Line of Duty Series 1 Episode 3 Review

Line of Duty Series 1 Episode 3 Review

This review contains spoilers

Another hour, another set of twists and turns. Following last weeks murder of Jackie Laverty, the walls are closing in on DCI Tony Gates. He's being blackmailed into taking over her money laundering scheme by a man known as Tommy (who will play a major role at the start of Series 2), and his wife is starting to suspect that he's been playing away. It's a slightly more subdued episode in many ways, but it's still absolutely top-notch drama.

Gates team appears to be cracking, too. Deepak, having become wise to Gates' dodgy operations, tries to rat him out, but is cast out from the team when it turns out that Gates deliberately tried to discover any moles by giving them all different possible locations for his piece of missing evidence. DC Morton seems to be questioning Gates' actions, too, and confrontation seems to be starting to arise between Morton and DS Cottan. Add in DS Arnott's text to both Supt Hastings and DC Fleming at the end, telling them both that he isn't right for the job and that Gates has won, and it appears that everything is falling down for everyone.

Surely in the next episode there will start to be some credible evidence against Gates coming to light, leaving us with the final episode to see his guilt finally unveiled to all. His intense assertion to Kate that he isn't bent is the cry of a man who knows that he's done wrong, and that things are starting to catch up with him. There's not going to be anyway back for him from here.

Once again, all the acting performances are fantastic. I'm still disappointed that we don't get more of Craig Parkinson as Cottan, but in Lennie James as Gates, Martin Compston as Arnott, Vicky McClure as Fleming and Adrian Dunbar as Hastings, it's an incredibly strong quad that lead the way. Though my eyes are nearly closed with this late hour, I'm still desperate to stay up for another couple of hours to watch it till the end.

Line of Duty is everything you could want from a UK drama; compelling, wonderfully acted and with an ability to hook and reel you in from the very first minute.