Line of Duty's AC-12: a character study of who's who
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Mother of God, has it been that long? It’s been almost two years since the last series of Line of Duty aired on BBC One.
Thankfully, the hit police corruption thriller is finally back, so it’s time to renew our acquaintance with the AC-12 team. Let's take a sneak peek inside the leading trio’s confidential police personnel files…
THE WAISTCOAT WARRIOR: Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott
Played by: Greenock-born Martin Compston, 36. He landed the lead role in Ken Loach film Sweet Sixteen while still at school, despite having never acted before. After abandoning a promising professional football career, Compston has since starred in Monarch of the Glen, In Plain Sight, Traces, and The Nest. He adopts a seamless London accent for this role and lives, rather randomly, in Las Vegas.
Series one: Recruited to Central Police anti-corruption from Met counter-terror after boss Hastings was impressed by his integrity in refusing to collude with colleagues in the cover-up of a botched operation. Arnott led the investigation into DCI Tony Gates (Lennie James). He was kidnapped by balaclava-clad gangsters, who put his hand in a vice and threatened to cut off his fingers with bolt cutters, but Arnott ultimately got his man. He and adversary Gates developed a grudging respect before the case ended tragically.
Series two: Despite having a new girlfriend on the force in DS Nicola Rogerson (Christina Chong), Arnott paid a romantic visit to a female witness. During the interrogation of AC-12 target DI Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes), she turned the tables by accusing Arnott of sleeping with witnesses. Arnott later won Denton’s trust and seduced her. It transpired he was undercover himself and gathered crucial evidence to bring her down.
Series three: Arnott was aghast when Denton was freed on appeal, partly down to his honeytrap tactics. The unlikely duo later teamed up to expose an historic child abuse scandal. DI Matthew “Dot” Cottan (Craig Parkinson) tried to frame Arnott as corrupt officer “The Caddy”, who’d killed Denton. Arnott was suspended but trusty colleague Fleming came to the rescue and he was exonerated. He began a relationship with on-off girlfriend DS Sam Railston (Aiysha Hart) from the Murder & Serious Crimes squad.
Series four: In the process of investigating DCI Roz Huntley (Thandie Newton), a balaclava-clad thug threw Arnott down several flights of stairs. He survived the fall but was badly hurt and temporarily confined to a wheelchair when he returned to work. Arnott confided to Fleming that he may never walk again.
Series five: Arnott was fully mobile again, but his injured back was still giving him pain. He won the trust of undercover cop DS John Corbett (Stephen Graham) and backed him in his mission to unmask the villainous “H”. When police lawyer Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) was exposed as working for organised crime, Arnott shot the corrupt PC sent to silence her and received a commendation.
Current status: Arnott is still in severe back pain, but self-medicating with prescription pills. He resents being passed over for promotion and has grown disillusioned with AC-12. What he needs is a juicy new case to get his teeth into…
Catchphrase: “You push from the inside, I’ll push from the outside - she’ll crack.”
Most likely to: Unwisely sleep with a witness and fall out with colleague Kate Fleming over it. Patch things up over a Lamb Madras while calling each other “mate” a lot.
THE UNDERCOVER QUEEN: Detective Inspector Kate Fleming
Played by: Nottingham-born Vicky McClure, 37. Mentored by actress Samantha Morton in her youth, she made her name as Lol in Shane Meadows’s opus This Is England. McClure since appeared in dramas including Broadchurch, The Replacement, The Secret Agent, and Alex Rider, while assembling a Dementia Choir for the BBC in memory of her beloved grandmother.
Series one: Chameleon Kate went undercover in CID to keep tabs on AC-12 target DCI Tony Gates (Lennie James). Her cover was blown by his sidekick DC “Nasty Nige” Morton (Neil Morrissey), who whacked Kate with his walking stick for her trouble.
Series two: Due to her long working hours, Kate separated from her husband Mark, who got custody of their son Josh. Her latest undercover mission was rumbled by wily DI Lindsay Denton, who also compromised Kate by stealing her phone and discovering her affair with Richard Akers - husband of DS Jayne Akers, who’d been killed in the series-opening convoy ambush. Fleming was forced to back off the Denton case but instead helped nail her bent boss, DCC Mike Dryden (Mark Bonnar).
Series three: Another undercover mission, this time with Fleming joining the armed response team led by Sgt Danny Waldron (Daniel Mays). When Arnott was accused of corruption, she covertly investigated her own team and exposed holes in Cottan’s testimony, unmasking him as “The Caddy”. An armed chase ended with action heroine Kate recording Cottan’s dying declaration. She received a commendation for bravery and was promoted from DC to DS.
