TV REVIEW: Line of Duty – Season 3

When a suspect is shot during a chase the armed police team claims they were acting in self defence but the forensics recovered by AC-12 suggest that there is more to the story. The plot thickens further when the team leader, Danny (Daniel Mays) is killed in a scuffle with his other team members and another member of the squad commits suicide.

Meanwhile Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes) is being retried on appeal and her cases hinges on her relationship with DS Arnott (Martin Compston) and the possibility that he might have planted evidence. At the same time Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) is questioning his very black and white view of the world as he gets to know the department’s new lawyer, Gill (Polly Walker) and Cottan (Craig Parkinson) and DC Fleming (Vicky McClure) get closer.

As Arnott investigates Danny’s past he starts to suspect a terrible cover up but politics are more involved than ever before and he might have to turn to the one person he’d rather avoid. This impacts on the first serious relationship we’ve seen him in, but he’s not the only one experiencing job related relationship issues.

For the first time the members of AC-12 are forced to question their loyalty to each other and no one is free of suspicion from the lowest to the highest ranks.

Season three of Line of Duty had me at the edge of my seat. All of the threads from the previous two seasons are pulled together and the true horror of how deep and dark the corruption is in the East Midlands Constabulary comes to light. In this season Cottan’s struggle to keep his head above water is at the forefront and although he is truly a deplorable character, Parkinson does manage to ensure that there is some sympathy for the mess he has gotten himself into.

The feature length finale was so gripping that Mr O got sucked in despite the fact that he’d not watched any of the previous episodes. As always the performances are amazing, with Hawes again an absolute standout. 

This show just keeps getting better and if you’ve not watched it you need to get right on that right now!

5/5