looked more suspicious.

Time for the first AC-12 interview of the series, albeit a relatively snappy one. Not the brightest bulb in the box, Malhotra had a burner phone which linked him to the hijackers and £25,000 in used banknotes stashed under his floorboards at home.

Facing conspiracy for murder, Malhotra confessed that he had gambling debits and McQueen had posed as a betting company employee, offered him a repayment programme and extracted personal data that she used to blackmail him into co-operating. Malhotra was reluctant to say more, fearful for his safety and muttering about AC-12 “protecting one of your own”. Who did he mean?

Maneet unmasked as reluctant mole

It turned out Malhotra was referring to his cousin – who happened to be AC-12’s admin support and cult heroine WPC Maneet Bindra (Maya Sondhi, currently also appearing in BBC sitcom Warren). Her involvement prompted a proper interview scene, beginning with the familiar 14-second bleep from the recording device. There followed five tense minutes of cross-examination and swiping at iPads.

As Tatleen suspected, Maneet had suppressed the file that might have led AC-12 to Malhotra. Last series, she was shown to be a grudging informant for corrupt ACC Derek Hilton (Paul Higgins). Maneet now admitted that Hilton had blackmailed her by letting Malhotra keep his job and giving him a chance to kick his gambling habit – in return for Maneet keeping Hilton abreast of AC-12 activity.

“You were spying on us!” raged the righteously angry Hastings. Maneet insisted she hadn’t known the severity of her cousin’s offences. Arnott and Fleming stuck up for her but Hastings was unrelenting. “You’re finished with the force,” he thundered, adding that Maneet could also face criminal charges. As tears trickled down her cheeks, it was heartbreaking to behold.

“H” was caught but was Hastings too keen?

In front of an evidence board which was a rogue’s gallery of corrupt cops from previous series, Hastings announced that Maneet’s confession had “put the final nail in Hilton’s coffin”. He knew all about Malhotra, seemingly confirming that he was the senior police officer, codenamed “H”, who ran the show on behalf of organised crime. Was Hastings a little hasty in drawing this conclusion? Fleming and Arnott, distrustful as ever, weren’t sold. Perhaps the undercover officer could prove it either way.

Meanwhile, Hastings ran through his repertoire of Ted-isms, including “Mother of God!”, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” and best of all, “I didn’t float up the Lagan on a bubble”.

Those rare glimpses into the team’s private lives revealed that not all was well

Hastings was living in a depressing, Alan Partridge-style chain hotel. His en-suite loo was broken, his bill was overdue (money problems, like in series two?) and he gazed mournfully at divorce papers from estranged wife Roisin. Oh, fella.

Arnott had hurt his back rugby-tackling Malhotra – a lingering injury from last series when Balaclava Man threw him down several flights of stairs – so was gulping painkillers and turning down a woman on a dating app. In a knowing in-joke, her profile pic was Martin Compston’s real-life wife, American actress Tianna Chanel Flynn.

Fleming’s domestic life was happier, as she arrived to a home-cooked supper with a partner and a boy called Josh. Had she regained custody of her son? Or was this a stepson and new partner? All will doubtless be revealed. A fresh dynamic was also added in the office by her promotion to inspector, with former boss Arnott now deferring to her as “ma’am” and “guv”.

Corbett’s gang double-crossed the bikers

Visiting Malhotra in jail, Maneet found him with his arm in a sling after, ahem, “falling down some stairs”. In an affecting scene, their fingers touching through the grille, Maneet vowed to help him. She contacted Corbett’s gang via a coded phone protocol and met McQueen in a textbook dark alley. In return for her cousin’s safety behind bars, Maneet offered to feed the gang intel about police operations. McQueen already had something in mind.

While Slater’s gang prepared to complete the drug deal, they were raided by armed police acting on an anonymous tip-off from Maneet. Old faces from previous series returned as the Serious Crime Squad took over – namely DCS Lester Hargreaves (Tony Pitts) and Arnott’s ex-girlfriend DS Sam Railston (Aiysha Hart).

Slater’s crew were arrested and the remaining drugs seized (again), having been planted right outside in a parked van to incriminate them. McQueen had made good on her promise to Corbett by putting Slater out of business. But would that be enough for her demanding boss?

This undercover cop had gone rogue

With Hastings on the warpath, AC-12 paid another visit to Det Supt Powell, demanding to know if her undercover officer was passing on any intelligence. After all, his gang were responsible for a betting shop heist, a heroin hijack, a gangland sting and several murders.

Powell confessed she was running Operation Peartree but had lost contact with her agent months ago. Then came the next twist: it wasn’t McQueen who was the undercover cop, it was gang leader Corbett – actually a Detective Sergeant who appeared to have gone fully native.

Line Of Duty jargon decoded

A signature of Jed Mercurio’s scripts is their use of police lingo to add authenticity. During the heist, we heard “stand by for sit-rep” (situation report), “RTC” (road traffic collision) and “request IR” (immediate response). AC-12 later told Cafferty, “We’ve listened to your RT” (radio transmission).

Data access was blocked by a MoPI notice (management of police information) because of a UCO (undercover officer) embedded within an OCG (organised crime group). However, even his COM (covert operations manager) had lost contact with him. Not her.

Hastings threatened to issue “Reg 15s” (a misconduct complaint, or yellow notice) and “red notices” (a provisional arrest). That concludes this week’s lingo briefing.

Maneet shock made for killer cliffhanger

Suspicious of the new informant, Corbett ordered his henchmen to unceremoniously bundle Maneet into a van and bring her to meet him. He accused her of being en route to AC-12, took apart her burner phone and found a recording device. It seemed Maneet was trying to salvage her career by turning double agent. “There’s only one thing worse than a bent copper,” he spat. “One who pretends she isn’t.”

Corbett was furious with McQueen, vowing to “deal with her later”. She promptly had a panic attack in the ladies’ loo. Again, who could blame her?

His men took the terrified Maneet to a secluded location – which looked in darkness like the dockyard where previous bodies have been found – and calmly slit her throat. As the camera tilted sideways to represent poor Maneet’s point of view, she bled out on the jetty, blood dripping through the planks into the water below.

There’s often a shock series-opening murder in Line of Duty but a member of AC-12 being left for dead took it to another level. The shock value was increased by earlier scenes of new mother Maneet proudly showing off phone clips of her toddler. Cut back to the coldly impassive Corbett, who’d just orchestrated his fourth police murder in an hour. Roll credits and RIP (presumably). Consider us hooked.

More leaks and Arnott at risk next time

The plot thickens next Sunday, when a fresh police leak enables another audacious raid, while Steve’s attempts to gather information put him in danger. See you back here to discuss whether we’re sucking on diesel.

What did you think of the first episode of this series of Line of Duty? Tell us in the comments section below.

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