Line of Duty

Yes me too Maggie

Maggie...me too!!?
I even love the music!!

They can spin it out forever for me. I blooming love it!

I agree with those of you who think Line Of Duty is not as good as it was. For me series 1 to 3 were superb, especially series 2 in which the wonderful Daniel Mayes played the police officer who had suffered abuse as a child. Keeley Hawes also played a wonderful part. Series 4 started to stretch my credibility and series 5 had too many red herrings and not many interrogation scenes which were a real strength of the earlier series. It is however still a cut above the other dramas on tv and I hope they raise their game for series 6.

I thought that Ryan was a member of the OCG in fact I thought he was the one who killed John but I will have to check that. He was in previous series as a young boy delivering messages on his bike.

I really enjoyed this series but think they're spinning it out a bit too long now, and the ending was a little unsatisfactory.

Completely agree Lazigirl

It relies very heavily on dialogue full of acronyms and abbreviations that force the viewer to concentrate. It has a cast of millions too, given everyone in the last few series are linked to the present one. OH and I have to keep stopping the action and asking each other "What did he say? What does that mean then" and "Who are they on about now?" and between us we piece together things, mostly. It's hard work. Absorbing but not straight forward.

The interviews did go on a bit too long I thought. I wanted the team interrogating our Ted to mess up and I was almost cheering when Gill stopped them in their tracks concerning a point of procedure. The smug interrogator was floored! Anna Maxwell Martin says "the cop-jargon, the police patter" had her in hysterics. I am not surprised. I didn't envy her having to learn her lines. It was all very complex.

The next series will focus on the bent rookie policeman - with a mission. I am still not sure how and why Gill Biggelow was part of the crime gang and why she had to frame Ted. (Just to get his department shut down?)

Before long I think Mensa will be using "Understanding Line of Duty" questions for their assessments of members..

Nansnanny

I think I've enjoyed the detective work of sorting it out after the event as much as I enjoyed the actual watching of it.

I watched the earlier series alone thinking " this is amazing". The characters were so real, the scenes in the underpass where they share information, the dilemma of Tony in the first series was almost Shakespearean.
The whole Dot thing, how he wormed his way in, so clever.
What a let down this last one was, playing to the crowd.

I'm afraid to say I was underwhelmed by the whole series. I'm going to have to watch it all again....

I thought the final episode was great - the breakdown of Ted was well done. HOWEVER it was almost a copy of what happened to Steve in a previous series and not particularly original.

I felt slightly cheated!

Even Gill Biggeloe was presented as one-dimensional imho.

It was all a bit obvious - the missing £50k, the planting of evidence by Gill, the knife attack on Gill...and what could Gill have said that would have given her immunity?

And I doubt that Ted, in real life, would have been given another chance. He'd either be out of the force or directing traffic!

And what was that dying declaration all about? It was completely different from the original. Morse Code suddenly noticed just in time to save Ted? That declaration must have been studied in detail much earlier on!

Still - some bits quite good. Loved the way Ted's personality and his conflicted character was brought out through his Catholicism. That's what Mercurio does really well imho - creating ambiguous characters who are multilayered and conflicted.

I DID miss Dot and Nige though. I thought Corbett was overplayed by Steven Graham and not nuanced enough for my taste.

Overall, I think this series (and S4) was compromised by the move to BBC1 and the need to appeal to a wider audience. It was a bit of a ratings- chaser imho and I think a lot of the subtlety was lost. Even Gill was a cartoon baddie in the end.

I can't imagine Ryan getting through the police recruitment process either.

Parsley3...I agree with you wholeheartedly. As drama goes it was near perfect!!!

Gonegirl....I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Admittedly it’s very confusing at times, but I found if I didn’t try to understand everything that didn’t make sense at the time, there would be a tie-up in the next series. I relaxed then and looked forwards to the explanations!
( and If you understand my explanation of their explanation your a better man than me Gungadin!!)

Thank you for saying about the digital spy thing atqui. It's very useful! Link to article here

I’ve just looked on digital spy and there is an interview with Mercurio who explains some things. Its a bit confusing if need hasn’t watched previous series, e.g. the demise of Dot Cottan.

I agree parsley. Was great! (once I'd had it all explained)

I agree Parsley3. It merits a second viewing. There was so much I missed first time.

I watched this episode again and, without the expectation that I would find out the identity of H, I appreciated it much more than the first viewing.
It is a nearly perfect piece of drama. The combination of Ted’s guilty conscience breakdown, Carmichael’s smug, icy interrogation and Jill’s sleaziness created tension and then Steve and Kate come in to save the day. I jumped with them when they realised that Jill was texting for help and that there could be a repeat of the Dot Cotton exit.
Splendid stuff.

icanhandthemback no, but ties with the criminal community do. Applicants to the police have very intensive checks into their background and family and it is highly unlikely that Ryan would have got through.
Still I loved the series and can forgive them that.
Kate and Steve to the rescue!
Mind you I'm worried about his painkiller addiction and her marriage is on the rocks

No clue who Ryan is , but surely the police would have done background checks on him?

He admitted his misspent youth but youth criminality does not necessarily preclude a career in the police.

I don't think he was Ted's son. I think he knew Anne-Marie's little boy through his friendship with AM, and that's why he was so upset when he heard that that's who Corbett was.

They said John was 10 when his mother was killed so if he was Teds son was it a youthful fling? No clue who Ryan is , but surely the police would have done background checks on him?

A new series with Stephen Graham ( John, in Line of Duty ) starts on channel 4 soon called Virtues. It's a pretty violent series about a recovering alcoholic and is filmed in Ireland.
It's either the 15th or the 17th of this month..

Namsnanny Sun 05-May-19 22:33:55
ican…...how strange?
I thought the morse code bit was a stretch in credibility for a dying man. I also felt that it was quite possible, as he was quite compromised at the time of eye blinking, that they'd got the wrong letter as it was likely he would have had slow reaction times.
I thought that it was unlikely that Ted would take the money and would have had it in his room. Nor did I think that he would suddenly whip his computer away for having porn on it.
I thought it odd that Arnott had never shot anyway before because he was in the arms unit before he was with AC12.
I can't help wondering if they are just trying to be too clever now.

Loved it. So rare to have a series that gets better every season. I thought I heard somewhere that the next series is the last one. Best to go out whilst the vast majority of the public are still in thrall.

The first few series were so vibrant. Series 3, stunning.

I wish people wouldn't flog away at something once the spark has gone.

I could hardly bear to dash into the kitchen when my gin needed topping up)


and kd Lang

Sirius yes, that was Ryan. Lisa can't have told ac12 about Ryan joining the police, even though she had immunity in exchange for information.

I don’t remember the taunting, Sirius, but probably- Ryan’s been around from the start.

I still feel that John was Ted’s son, and that was why he visited Ann-Marie so often back in the day (though he did say he’d not met John). I think he and John’s wife would have arranged to meet in the graveyard, so no coincidence.

I thought the interview scenes last night were brilliantly done (I could hardly bear to dash into the kitchen when my gin needed topping up). I did have to shush DH though when he kept referring to Brandyce as K D (Lang) and commented that she’d have to go back to trawling through Roy Orbison’s back catalogue when she was given her dressing down by Ma’am.