Chief Constable Philip Osborne has been identified as fans’ new top suspect behind H - the code name for one of more corrupt officers.
Searches for the character had the highest increase globally during Sunday night’s episode as fans are desperate to solve the mystery.
It seems he has overtaken Hasting as being the chief suspect behind H's identity.
And the gaffer's iconic phrases also peaked for searches after the latest episode, with ‘Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey’ being a popular hit on Google.
According to the survey by True Crime Mania, while searches for Ted Hasting’s character rose by 400% during Season 6 Episode 4 at the last count, searches for Philip Osborne saw a phenomenal 2500% increase during the latest episode - reporting the highest spike in searches during the episode than any other character.
Further evidence that fans suspect the Chief Constable as the main perpetrator comes from the related searches around the character’s name, with ‘who is H in Line of Duty?’ seeing a 450% increase over the last week.
Obsessed fans are desperate for clues and have even searched ‘H in morse code’ and ‘Patricia Carmichael anagram’ - which saw a massive 600% increase in the last week.
The anagram refers to armchair detective’s findings that if you take the phrase ‘race claim’ from Carmichael leaves a missing ‘H’ - but it’s unclear whether this is a red herring or clue.
It’s not surprising then that Patricia Carmichael is also high on the suspect list.
Although the character saw the highest average search volume between 8-11pm, she saw a lower increase in searches than Osborne compared to before the episode aired.
In order, the top five suspects for H according to fans are as follows:
- Philip Osborne
- Patricia Carmichael
- Marcus Thurwell
- Ian Buckells
- Jo Davidson
This overtakes the previous suspect list made after Season 6 Episode 4, which was (in order): Ted Hastings, Steve Arnott, Andrea Wise, Chloe Bishop and Kate Fleming.
Characters analysed in the study this week were: Jo Davidson, Ian Buckells, Philip Osborne, Marcus Thurwell, Patricia Carmichael, Ted Hastings and Kate Fleming.
The findings were based on global increases and decreases in search volume, as dictated by Google Trends, made before and after Sunday night’s episode of Line of Duty.
Further research showed how people’s interest in true crime documentaries had more than doubled since the 2020 lockdown was introduced in the UK, as more and more people got invested in the latest shows to hit Netflix.
Unsolved Mysteries is the UK’s favourite Netflix series related to the subject, and with Line of Duty proving to be such a hit it is clear that the UK public love a crime series.
