AFTER nine years and six seasons this was it. The big one. The grand reveal of “H”. Not since who shot JR had millions gathered in front of their tellies, preparing to be amazed. There was even a whisper that a teenager in Newton Mearns was going to switch his phone off for an hour. Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey it was tense out there. And then … Ian Buckells? The dopey Brummie Noddy Holder lookalike you wouldn’t send out for a pint of milk? He was H, the fourth man, the lynchpin of a clandestine network of corrupt police officers in league with organised crime gangs?
It didn t feel like much of a victory, as Ted explained to Patricia Carmichael that the constant turning of a blind eye and lack of accountability allowed corruption to fester, and incompetent officers like Buckells to become pawns of the OCG.
Hastings then told Carmichael how he leaked information that led to John Corbett s death, and asked her what she was going to do about it. The episode ended showing Jo happy in witness protection, Terry Boyles freed and Farida Jatri reinstated.
But Chief Inspector Osbourne took all the credit for solving Gail Vella s murder, while Carmichael still presides over AC-12 as it faces downsizing and restructuring.
Line Of Duty series six final episode: All Ted Hastings AC-12 investigations have led to this - as finale finally gives us answers WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE LATEST EPISODE OF LINE OF DUTY, SEASON SIX, EPISODE SEVEN, AS WELL AS PREVIOUS SEASONS. DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU ARE NOT UP TO DATE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED This thing has been driving me mad for years! says a frustrated Superintendent Ted Hastings. Us too, Ted! Us too. But now, finally, we have some answers on the identity of H.
Season six of
Line Of Duty ended with our fractured AC-12 heroes back together, albeit in a silent, awkward-looking lift journey to the bottom of HQ if not riding joyously off into the sunset.
Line Of Duty star who plays H: ‘I’ve been sitting on it for a long time’
Updated: 03/05/2021, 10:50 am
Line Of Duty’s DSU Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle) – (C) World Productions – Photographer: Steffan Hill
The actor unveiled as Line Of Duty’s mysterious “H” has said he was “buzzing with excitement” on finding out his character was the talked-about figure.
During Sunday night’s finale of the BBC One series, DSU Ian Buckells, played by Nigel Boyle, was unmasked as corrupt police officer H.
Boyle, who grew up in Birmingham, said: “I was buzzing with excitement! I never suspected it because I know how Jed (Mercurio) leads people down the garden path with really good red herrings, so I didn’t really pay too much attention to things like Buckells’ golf clubs etc, but clearly I should have done! I’d fully bought into the idea that Buckells was low on competence levels but looking back it all makes sense!”
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Did you hear that mass scream from sofas nationwide at around 9:34pm on Sunday? It was the sound of millions of blindsided Line Of Duty viewers exclaiming a single word. And that word was “Buckells?!”.
Yes, recurring character DSU Ian Buckells (played by Nigel Boyle) was at last unmasked as the corrupt cop pulling strings on behalf of organised crime. Once erroneously code-named H, latterly known as the Fourth Man and now forever associated with baffled cries of: “What the… Buckells? Are you sure? Yes but Buckells, though? Mother of God!”
Despite fan theories proliferating online, bookmakers taking bets and everyone having their own pet theory, the big Buckells reveal miraculously managed to still pull off a major surprise. But has writer Jed Mercurio been laying a nine-year, six-series trail of subtle hints all along?