Obviously, this is all spoilers
Seven weeks of the boiling pot of drama, mystery and tension in
Line of Duty all finally came to a climax: and honestly, it was all rather unsatisfying. Perhaps we’d all got too deep in our
perfect fan’s wide-reaching ideas hyped us up for some sort of super-reveal – but that gut-punch of a finale twist never really landed.
Did we find out who H was? Sort of; no; not really. Were all the links tied together neatly? Hardly. Did we even find out what’s become of our dream team in AC-12? No; their names were even left off the traditional end credits update. Is that now the end for
Vicky McClure and Martin Compston star in Line of Duty
Credit: BBC
“And all the time we were here, thinking we were chasing some criminal mastermind.” I feel you, Ted Hastings, I feel you.
DCI Ian Buckells was “H”, aka the Fourth Man
Be honest, who saw that coming? Up until the moment we saw Buckells’s face, I was utterly convinced that Chief Constable Philip Osborne was the bent cop mastermind behind it all. Well played, Jed Mercurio. No, it was the bluffing, blustering, buffoonish Buckells (who I had my suspicions about in episode two – but I assumed he was bent, not “H”).
The hunt for “H” is finally over.
Yes, after a four-year wait, we now know that DSU Ian Buckells was Line Of Duty’s mystery baddie all along.
The bent copper, who had been helping to lead a clandestine network of corrupt police officers in league with organised crime, was unmasked during Sunday night’s blockbuster series finale.
Many other long-running storylines also wrapped up during the episode, as Gail Vella’s killer was confirmed and Superintendent Ted Hastings revealed the true story behind Lee Banks, John Corbett and the £50k sum of money.
If your head is still spinning trying to take all the information in, here’s a full recap.
Grisly real-life crimes which inspired Line of Duty from Jill Dando to Jimmy Savile dailystar.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailystar.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
“Your theories have ranged from the sublime to, quite frankly, the ridiculous.”
So says Craig Parkinson, aka the late Dot Cottan and host of the Obsessed With… Line of Duty podcast ahead of the finale of series six, undoubtedly the TV event of the year so far.
With Sunday’s episode hurtling round faster than the deadline for Steve Arnott’s routine health check, finally, maybe, we’re going to get some answers.
For a bonus pod, Craig checks in with creator Jed Mercurio to see if he can uncover any last-minute secrets - but Jed is keeping his cards close to his chest.