With Line of Duty’s sixth season finale dividing viewers on Sunday night with the unveiling of the elusive ‘Fourth Man’ working from within the force to aid criminals, obsessive fans have been pouring back over past episodes to look for clues they missed.
Many could not believe that Nigel Boyle’s bumbling DSI Ian Buckells was in fact the character known as H who had been playing both sides throughout Line of Duty’s full six seasons – and 10-year run.
The reveal was regarded as anticlimactic by many fans who considered Buckells “too thick” to have been such a criminal mastermind.
Reviewing the past six seasons, however, some fans have uncovered clues from way back in season one that tipped Buckells as the true villain of the show.
A seemingly ‘obvious’ clue was featured in the first series when Buckells went to play golf with corrupt head of the OCG, Tommy Hunter.
Rewatching episodes, one fan exclaimed on Twitter : "Hiding in plain sight since Series 1 Episode 5. Buckells going to play golf with Hunter!"
A scene showed Buckells carrying a set of golf clubs while off to rub shoulders with his corrupt superior.
The identity of a fellow corrupt officer had been branded ‘the Caddy’ in subsequent seasons.
Meanwhile, an interview with Buckells actor Nigel Boyle resurfaced following the big reveal – as he appeared to hint he was the show villain while promoting the series back in 2017.
He told Digital Spy while promoting series four: "There's definitely more to Buckells than meets the eye!
"He's very competent, very good at what he does, he's the go-to guy, but he's certainly not a popular guy – he's petulant, and a bit of a jobsworth I think.
"I don't think people give him enough credit, just because of his personality!"
Although the actor himself did insist this week that he wasn’t told the truth about his character until he was mid-way through filming the sixth series.
He said: “We’d had the first four scripts and started filming some of Series 6 when we had to stop due to the first lockdown.
“When we were about to resume filming, Jed sent me a text saying, ‘Are you free for a chat at some point today? Don’t worry it’s not that call…’. Which I took to mean that I wasn’t going to end up dead!
“But I was still quite nervous and not sure what he wanted to talk to me about.
“He called me and said, ‘the scripts for the next episodes are going to be sent out imminently and so it’s time to tell you the secret that I’ve been keeping, you’re going to be revealed as someone rather significant…’”
