Sunday 26th June marks 10 years since the debut of his signature creation Line of Duty<\/a>, the police corruption saga which began its life as a cult hit on BBC Two before making the leap to BBC One\u2019s primetime Sunday night slot, where it draws in an astronomical number of viewers<\/a>. To date, we\u2019ve enjoyed six seasons, 36 episodes, a lot of bent coppers and even more acronyms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Join Jed as he takes a trip down AC-12 memory lane \u2013 en route, revealing his story inspirations, casting secrets, alternate storylines and most memorable moments. Beeeeeeeeep! Interview commencing\u2026<\/p>\n How are you feeling about Line of Duty\u2019s 10th anniversary?<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s a great milestone. Back when we started, even the idea that we\u2019d be at this point would have appeared fanciful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Take us right back to the beginning. What first inspired you to write a drama about police corruption?<\/b><\/p>\n Just looking at the real world. That\u2019s often where I get my inspiration from. Over the years, there have been plenty of incidents of police misconduct. That got me thinking about portraying it in a TV show that works as a thriller, rather than a factual drama picking over the bones of a real case. As a fictional model, I enjoyed The Shield. That led us to the idea of an anti-corruption unit which targeted an officer who is effectively the main protagonist. If they\u2019re definitely up to some dodgy dealings but also an effective police officer, there\u2019s tension there.<\/p>\n Was DS Steve Arnott, played by Martin Compston, always your starting point?<\/b><\/p>\n I definitely began with the idea of a new officer joining anti-corruption. We used that to show that anti-corruption wasn\u2019t necessarily a job that many police officers would seek. That came out of conversations with real police officers, where they expressed a mixture of mistrust or even antagonism towards it, so it felt interesting to portray how Steve would find himself exiled in anti-corruption.<\/p>\n That led to him being ostracised when he stands up for his principles. He ends up conflicted because he\u2019s investigating a police officer that he admires. He doesn\u2019t want to be going after fellow officers, he wants to be out catching criminals, doing the job he was trained for, so it absolutely revolved around Steve.<\/p>\n How did DC Kate Fleming, played by Vicky McClure, evolve?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n We wanted to create a strong female co-lead to go alongside Steve. We kicked around thoughts about whether she\u2019d work in anti-corruption and they\u2019d team up, or if she\u2019d be working for DCI Tony Gates (Lennie James) but somehow get turned and become an informant. We ended up doing both. She appears to be one thing, then it turns out she\u2019s another. That made a nice twist.<\/p>\n It also meant we could play with their relationship. You initially get a sense there\u2019s going to be a thing between Steve and Kate. Then when they realise they\u2019re going to be partners, that\u2019s off the table and never really addressed again.<\/p>\n How tempted were you to make it romantic between Arnott and Fleming?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n We talked about that but decided to just make them colleagues. The way their relationship works is refreshing. It\u2019s a modern workplace where people should be able to work alongside each other.<\/p>\n Was the setting always going to be an anti-corruption unit in the Midlands?<\/b><\/p>\n Originally, it was set in Birmingham and the department was Professional Standards, which is the name for anti-corruption in a lot of constabularies. But quite late in the pre-production process, we were given strong guidance by the BBC legal department that we shouldn\u2019t call it Professional Standards because that\u2019s the real department. And we shouldn\u2019t specify Birmingham because that\u2019s a real city, so we had to fictionalise the department and anonymise the location.<\/p>\n Why did you call it AC-12?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Obviously AC is anti-corruption, then we just went through numbers until I got to one where I was like, \u2018Yep, that works.\u2019 I\u2019m not making comparisons at all but when Joseph Heller wrote Catch-22, he went through a hell of a lot of numbers too. Once the audience start hearing it, it lands.<\/p>\n Other AC units get mentioned in the show and their numbers have to sound right too.<\/p>\n Have you rewatched the debut season lately?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n We all did in 2020, when it got a lockdown repeat on BBC One. It was fun to marvel at how young the cast were. I remember when we shot it, there was a lot of discussion about Martin\u2019s make-up design and making sure he didn\u2019t look too young. We considered him having a goatee but Lennie James already had one, so we wanted him clean-shaven. But if he shaved in the morning, he just looked so fresh-faced. Instead, he shaved in the evenings, so he\u2019d have a little bit of shadow by the next day. Poor Martin. We imposed a shaving schedule on him!<\/p>\n Did you see that first season as self-contained? How much of the over-arching narrative was in your head?