Spoiler alert: this blog is for people watching series three of Line of Duty. (It may also contain spoilers from earlier series.) Don’t read on unless you have watched episode one.
Welcome back, everyone. Well, that was a rollercoaster ride. I have to hand it to Jed Mercurio – every time I think it’ll be impossible to top the tension of the previous series of this police corruption drama, he ups the ante.
This was one of the best openers I’ve seen for a returning crime drama. Tight, taut and filled with any number of twists, it economically set up a fascinating case for our friends at AC12 while also introducing a new “antagonist” (as Mercurio calls them), Sergeant Danny Waldron – an outstanding Daniel Mays – who promises to be just as compelling as Lindsay Denton. Of course, we don’t yet know if Danny will be sticking around, thanks to a bold, brilliant ending which saw the show’s supposed lead grievously wounded, possibly dead. Will he recover to reveal all? One of the beauties of Line of Duty is that it’s not a given – this is the drama that threw Jessica Raine out of a window after all ...
The bad guys
Waldron is the head of an armed-response unit, which also comprises Roderick Kennedy (Will Mellor), Jacqueline Brickford (Leanne Best) and Hari Bains (Arsher Ali). From the start, you get the sense none of them like each other – and they certainly don’t by the end of an hour that has seen Waldron shoot an unarmed suspect dead, instigate a cover-up, consider shooting the wavering weak link Hari, torture and kill the uncle of the first victim then end up choking on his own blood while his team, one of whom presumably shot him, stare blankly on.
As if that wasn’t enough to be going on with, it also transpired that there’s a wider game at play. Waldron is clearly both victim and predator. A bully – “I decide who stays in my squad” – who is also desperate for human connection (the scenes with Rachel when he scrabbled to make some sort of contact were painful), a man who is both impervious to the law and capable of keeping a remarkably cool head (“Easy to say from behind a desk, sir”). And an emotionally vulnerable wreck. The episode also hinted at a terrible backstory – I’m thinking children’s-home childhood, wide-scale abuse reaching right up the ranks of society, Dolphin Square style – and, prior to being shot, Waldron was seen placing his list of people who had wronged him in an envelope addressed to none other than Steve Arnott (Martin Compston).
The good guys
So how are our friends at AC12? Arnott’s magical eyebrows of sexual magnetism have worked wonders yet again and he has a glamorous new girlfriend. He still loves a good niggle though, tracking Danny to his house to have a standoff about the wider implications of the cover-up. Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) is in contact with her children, although it remains unclear if she and her husband have split up following her infidelity last series. She spent the opener undercover once again but, more unusually, somewhat out of her depth due to the constant presence of firearms. Full credit to the show for ably depicting the difference between Danny’s team, who are all comfortable with weapons, and Kate’s nervy handling. (I wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t shoot the drug dealers by mistake in the final scene, and the moment with the child was heart-stopping).
My personal hero, the wonderfully waspish Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), was on excellent form here. Interrogation Hastings is always my favourite – it’s the way he brings the air of the confessional to proceedings, helped by the Northern Irish accent – and he managed to get off a couple of zingers during Danny’s interview: “Things get a wee bit fuzzy for me here Sergeant, maybe you could be a ray of sunshine and burn off the fog …”
This time around three have, of course, become four and the devious Dot Cottan (Craig Parkinson), AKA the Caddy, is now firmly embedded in the team, creating a lovely irony as the anti-corruption squad are unaware of the very bad apple in their midst. Has he reformed following the removal of crazed Scottish crime boss Tommy last time around? I have my doubts – and I’m certainly sure that if Ronan Murphy’s redacted file has any information that might incriminate Dot then it’ll stay safely hidden under the black ink.
Case notes
I was interested in the tension between AC12 and “I’m a civilian, call me Gill or Miss Bigelow,” – Mercurio is always great at office politics, and this one could run and run.
The interrogation scene was one of the best Mercurio has written. You could see how much Hastings loathed Waldron, as well as just how good Waldron is at bending the rules to his advantage.
So Rod and Jackie clearly had a messy affair, with the implication being that she broke it off.
Are we to assume that Rod or Jackie sent Hari the message saying it’s time, or is he working for a different as yet unknown boss?
Of course Danny runs for miles at night. Every good antihero has to spend time trying to outrun their demons. It’s one of the rules.
I’m not sure about the Little List, though – any Game of Thrones fan knows that those don’t always work out so well …
Children are obviously Danny’s kryptonite. Not only was he at his most sensitive when dealing with the child Kate nearly shot, he also abstained from executing Hari because of his child.
Weasel of the week
They’re already forming a queue, but the inaugural award can only go to Danny Waldron – a man for whom the words cover-up are as manna from the gods.
Quote of the week
“When this is all done Steve I’ll suffer for my actions. I’m under no illusions of a happy ending but I ain’t gonna stop.” Sometimes, as Danny Waldron makes clear, a man’s just gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Even if it does involve torture and execution gangland-style.
So what did you think? Are you glad to have AC12 back? Does Danny Waldron make a suitably conflicted antagonist? And what sort of wider cover-up is in play? As ever, all speculation welcome below …
