Show me a successful television scriptwriter who prefers the words “the end” over “to be continued”, and I’ll show you Jed Mercurio.
The TV dramatist behind Line of Duty has just announced that the show will return for its seventh series, even though its faithful – if increasingly tested – audience was led to believe that its last instalment, back in 2021, was done, over and out. The police procedural that provocatively lifted the lid on corruption within the force had finally revealed the identity of H, the very baddest of apples in what the anti-corruption unit believed was a workplace riddled with strange fruit.
Mercurio had been toying with us for years. Who was H exactly? Was it perhaps one of its guest star detectives? Lennie James, maybe? Kelly MacDonald, Stephen Graham? Or was it the unit boss himself, Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar)? No, none of those. Red herrings, do you see? Rather, it was DSI Ian Buckles, a character so previously un-noteworthy that he’d been, quite simply, not worthy of note. To suggest that this was a disappointment for those of us tuning in on tenterhooks is an understatement.
Even the show’s cast were confused. “When you find out it is this idiot, Buckles, it is so frustrating,” said Adrian Dunbar. It was, he felt, a “disappointing” reveal.
Mercurio’s point, which he conveyed somewhat testily to those who dared criticise his process (Mercurio does not like those who criticise his process, which is why I’m writing this wearing a flak jacket borrowed off Lyse Doucet), was that police corruption can hang on any single individual. This is why corruption is so insidious, so hard to fully stamp out. He’s right, of course, but then this isn’t real life. It’s television. We don’t like to go to bed underwhelmed.
McClure and Compston as Kate Fleming and Steve Arnott (Photo: Steffan Hill)In truth, of course, Line of Duty had long been a victim of its own success. When it started, back in 2012, it was brilliant – arguably the best TV cop drama of its era, and certainly the most popular. That it dared confuse its audience with endless unexplained acronyms – OGC, CHIS, PNC – only made it feel more authentic.
But Line of Duty didn’t end. H continued to infiltrate. The longer it ran, the more it tied itself in knots, and the more Mercurio had to think: “What now?”, “What next?” This required of its three lead characters – Dunbar’s Hastings, Steve Compton’s Steve Arnott and Vicky McClure’s Kate Fleming – to appear increasingly confused, and wishing they could be in Call the Midwife instead. Had the show’s creator pulled the plug three series previously, it would have remained a stone cold classic.
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But now it faces an uphill struggle. The new series, Mercurio suggests, will feature a charismatic incoming detective inspector – the actor has yet to be revealed – accused of abusing his position of trust to behave as a sexual predator. There is much meat here for Mercurio to sink his teeth into. Let us just hope that, with H still rotting in prison, and no immediate sign of a replacement I or J, a K or even an L, he manages to pull tighter focus all the way to a satisfying resolution by series finale.
Forget those myriad red herrings, the maddening misdirects. And maybe tone down a little on Hastings’ hectoring, moralistic speeches? Even an actor as accomplished as Dunbar struggled to do them the justice Mercurio so doggedly required.
And just maybe, after that, a proper “The End”? Go out on a bang, not a whimper.
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