Nigel Boyle plays a young barman named Ian in season 1 of The Inbetweeners.

It couldn’t be… could it?

With the new season coming soon. It's going to need to be wrapped up. So who is actually the Top Dog corrupt officer.

Could we see a world where someone like Kate or Steve are actually implicated. My ideal would be Hastings as i really hate his character.

Line Of Duty is different then any other cop/crime show I've seen before and it was a refreshing change. However having just finished the most current season I noticed a pattern that kind of annoyed me. Literally almost no bad guy ends up with an actual proper prison sentence because they hand out immunity like candy but yet the information they gain never seems to actually help convict anyone. For example why did Gil Bigelow deserve WitSec, they didn't mention any useful information coming from her. The other Bad guy option seems to be either death by cop like Dot Cotton or being killed by other criminals such like Tommy Hunter or Lindsey Denton. It's frustrating that all the hard work AC -12 rarely ends up in convictions. With members constantly being framed by bad guys and the unit being infiltrated by corrupt cops like Dot , they seem to be fighting a losing battle which is kind of discouraging. What does everyone else think?

For me, it was when she turned against Steve believing Dot's claims that he was The Caddy, until Denton unveiled her evidence against Dot just before he shoots her dead then frames Steve!

Small spoilers for S1-6 just cause of the nature of a serial show.

Given Martin’s comments of S7 being the end of this large arc I thought I’d post some predictions I have:

1. Steve is stuck investigating small fry in the

Inspectorate

1. of Police Standards - and isn’t given anything remotely exciting due to Osborne’s hatred of him. Similar to S1 one of Steve’s investigations reveals something larger.

2. Kate tried to return to AC-12/IPS after the end of season 6 but due to the merger and the cutting of staff she wasn’t let back in. She most likely works in the same unit as DI Gough, and may have blown the whistle on his sexual offences.

3. Hastings is retired, but Steve still goes to him for opinions on cases on the DL.

4. Carmichael has been promoted to ACC - if AMM isn’t in series 6 at least to start with this could explain her absence.

5. There will be reference to Sarah Everard’s murder - similar to Stephen Lawrence they will change the name but there will be a clear allegory. This also fits given what we know will be the basis for DI Gough.

6. Steve, Kate and Ted will all be arrested.

7. MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH - I think given Martin saying it is the end of the big arc, I think one of the big 3 will die. As Hastings has already been ousted I don’t think it will be him. Based on the end of S6 emphasising how much Kate and Steve need each other - odds on it will be one of them. Currently I think it will be Steve that dies.

8. More of a wish than a prediction but bring Chloe back and give her some character development don’t just let her be exposition.exe for S6.

Would be interested to hear what others think/predict

Mine - Jodie Season 4. I wish she got her head caved in. Horrible brown-nosing cow!!

Maybe Lindsay Denton second. She is a brilliant character, very complex and misunderstood, but she is also very difficult to watch.

I watched the first series and generally enjoyed it but I didn’t really understand the subplot where PC Simon Bannerjee is trying to steer a juvenile delinquent named Ryan away from a life of crime. It’s an interesting enough concept and I enjoyed the interactions between these characters. It just feels very disconnected from the Tony Gates main plotline. I kept thinking we’d see Bannerjee interact with either Gates’ team or AC-12 but it doesn’t happen.

Just binge watched straight through and found it very gripping, loved series 3 and 4, enjoyed the ambiguity of S5, I was really looking forward to it coming to a head in S6…

Then it didn’t. “Oh it’s buckles, oh no it’s not really, It’s probably the Chief Constable, but we don’t really know, and hey look they’re in a lift byeeeee”

So, so unsatisfying.

so, rewatching LOD in preparation for the new season. Have a question. After Jools questions Tony as to why DS Arnott was in their house and Tony explains that AC-12 is looking into him but reassures her that they have nothing, why does his wife Jools run outside, tell Steve ”how dare you, no one can come ever between me and my husband, you keep away from this family”, but then pushed Tony out of the way and slams the door in his face?

