Line of Duty

“Better than ever” Lucy Mangan drawls, in her Guardian review, but not for me, it isn’t. I’ve been a Jed Mercurio fan since Cardiac Arrest, and I thought Line of Duty at its best (Keely Hawes, maybe?) was wonderful. But since it went BBC 1 and mega, it’s got far too big for its boots. Huge spectacle, no limit to the crowds of officers involved in the dramatic arrests - but old fashioned probability is lying by the roadside as an abandoned casualty. Four vehicles purposefully heading to one operation - when they divert because the person in charge sees a white van. Senior woman police officer goes home at the end of the day - when we find she’s just breaking up from a lesbian relationship with a junior black officer - there you are, have that dumped in your lap as a ton of potent factors, none of them convincingly established. Oh, and said officer has a senior male officer who’s total bluster and incompetence. Clearly an idiot. But the shouted conversations going on in his office are clearly important, as we’re treated to endless prolonged shots of silent officers watching apprehensively from outside. And we thought we’d lost Vicki McClure, who’s had enough of shopping coppers and wants to do proper police work, but hey - she just happens to be working for the next person they’re going to be investigating, so maybe she’ll have second thoughts and join up with the old team again…it’s all cardboard, contrived for effect on the viewer, and I don’t believe a word. It’s sad when a decent series comes to the end of its proper life, but nothing like so sad as the determination to keep it going beyond that for the sake of the ratings.