Line of Duty, season 6 episode 1 recap: the men in balaclavas were back but it's all change at AC-12 – for now
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Our AC-12 heroes are back to collar some more bent coppers. Proceedings kicked off with a murdered journalist (Mercurio biting back at his critics, perchance?), a botched arrest and a formidable new adversary for our anti-corruption crusaders. Here's what happened in this riveting opener.
Police convoy took a dramatic detour
No polite introductions or gentle scene-setting with Line of Duty. After an 18-month gap on-screen (22 months in real life), we were flung headlong into the action with a propulsive 14-minute sequence. It saw DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) act on a call which came into the Murder Investigation Team (MIT) about an unsolved case, codenamed Operation Lighthouse. Davidson’s squad sprang into action to arrest an “armed and extremely dangerous” suspect.
En route to the suspect’s flat, lead officer Davidson suddenly stopped the four-vehicle convoy. Down a side street, she’d somehow spotted an armed robbery in progress and couldn’t rule out an immediate risk to the public. As they reluctantly changed route and approached the getaway van, four hooded robbers ran out. Yes, Balaclava Men were back.
Could Davidson really have seen this heist unfolding from a high-speed vehicle? Was it a set-up to delay the suspect’s arrest by crucial minutes for some nefarious reason? Hang on, who was that on Davidson’s team? Only the reassuringly familiar face of DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure). Was AC-12’s undercover queen already on the case?
Journalist had been killed execution-style
We learned that Operation Lighthouse was the hunt for the murderer of journalist Gail Vella (Andi Osho). She’d been shot in the head outside her house a year previously. Now there might finally be a breakthrough. According to a rent boy informant, a suspect called “Ross Turner” was overheard boasting of his involvement.
When the armed response team finally stormed Flat 4F Beechwood House, there was a tense 50 seconds of radio silence. Had it gone horribly wrong? Phew, it hadn’t. The suspect was safely taken into custody – but he wasn’t what police were expecting.
Terry was back but in big trouble
During a pair of delicately handled interviews – a definite change of gear from Line of Duty’s usual grillings – Davidson and her sidekick DS Chris Lomax (Perry Fitzpatrick) established that the so-called suspect brought in wasn’t “Ross Turner” at all. Welcome back, Terry Boyle (Tommy Jessop), a man with Down’s Syndrome who’d been groomed and exploited by the organised crime gang in series one and five. He still seemed to be at their mercy.
Beechwood House wasn’t Boyle’s permanent address. That was in Kingsgate, near where Vella was killed. At both properties, there were Vella photographs and cuttings on the wall. There were two theories on her shooting: professional hitman or obsessive fan. Terry certainly wasn’t the former but could be the latter.
His Kingsgate flat had been deep-cleaned, as if removing evidence. Yet forensics still found traces of hard drugs, plus signs of a fridge-freezer recently being removed. Remember how the gang stored the deep-frozen corpse of series one’s murder victim Jackie Laverty (Gina McKee) in Terry’s flat? Police also found gunshot residue on Terry’s jacket.
It wasn’t looking good for Terry – until fingerprints and DNA found at Beechwood House suggested the presence of a second man, Carl Banks (any relation to series five thug Lee Banks, we wonder?). With a history of firearms offences and connections to organised crime, Banks was a better fit but he was AWOL.
Stocky, brown-haired Banks sufficiently resembled Terry that witnesses could have confused them. Yet the only person – a local rent boy – who could confirm whether “Ross Turner” was Terry or Banks was thrown from a roof to his death. Was Terry being framed for a killing he was incapable of committing? And would Davidson fall for it?
Was the AC-12 dream team falling apart?
Across five series, we’ve become accustomed to our heroes being a trio but the band appeared to be breaking up. Fleming wasn’t working for the unit anymore. “Fed up of nicking coppers” and with AC-12 tainted by the investigation into Supt Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) last series, she’d moved to MIT, becoming a valued deputy to Davidson.
Who better placed, asked DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston), to work undercover and keep tabs on Davidson? Oh, Kate. Just when she thought she was out, they pull her back in. Things were less happy at home – she’d split up with husband Mark (again), he’d got custody of their son Josh and was playing silly beggars with letting her visit.
At AC-12, Fleming had been replaced by new recruit DC Chloe Bishop (Shalom Brune-Franklin) – “wee Chloe” to Ted, of course – who seemed impressively capable. Hey, she’s already lasted longer than Arnott’s previous Fleming substitute, series two’s DC Georgia Trotman (Jessica Raine), who was killed before her first episode was up.
Hastings was struggling to restore his reputation after receiving a final warning for discreditable conduct. Ted found himself frozen out of top brass meetings by DCC Andrea Wise (Elizabeth Rider) and advised to keep his head down. Something tells us he won’t listen.