I am confused because Steve didn’t tell her that he was cheating with Jacky Laverty. I don’t know why she’d be angry with Tony when she seemed to be reassured by his explanation?

When she blurts out to Dot that she is still a police officer, was she actually, and undercover, or is that all in her head that she still was one?

I might be watching this show all wrong because I find myself rooting for the “villain” each season so far (Gates S1, Denton S2) and find Arnott, Fleming, Hastings extremely unlikeable and very incompetent. I’m a few episodes into series 3 and I already am empathizing/rooting for Baines and Brickford. Am I way off base here? Thoroughly entertaining show, though, and obviously has kept my attention 😂

Surely there would have been a photo of Kate circulated between the police officers of Central Police by series 3.

“Watch out for this lass she is definitely undercover”

I’ve just rewatched from start to finish and although I thought the ending was BAD originally, having just rewatched the whole thing I actually hate it all!! For me there are so many plot holes and I am actually not looking forward to the 7th series at all, there is no redemption for me and think Jed owes us an apology for wasting so much of our time!

Some of these might have been answered later on but these were my qualms and questions series by series with a few overalls:

S1:
• If AC-12 actually did their jobs properly and checked the phone records Dot would’ve been questioned straight off the bat 😬 he lies and says that Gates ordered him and Deepak to end the surveillance early and when Gates is told that, he tells Steve that whoever said that is lying but there’s no follow up.

S2:
• What does Lindsay really do in the phone box when she calls the hospital in episode one? She makes the call just before the second attempt to kill Tommy and then goes to her mums for "the exact duration" of the time the attack takes place but we then learn the attack was carried out by Prasad and Cole (on the orders of Dot?) who Denton doesn't even know is involved? So if she wasn't ordering the attack, what is she doing?? She claims she was trying to contact nurses to learn if the witness had regained consciousness but that’s a massive coincidence that she calls that hospital at that exact time and asks for the exact nurse who Prasad uses to gain access to Tommy's room and then goes to her mum's for the exact period of time the attack takes place for - just by chance?? I doubt it!
• Witness protection rules and regs?? Fact check - if someone in witness protection commits a crime under new identity they are treated separately to their previous life? And who did Tommy tell on for immunity, was the case over - new identity starts before or after the trial??
• Why would Tommy be so closely involved with Carly when in S1 he controlled everyone via the phone? Tommy was out with Ackers living his best life and looking like he was still in control of OCG so why the sudden change in involvement? He would surely use his henchmen for one teenage girl??

S3:
• What’s happens to all the other men on the list?? We just letting them go no follow up?

S4:
• Self defence you stupid bitch!!! I’m not buying that if you wake up laid out on a sheet of plastic with your attacker dressed in a crime scene forensic suit with all the tools to dismember your body and you somehow manage to kill him, that any jury would not believe that was self defence. You’ve lost your arm now you dumb hotel. Absolutely pointless story and only used to once again tell us about the OCG which seems to be the only fucking one in the whole world calling all the shots.
• Why are the balaclava men killing random women and pinning it on Michael Farmer, when the whole point is to blackmail the police? We know Hilton was “scared” every time a body was found but why was it pinned on Michael Farmer?? Jimmy Lakewell is the only link and he is either willingly working for or be being blackmailed by the OCG but why and how is Michael the fall guy?? This wasn’t a quick last minute decision because the police were closing in! The car used, the trophies and the victim were all in Michael’s grannies house with the OCG responsible having enough time to set the fire and get far away. When and why did Jimmy say to the OCG about Michael?!??!

