LINE OF DUTY: cop-on-cop action TV procedural that demands analysis

Ahh, yeah. Of course, he did. I think I'd blotted out most of that episode from my memory. Ah well, scratch that theory then.

Yeah, in one of the final episodes last season Ted literally turns up at Steph's house with the envelope of cash that was the missing fifty grand

But like.... were we supposed to know what Steve is about to say on the phone to Kate, about the purpose of that money? It felt like we were??

Ted assuaging his conscience over getting Corbett killed?

Yeah that was the implication, I thought, and we just didn't hear Steve say it because that would be stating the obvious and this show likes to move fast.

That is one of the things I like about it. "Let's set up an interview" - next scene, interview time! Another show would make you wait till the next episode.

So the thought goes - Ted tips off OCG they've got a mole (for some reason??), they rumble Corbett, Ted slides a cool 50K to Corbett's grieving widow to 'make up for it'? Doesn't seem like Ted's style tbh

each series shd devote one (1) whole episode to one of the team organising the visual material into the powerpoint show for the interview and it takes a whole episode bcz they have to talk to IT five times or more

btw they say "GSW" out loud bcz they're united in being very used to reading that acronym as written down and indeed to writing it down themselves in their fabled paperwork (where it *does* save space and is also a helpful regularisation of a specific type of event)

is my rationalisation of this tic

Yes I think you're right. It's pretty funny though.

Tracer: Corbett brutally tortured Ted's ex-wife, then later Ted found out it was because Corbett had been tricked into thinking Ted was responsible for his mum's death. So that's motive for dobbing in the rat (if he did) and motive for feeling guilty about it.

Ahhhhh

i'm not at all sure he's pulled it off but i am enjoying that quite early in this project jed set up a whiteboard -- or better still one of these see-through panels they use in fancier procedurals -- and just listed *all* the IRL UK scandals and cover-ups of the last fifty years that have revealed (and often amplified) bent coppering, and said to himself "right OK let's put all of them in"

LoD series seven: Sir Gosport "Digger" Peters and his 2010s expenses claim to cover a swan shack, turns out Tommy Hunter had a side hustle of corrupt gardeners.

If Ted H was H (or otherwise involved with the OCG) he wouldn't have had to visit Lee Banks in prison, would he? The channels of communication would already be in place.

Definately.

There were so many great moments in this last ep. When Ted convinces them to stay on Ryan despite the danger, it's like you can see it in his body, he comes utterly alive, he can't let go, he's got to give it everything. And 'suckin on diesel' gets the sotto voce treatment - absolutely magisterial. Punched the air.

Pretty sure Chloe was the MVP this ep though. Frankly if this series continues I'd rather it was Steve/Chloe/Ted. Kate just seems dim as hell most of the time tbh.

But wouldn’t you miss the “mate mate mate” bants and being the world’s worst undercover cop?

They should have gone with our idea for her 😔

I love Ted, but scenes where he leads (like the laptop and cash and visiting the OCG nightclub in the previous series) somewhat expose his acting limitations imo.

Shit take

"suckin on diesel" is such a great half-wrong phrase for him to be saying lol

Are there any examples of Ted being good at his job? Mostly he's alienating his management and hounding the wrong suspects.

still <3 him though obv

you're not wrong

AC-12 raiding another department and arresting the wrong person who then needs releasing the next day is practically a series requirement at this point

I mean I'm reading the head lady in charge as a Cressida Dickalike, hence the worst of the worst IMO, but yes, the high-ups do have a point. But exactly similar things happened IRL when straight-arrow cops were brought into to clean a force up -- i'm blanking on the names bcz i'm old and busy. there was a cop helicoptered into northern ireland to examination RUC corruption -- john something? -- who was himself taken down via some (bogus?) scandal himself?

John stalker?

Are there any examples of Ted being good at his job? Mostly he's alienating his management and hounding the wrong suspects.

john stalker yes. there was also a straightarrow outsider cop parachuted into the met in the 70s for similar clean-up purposes whose name hurried googling hasn't uncovered for me (i don't think he was mired in fake scandal tho)

i did discover that met officers referred to the operation countryman anti-corruption squad (made up of rural coppers) as "the sweedey" lol

thank you

Frank Williamson is the man you're thinking of although he was in the Met already I think and couldn't get traction on his efforts which is why Operation Countryman (Dorset constabulary) got started.

I think that BBC show was quite dismissive of Williamson, that he talked the talk about when it came down to it wouldn't risk his pension over accusations.

Frank Williamson: this isn't the person i'm thinking of

it was sir robert mark

or nark as i wrote first

If Ted H was H (or otherwise involved with the OCG) he wouldn't have had to visit Lee Banks in prison, would he? The channels of communication would already be in place.

This is what he'd want everyone to think, of course (which can be the answer for everything to do with LoD.)

Mostly he's alienating his management and hounding the wrong suspects.

In the case of Ryan Pilkington and Jo Davidson he's bang on, though.

Thought of the Steve: hot or not? debate again this week when Twitter went mad over him charging the industrial unit to potentially avenge a fallen comrade. He's a coiled spring! Ladies love that shit. Apparently.

Those little baseball caps tho

Everybody had em this time. Did they get a discount or

the over-egging of hastings' coming doom, the blizzard of possibly false hints that he's a wrong un too, has kind of become a black box they can get anything out of and we won't be surprised (which means we'll be a bit disappointed either way)

― mark s, Monday, 15 April 2019 10:17 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^^

Steve is a hottie! There's no ambiguity.

xpost i'm getting a "last chance saloon" vibe from ted's overuse of the catchphrases this season

john stalker reminds me of how i was too young to have been alive (or was a baby) when he was in the public eye for his policing and so i just knew him as the guy in the awning advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZzeeAMtIVQ

wonder if that was his final awning

The sheer preponderance of closed loops and callbacks and every character getting a bit of an action scene and Ted told to retire feels extremely This Is The Last Season to me

this is what they want me to think ofc

who is going to turn out not to be dead after all?

tommy hunter
john corbett
DENTON <-- i want this but im not going to get it i know
jackie laverty

DOT COTTAN

I rewatched this because I’m mental and also because my wife hadn’t seen it.

I liked how the chief constable characterized quashing AC-12’s corruption investigations as “taking back control”.

Here’s something. When Jo Davidson is In The Chat with the person we presume is H, H says AC-12 got two of their men killed. Jo was like yeah, good ol’ Lewis. H replies, it was Fleming. Now, how on earth could H know that it was Kate who tipped AC-12 off about the workshops? The only person Kate told about that was Jo, when Jo confronted her.

i thought it was more that Kate was causing trouble in general - potentially recognising Ryan, and being an old ac12 adversary to boot

Maybe so, but it seemed explicitly connected to the deaths in the workshop. Like this was the final straw and Kate needed to pay. It seems like only someone in AC-12 could have known that Kate was the source of the info on the workshop.

H-ate ? 😬 🤯