Sporting a newly luxuriant beard but the same waistcoats, Arnott was still troubled by his back injury from two series ago, when Balaclava Man threw him down the stairs. He now had a serious painkiller addiction. Disillusioned by investigating expenses claims and sicknote skiving, he was seeking a transfer like Fleming. But when he caught a whiff of a meaty case and a reunion with his old mate, Arnott’s swagger returned. Even if Kate did call his secret signal “knobby”.
Awesome foursome of familiar faces
A feature of Line of Duty is how Mercurio has created a fully fleshed-out fictional world, where intricate narrative threads tie the different series together and recurring characters keep popping up. In this episode alone, there were a quartet to satisfy long-term fans.
As well as the return of Terry, on Davidson’s team was Sgt Farida Jatri (Anneika Rose), last seen as a constable working for DCI Roz Huntley (Thandie Newton) in series four. It was Jatri who alerted Arnott to Davidson’s potential misconduct. However, the rent boy’s death spooked her and jumpy Jatri backed out, telling Steve: “It’s too dangerous. You have no idea what she’s capable of.”
Davidson’s ineffectual boss was DSI Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle). The bumbling Brummie proved an equally unpopular presence in series one and four but is somehow still failing upwards through the Central Police ranks. Arnott had a whistle-stop coffee with DI Nicola “Jolly” Rogerson (Christina Chong), his ex-girlfriend from series two. When he politely declined a for-old-time’s-sake drink, we knew AC-12’s resident Romeo had changed.
Line of Duty lingo decoded
A signature of Mercurio’s scripts is their use of police terminology and procedural acronyms to add authenticity. They flew thick and fast in this scene-setter. We heard “CHIS” (covert human intelligence source), “sit-rep” (situation report), “PNC” (police national computer) and “UCO” (undercover officer). There was “a conflab with the SFC” (strategic firearms commander) about deployment of AFOs (authorised firearms officers) in ARVs (armed response vehicles).
There was also talk of “the intel matrix” (which gauges confidence in information) and the “hard contact” technique used to kill Gail Vella – where the muzzle of the firearm is pressed against the target’s body, causing a “severe GSW” (gunshot wound).
Dodgy Davidson was hard to get a handle on
Enigmatic. Impenetrable. Inscrutable. All these words applied to DCI Davidson – brilliantly played by Macdonald, the 45-year-old Glaswegian actress known for Trainspotting, Pixar’s Brave, Boardwalk Empire, The Victim and Giri/Haji. Her character recalled DI Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes), arguably AC-12’s greatest ever adversary.
So is Davison a wrong’un? Well, she showed her fierce side with the tongue-lashings of Buckells and that sergeant who wouldn’t give up his source. At other times, she seemed more vulnerable – especially with Fleming. Cue the first of what will doubtless be many twists over the next seven weeks (yep, seven not six this time): Davidson and Farida had been live-in lovers but Davidson was leaving due to Farida’s jealousy and clichéd habit of cutting up clothing when spurned.
Davidson kept Farida’s house keys (no doubt this will prove significant down the line) but returned to her own swish flat, which had three locks and two huge bolts on the door. Despite insisting to Farida that she didn’t have a family, Davidson angrily threw a glass at what looked to be a framed photo of her mother.
As for the case, there was a strong suspicion that Davidson deliberately delayed the operation to apprehend the suspect. After all, the betting shop thieves were teenagers who’d “never robbed anything bigger than their local Greggs”. As Arnott said: “They just happened to be on the exact route and time of an op to bring in a suspect in an unsolved murder.”
Although she blamed it on bungle-prone Buckells, it was surely Davidson’s fault there was a three-hour gap in surveillance which enabled Banks to flee, leaving Terry to take the rap. Initially she pushed too hard for Terry to be guilty, despite knowing deep down he was no killer. Just when it seemed to be a fit-up, Davidson admitted defeat and let him go. When Kate consoled her, they fleetingly held hands. Supportive friend, genuine flirtation or one woman manipulating the other? You decide. Roll credits and consider the nation hooked all over again.
Tedspeak of the week
Hastings-isms have become a cult obsession and he treated us to a hat-trick here. He told the pushy Arnott to “hold your whisht” (keep silent). On Davidson noticing the betting shop robbery from a speeding convoy, Hastings scoffed: “You’d do well to spot a pipe band in there.”
When Arnott gathered enough evidence to launch an official probe, the gaffer twinkled: “Inquiry authorised. What are you waiting for, a puff of white smoke?” Now we really were sucking on diesel.
More murky revelations next Sunday
The plot thickens next week when Arnott digs into Gail Vella's controversial reporting for clues to her murder and discovers links to previous AC-12 cases. But will we get this year’s first trademark interview scene? See you back here to debate the merits or otherwise of holding one’s whisht.