S5:
• Where has Ryan been??? Who is in charge of him since Tommy, who has “lent” him to John?? Hilton supposedly killed himself prior to this series but 3 months ago John has still heard the name H being formidable in the OCG, it doesn’t make sense for H to be a thing in this context if in the end it’s numerous characters.
• Why is Kate still suspicious of Hastings?
• Tommy hunter to this point - who’s in charge before John?
• The whole laptop chat room - does every corrupt officer have access and the log in details to this chat room?? Because Hargroves was surely the H who was using it to arrange the East Field Depot robbery, he’s then shot but then we’re told it’s Buckles so were they both accessing it during this period or??
• Hastings going against every single thing he stands for? Letter of the law where???

S6:
• How the fuck does Kate not recognise Ryan?!
• Who is Jo speaking to?? We were told it was a corrupt officer in the previous series so who the fuck is H because Buckles aka the 4th man has just been arrested!!! Why and how would the OCG still use Buckles as the form of communication, it just doesn’t make sense?? Even if for every 100 prison officers that are on the books, at least 1 isn’t going to be and therefore the risk is still too high to smuggle a laptop into prison just so Buckles can be the go between to send messaged via the online chat, they’d surely send the messages themselves?!
• Drug tests - over the counter??
• If the golf clubs are the link then everything is flawed from the get go - Tommy and the caddy are long dead but if golf is the link then Buckles has been involved from the start so why did Tommy tell Gates to shut down the money laundering investigation, he’d have surely just told Buckles directly!!!
• Why when Lee banks slits Jimmy’s throat does he say to Buckles about being an r*t if Buckles is the 4th man.

Overall:
• AC-12 actually caused Gates to get involved with the OCG because of Jackie and now every single copper they investigate are linked to the one OCG?? Even if they’ve spread their wings a little, I’m not buying it.
• Am I the only one that thinks wires have been crossed when it comes to whether the corrupt officers or OCG are in charge? In some series’s it’s suggested the police is top dog but then others it’s the OCG? H riddle me this!!! Why & how on gods green earth would a police officer no matter his rank be in charge of all criminal activities going on across all series’s but on the flip side is then using bodies his OCG have killed to blackmail other police officers. NO! I think along the way Jed has simply forgotten what’s been written. Who is in charge here because it’s clearly not H or a 4th man!

If anyone can answer the above, please do or add any of your own questions if I’ve missed anything.

** Before anyone else gets their knickers in a twist, yes I am overthinking it, yes I understand it’s just a tv show and yes I do understand it has to be taken with a pinch of salt but this is how my brain works. I’m not posting this to “spoil” it for anyone else, I’m not satisfied watching it as a whole and think it could’ve been so much better!

If anyone has read Martin Compston's take on how season seven is going to go, I'd say it is worth it. He uses phrases such as "everything will come to a head" Suggesting perhaps due to season 6 dissatisfaction Mercurio is going to go all in for season seven.

As watchers of line of duty, how would you want season seven to play out? How would you involve the previous seasons all into one big showdown? I heard that Dryden is coming back which adds speculation to the way the story line is going to go?

What do you all think about what may happen? Or what do you want to happen? I'm starting to get excited about this season coming in January 2027

I know this general idea has been covered 100 times but I want to weigh in in a really specific way.

I've watched the show from start to finish 4 times myself, every time I rewatch it I connect more dots and further understand the storyline more than I did the episode before. I really like that about the show.

One thing I will never fully grasp / understand / make sense of is the entire concept of H, both as a codename / title and as a group of people.

H is dumb. Plain and simple. The idea was 100% meant to be done and dusted by series 4 but Jed Mercurio loves a little reverse engineer to extend plot lines (which in all fairness, I can't blame him), however H went too far. H was only known to AC-12 as a codename, so in S5 when Corbett mentions it, it's because Jill told him that Hastings is corrupt and he goes by the codename H. I see literally no other way for Corbett to have known that H existed and the idea of him being told by Jill would mean that AC-12's entire investigation would be discredited as Hasting's would be corrupt and therefore anything against Dot and Hilton would be questioned, which would tremendously benefit the OCG, and in turn benefit Jill and all the other senior corrupt officers (Buckelles, maybe even Osbourne)