Series four: Tipped off by her bent boss ACC Derek Hilton (Paul Higgins), DCI Roz Huntley realised that Fleming was undercover on her squad, so froze her out of their murder investigation. However, Fleming was still able to work covertly, helping to expose both Huntley and Hilton for corruption. She also passed her inspector’s exams.
Series five: Kate had earned another promotion, this time to DI, making her senior to Arnott for the first time. She reconciled with husband Mark but her workload put their marriage under strain again. After Hastings went rogue on an unauthorised undercover operation, Kate had no choice but to report her boss to his superiors. When they brought down Biggeloe and cleared Hastings, she received another commendation.
Current status: Now settled in as a DI, the ever-capable Fleming’s career is going well. She’s less happy at home, due to splitting from husband Mark again and having to haggle with him to see son Josh. Trailers for the upcoming series have also raised the unthinkable possibility that she could be corrupt or somehow siding against her AC-12 colleagues.
Catchphrase: “Stop making a tit of yourself and piss off.”
Most likely to: Roll her eyes about Arnott’s latest blunder like a long-suffering spouse, save the day with some brilliant police work, then pine for her son over a microwaveable lasagne for one.
THE ENIGMATIC GAFFER: Superintendent Ted Hastings
Played by: Northern Irish thesp Adrian Dunbar, 62. Stage and film veteran Dunbar’s TV credits include Cracker, The Hollow Crown, Ashes to Ashes, Broken, and Blood. He also co-curates a Samuel Beckett festival in his home town of Enniskillen. He’s been Bafta-nominated for his Line of Duty role and become a reluctant sex symbol, but modestly credits the uniform.
Series one: Upstanding Ulsterman and AC-12 boss Hastings got golden boy DCI Gates in his sights, sending in proteges Arnott and Fleming as his attack dogs.
Series two: DI Lindsay Denton embarrassed Hastings by exposing his crippling debts due to a failed property investment, suggesting it made him vulnerable to bribery. His financial problems had also caused tensions in Ted’s marriage to childhood sweetheart Roisin (Andrea Irvine). Hastings installed DI Matthew “Dot” Cottan in AC-12, unaware that he is “The Caddy”.
Series three: Wife Roisin had left him after he lost their life savings. However, Ted still wore his wedding ring and harboured hopes of a reconciliation, so refused the advances of police lawyer Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker). Arnott spots Hastings sharing a Masonic handshake with a retired vice cop implicated in the historic paedophile ring AC-12 are investigating but they eventually arrest the culprits regardless.
Series four: During the interrogation of DCI Roz Huntley, she accused a rattled Hastings of sexism and being a Freemason. ACC Hilton put Hastings under investigation for being bent police string-puller “H”. However, when Hilton was exposed as corrupt himself and found dead, it was widely assumed that he’d been H. In the series climax, Hastings shot a balaclava-clad gunman and despaired at the scale of the corrupt conspiracy - but looked a little suspicious himself.
Series five: Hastings looked even more dodgy after being handed a fat envelope of cash, ostensibly as compensation for his failed property investment. He also appeared to be in contact with Corbett’s gang via his laptop, which he later took to a disposal facility. After Corbett attacked his estranged wife Roisin, a furious Hastings ordered Arnott to shoot him but Arnott disobeyed. Did the gaffer instead deliberately blow Corbett’s cover and get him killed? And then give £50K to his widow out of guilt? What was the nature of his murky relationship with Corbett’s mother during the Troubles? After he got suspended from duty, it transpired that Gill Biggeloe was framing him. Roisin asked for a divorce but Ted, now living in a hotel, refused.
Current status: Reinstated at AC-12 after a final written warning. However, there’s still a cloud over his conduct and lingering suspicion that the unimaginable might be true. Could Hastings be corrupt after all?
Catchphrase: Too many to mention. “Mother of God”, “Hastings, like the battle”, “Give me strength”, “Now we’re sucking on diesel”, “I didn’t float up the Lagan on a bubble”, “The letter of the law, the letter”, “We’re interested in one thing and one thing only and that’s catching bent coppers”… Take your pick, fella. He’s a one-man quote machine.
Most likely to: Look potentially corrupt but thankfully turn out to be one of the good guys. Go home to a depressing chain hotel room, pour a large whisky and switch on a dodgy-looking laptop.
Line of Duty returns on Sunday 21 March on BBC One at 9pm
