Line of Duty - TV review

After weeks of seemingly nothing but repeats on TV, last night's schedule offered a veritable wealth of choice.

Channel 4 was airing the first episode of new Gordon Ramsay vehicle, Gordon Behind Bars (if only). BBC1 started its new series of historical reality show Turn Back Time, and the final part of Strictly Kosher aired on ITV1

But it was BBC2's new, much-publicised thriller, Line of Duty that caught my eye – and I wasn't disappointed.

Starring Lennie James, Vicky McClure, Gina McKee and Neil Morrissey, this slick new show – a five part crime drama – examines corruption within a very modern policing environment.

Forget the gentile Oxford of Inspector Morse and Lewis, or the rural idyll of Misomer, Line of Duty opens with scenes of flak jackets, heavy duty firearms and lots of shouting.

We are brought into the action during a spectacularly botched counter-terrorism raid, during which armed officer shoots dead an innocent father.

(Lesson being if your house number includes a 6 or a 9 always nail them in securely.)

The show was filmed in Birmingham, with the police station scenes shot in a former branch of Lloyds TSB, especially converted for the series.

Eagle-eyed viewers may also be able to spot other city locations as the action moves from street to street.

We first meet lead character DCI Tony Gates (Lennie James), quite literally playing the hero.

He demonstrates street fighting worthy of a Hollywood film to save the victim of a knife attack, after which the camera cuts to scenes of him picking up his Officer of the Year award for boasting the best crime figures on the force.

Gates heads what is described later as "The Big Sexy Crime Unit" – which cherry picks the best cases, with astonishing results.

'No-one's that good', claims Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) head of anti-corruption unit, AC-12 as he watches the awards ceremony.

And this seems to pan out.

It turns out the woman Gates was sharing coffee with at the start of the show is not his wife . . . and he is then seen staging a robbery to protect his drink-driving mistress after a 'prang'.

AC-12's newest recruit DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) – seconded to the team after he refused to join in a cover-up of the botched terror raid – is sceptical at first. But as Gates turns on him and he starts to dig he begins to change his mind.

It would be interesting to know what police officers themselves made of this show.

Series creator Jed Mercurio has claimed the police refused to help with 'technical advice' after seeing the script, stating the raid in the opening sequence was 'unrepresentative'.

It is hardly surprising they were unhappy, as the force hardly comes out of it well.Yet at the same time the pressure on police to hit targets and reduce crime figures, which the series focuses heavily on, is no secret, and you can't help but feel that at least some officers would recognise the frustration felt by the characters over the bureaucracy and red tape they face every day of their working lives.

As to whether official warnings would be issued for failing to declare a free breakfast, I wouldn't know.

And the cliche of the 'boys club' attitude and playing pontoon with crime files . . . I imagine that could get some backs up.

So far we have a tale of good cop(s), bad cop(s) – yet you get the feeling these lines will blur as the series progresses.

You can't help but feel a little sorry for DCI Gates and there is definitely something shifty about Superintendent Hastings.

There is always an element of scene-setting in any first episode but this was not heavy handed, and the opener was not without its twists and turns . . . the new girl in Gates' gang DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) turns out to be an undercover AC-12 officer.

The 'dog' hit by Gates' mistress was actually a man – and not any man, but her accountant. And when two of his team knock off early from a surveillance operation on low-level drug dealers, two men are discovered dead in a gruesome crime scene littered with amputated fingers.

And this is just the first episode.

I found Line of Duty a real breath of fresh air.

Rather than the standard 'whodunnit' this complex and intriguing show intertwines crime and corruption with working and personal relationships in the context of a modern, target-led police force.

How much is fact, how much fiction? Who knows. Just sit back and enjoy the show – it promises to be a rollercoaster ride.

Sally Walmsley