I do truly believe H was Hilton and should have stayed as Hilton, whereas The Caddy was a separate identity to 'H'. In my view, the OCG as we know it, aka the Balaclava Gang, always had corrupt officers in the police, (such as Fairbank and Thurwell). These officers just come and go in a cycle over time, almost in generations
(Gen 1 being Fairbank, Thurwell and Hilton, Gen 2 being Hilton, Dot and Jill, and then most recently Gen 3 of Buckelles and Ryan, although Ryan did not have time to rise to a senior position)

So with all that said, I do think that the Caddy is a separate identity that was given to Dot as he was the only known corrupt senior officer to other corrupt officers, we know this because he was identified as recruiting PS Cafferty and DS Aykers, among others. Ryan took over as 'the new caddy' with more of an aggressive technique while he was still working on rising up the ranks.

Overall, H was reversed engineers to make Buckelles and Jill be seen as equally corrupt as Hilton and Dot, when in reality Hilton and Dot were the most corrupt officers, Jill was just a corrupt staff member who had a lot of influence and Buckelles was in reality an idiot who tried to take over for Hilton (which to his credit, he did a pretty good job at maintaining operations with the OCG from S4 onwards, even if he was incredibly stupid in most of his non-criminal acts).

I hope that in S7 we don't see H anymore, however I think that due to the idea that H = 4 corrupt people, Jed Mercurio will continue the plot and actually change the storyline yet again to reveal that Buckelles was just another version of The Caddy (like Dot and Ryan were) and he was taking the noble fall (forced to after watching Lakewell die) for Osbourne so that he could continue to run the Central Police as a corrupt constabulary.

Maybe if we get an S8 we will finally get a storyline where a cop just calls someone some hurt words online an AC-12 get to investigate that instead of a 20+ year long national crime conspiracy.

Anyway thanks for reading my huge ass rant.

^{p.s. All the senior corrupt officers knew each other, the idea they didn't is crazy to me. Hilton, Dot and Buckelles all worked out of the same station for years, part of the reason why Buckelles was able to become so good at being corrupt is because he was being played like a puppet and groomed to be a copy of Dot as he got higher up the ranks. And it's clear in S3 that Dot and Jill were working together to sabotage the Caddy inquiry.}

This is a really stupid question and kind of goofy but I’m so curious that my curiosity trumps my embarrassment.

If you had to pick 5 police officers from the entire series to solve the mystery of the OCG / H, they can be dead, alive, incarcerated, fired, corrupt, whatever, who would it be?

Personally, I’d go with,
DI Denton,
Danny Waldron,
Kate,
Dot,
And probably DCI Huntley.

I think these characters are a mix of extremely intelligent (Waldron, Kate, and Denton) and very strategical and logical (Dot and Huntley). I think these 5 would have no trouble solving the case as a group.

As a massive LoD fan, I've been working on building a site to map the locations used in the series. It's taken me a good few months, but I just finished mapping Season 6. Most of this was achieved by putting my OSINT skills to use, plus some local knowledge from friends in Ireland.

https://www.scenefound.com/locations/tv-shows/line-of-duty

I'm sure there was probably a list floating around online already, but this has been a bit of a passion project for me, as I wanted to catalogue as many as possible in a nice, user-friendly format. I know I've probably missed some locations, so if you know of any that are missing, please let me know and I can update :)

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Just finished this for the first time. Really really enjoyed but was so underwhelmed with who H was.. maybe more to come from the next season OR do we want them just to leave this H thing behind?

Also can anyone recommend any shows that are similar and worth a watch?

For someone who is meant t8 be straight as a die, Arnold is always being disrespectful, not listening t9 orders, shagging around etc. Would love him being H/4th man/bent.

I am rewatching LoD, now by the end of it. I had just forgotten how much of an ashole Carmichael is.

I'd love for he to be bent and a casualty on the next season. I really hate her.