Line of Duty Series 1 Episode 1 Review

Line of Duty Series 1 Episode 1 Review

This review contains spoilers

Having come to discover Line of Duty a bit late with Series 2, I've been desperate to catch Series 1 to fill in some of the gaps. Series 2 was without doubt one of the best UK dramas I've ever seen, keeping me guessing throughout as to who was guilty and who innocent, and just where the story would go next. Finally, I've got hold of the Series 1 DVD, and I can't wait to get started.

Two minutes in, however, and already I felt like I'd been delivered a emotional suckerpunch that will take some beating. Series 2's opener was incredible and shocking, but the death of an innocent father while he wears his baby is...for a parent like myself, it's devastating. All it takes is the number on a door to slip slightly, and an innocent father is killed. A wife is left a widow, a child is left without one of his parents, and a police officer trying to stop a terrorist will never be the same again. I'm not ashamed to say there were tears in my eyes at this point. I'm always getting emotional at things in television and film, but particularly anything nowadays that involves family.

The story begins, of course, with a tale of police corruption. DS Arnott refuses to cover up the truth, despite his superior's insistence that all the police officers present lie to say that the innocent victim was threatening them. He is moved onto AC-12 (Anti-Corruption), into the role we now know him for. Supt Hastings is his boss and mentor, though their relationship isn't a happy one initially, as Arnott wants to believe that the officer they are investigating, DCI Gates, is innocent. Gates has just been named Officer of the Year, but Hastings is concerned that he cracks far to many cases, and is using 'laddering' to up his statistics (inventing charges that never make it to court, but are counted as being solved). DC Fleming is trying to make her way onto Gates' team, secretly working undercover for AC-12. While this moving around of personnel is happening, Gates is trying to cover up the accidental hit and run committed by the lady he is having an affair with, Jackie Laverty.

In so many ways this feels exactly like Series 2, with the main difference being we can clearly see from the start that Gates is a corrupt officer (rather than the running question of whether DI Denton was guilty or not). To what extent is probably the main mystery; he struggles desperately with whether to delete the links between Jackie and her hit and run victim, which you could argue is either a sign of him struggling with covering up the truth (putting him more towards the good side) or making sure in his head that this isn't going to come back to haunt him (putting him back towards the bad). Either way, if he was truly bad through and through, he'd have deleted those links with no more than a second's hesitation.

It's strange, of course, seeing Arnott not yet comfortable working with Hastings or Fleming, though by the end of the episode he's clearly just as suspicious of Gates as the others. Mind you, if someone pooed in my car I'd want to nail them for something. The other members of Gates' CID team, particularly DS 'Dot' Cottan, do a great job of coming across as the 'lads' of the police i.e. a bunch of dickheads. Craig Parkinson really does shine above everyone else in everything he's in, and it's great seeing Neil Morrissey in a different role than I'm used to.

At this early stage, and pretending I don't have a big idea of how this is going to work out, it looks as if the truth about this hit and run is eventually going to come out and condemn Gates to early retirement, possibly behind bars. It's utterly compelling straight from the off (which I must emphasise again was an incredibly affecting opening), and I can't wait to see if this hits the same heights as Series 2. Brilliant stuff.