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Some. The BBC understood it was a returnable series, so we discussed how a second season would work \u2013 that AC-12 would come back and there\u2019d be a new investigation of a character on the scale of Tony Gates. We were really proactive and optioned Martin and Vicky for a second season anyway. When that first run was successful, it was a very easy conversation.<\/p>\n There was also such a great reaction to the Adrian Dunbar character (Superintendent Ted Hastings) that we wanted to bring him back as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He was promoted to the main cast in season 2. What was your original vision for Hastings?<\/b><\/p>\n Initially he was written very differently to how he turned out. Casting-wise, we were looking for something else but never found it. And then Adrian auditioned and it really worked, so we went a different way.<\/p>\n Originally he was someone who\u2019d been in anti-corruption too long and didn\u2019t, as Hastings would say, carry the fire. It was that professional ennui that surrounds big institutions, where you do just enough to investigate wrongdoing but don\u2019t go after anyone high-profile, don\u2019t ruffle any feathers and the bigwigs are happy. The plan was for there to be antagonism with Steve and Kate because as they dig into Tony Gates, Hastings wants to pull back because it\u2019s getting too explosive. But all that got abandoned.<\/p>\n We stuck with the Adrian Dunbar way of doing it, which was a fiery character who\u2019s up for catching bad guys.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The murder of Jackie Laverty (played by Gina McKee) in episode 2 was Line of Duty\u2019s first shock death. Was that you setting out your stall and telling viewers that nobody was safe?<\/b><\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t planned that way, it just felt right as a plot device. We needed to up the stakes for Gates and create a way for the OCG (organised crime group) to gain leverage over him. It was great that viewers responded how they did. It became something people started to associate with the show.<\/p>\n Tommy Hunter was the OCG leader, but how did the character of DS Matthew \u201cDot\u201d Cottan aka \u201cThe Caddy\u201d, his inside man on the force, come about?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Well, Tommy Hunter isn\u2019t revealed as head of an OCG until the very end. He\u2019s just a presence over the phone, so we wanted a great actor with a distinctive voice and got that in Brian McCardie. The idea of someone embedded within the police was really just a tiny thought.<\/p>\n When you create long-running shows, you end up doing quite a lot of work in the first season to put things in place. You may never exploit them but they\u2019re there if you need to, so there\u2019s a very significant scene in the season 1 finale between two characters who we later find out are extremely corrupt.<\/p>\n It appears to be just two coppers going about their business but what they\u2019re doing isn\u2019t right. DI Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle) lets Cottan interview a suspect alone just after their arrest. That was foreshadowing. By season 2, we decided to focus on Cottan because there was something more conventional about him being corrupt. Buckells had already been portrayed as out of his depth but we didn\u2019t want to exploit that too early. Cottan\u2019s character and Craig Parkinson\u2019s performance were a better fit, so we had him join AC-12 in season 2, by which time we know he\u2019s corrupt.<\/p>\n So Buckells being bent was there right from the start?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Yep, it was there. When the Buckells character came back the next time, in season 4, again it didn\u2019t feel like the right time. He\u2019s certainly involved and adjacent to the action, but it felt like the focus wasn\u2019t on him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What was your own most memorable moment from season 1?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Shooting some stuff where it was just me, a cameraman and a sound guy with Lennie driving around Birmingham at night. I was in the back of the car as we drove around Selly Oak, where I used to live as a student. I remember thinking, \u2018This is pretty cool, driving around my old stomping ground, shooting a TV show with a brilliant actor.\u2019<\/p>\n And then came season 2, with Keeley Hawes as DI Lindsay Denton. Did that take the show to the next level?<\/b><\/p>\n Actually, ratings were lower than season 1! When the overnight figures came in, there was a real feeling that we were in trouble but it was one of those rare occasions where nobody blamed the show. The BBC kept promoting it and numbers crept up. By the time we\u2019d finished, we\u2019d doubled our audience.<\/p>\n What was your most memorable moment from season 2?<\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n Moving to Belfast. It was our first season over there and I\u2019d never been before, so it was great to realise we could move from Birmingham and stay true to the look of the show.<\/p>\n I also remember a night shoot for the ambush sequence at the beginning. That was the first meaty stuff that Keeley had done and her character was enthralling. As the sun came up at 4am, I had a strong sense that the show was in a good place.<\/p>\n Was it the success of Denton that inspired you to bring her back the following season?<\/b><\/p>\n Totally. I thought Keeley was a real revelation. She always knew she could do that kind of stuff, it\u2019s just that people weren\u2019t asking her to. When we did, she absolutely nailed it. She\u2019s a very smart, confident actor and Denton propelled her to the next stage of her career.<\/p>\n The plan for season 3 had always been to create a brand new character but because of the response to season 2, we had a rethink. That\u2019s why Danny Mays\u2019 character [Sgt Danny Waldron] isn\u2019t around for long. He gave way to allow Keeley and Craig\u2019s characters to take centre stage.<\/p>\n For many fans it\u2019s their favourite season\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n It was actually quite an odd season for us, in that the main antagonist vanished and the story then grew out of existing characters, Denton and Cottan. But it was also the season where we really hit our stride and expanded the landscape into talking about institutional corruption, not just in the police but the politics system too.<\/p>\n We obviously dealt with some very serious issues that had real world correlates \u2013 notably child sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n Was there nervousness at the BBC about that?<\/b><\/p>\n Oh God, yeah. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cUrgent exit required\u201d scene in the finale seemed to crank up everything action-wise\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n Again, that was an experiment. A shootout within AC-12 was very controversial. There was a lot of debate about whether we were breaking out of the realistic setting and doing something too heightened. The chase and shootout got bigger and bigger but [director] John Strickland and I were both committed to it. Vicky loved the idea of doing it, too.<\/p>\n Nobody stopped us, so we did it. It was an interesting moment in the show\u2019s history. We learned a lot from the reaction \u2013 maybe we lost some viewers, but we gained more.<\/p>\n What was your most memorable moment from season 3?<\/b><\/p>\n The scenes in AC-12, seeing the gang together. Martin, Vicky, Adrian and Craig, who was a huge part of season 3, relished working together. That was the point when everything fell into place and we all wanted to stick with the show. We knew we were coming back to Belfast for season 4 and it felt great.<\/p>\n Season 4 was when the show moved from BBC Two to BBC One\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n The viewing figures for season 3 had been enormous. Also, the BBC had restructured so there weren\u2019t separate station controllers. Charlotte Moore was in charge of content for both BBC One and Two, so it meant one controller wasn\u2019t stealing a show from another.<\/p>\n BBC One was where we\u2019d originally pitched it and been turned down! But we agreed to move because we felt it would give us more opportunity to keep going. BBC Two wasn\u2019t known for long-running returning series. Creatively, it didn\u2019t change much.<\/p>\n Was Thandiwe Newton [as DCI Roz Huntley] a step up in terms of casting?<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Yes. I never write with actors in mind but we needed a character who was very distinct from Lindsay Denton and an actor who brought different things. When we started kicking around ideas with our casting director Kate Rhodes-James, Thandiwe\u2019s name came up and we thought, \u2018Wow, seriously?\u2019<\/p>\n She had a window, she wanted to work in the UK, she responded to the character and wanted to give it a go. It was huge for the show\u2019s profile. She was so good and it was a dream ticket for us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Huntley\u2019s hand had to be amputated due to an MRSA infection. As an ex-doctor, was that your medical background coming out?<\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n I guess so. I liked the idea of this stigma relating to what had happened. And obviously I know that wounds, particularly if inflicted in a fight, can get infected, so I took advice from a mate from my medical days who\u2019s now a microbiology consultant and decided on that particular storyline.<\/p>\n When she comes around in hospital and realises she\u2019s missing her hand, it\u2019s a helluva scene\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n That was our Ronald Reagan moment! [In 1942 film Kings Row, Reagan\u2019s character wakes up to discover his legs have been amputated.]<\/em><\/p>\n What was your most memorable moment from season 4?<\/b><\/p>\n Again, the opening sequence. We wanted to introduce Huntley in a dynamic way and tell a lot of story quite densely within that scene. The serial killer manhunt on the estate all came together well.<\/p>\n And season 5 got even bigger ratings-wise?<\/b><\/p>\n Yeah. That was one time where, from the first reading of the script, the team started saying, \u2018Well, it\u2019s Stephen Graham, isn\u2019t it?\u2019<\/p>\n The cast had all worked with him and thought he was a good fit [as DS John Corbett], so we just asked him. We had a 20-minute phonecall \u2013 I was on a golf tour in Italy, Stephen was getting his kids ready to take them swimming \u2013 but he was dead keen, so it worked smoothly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You also brought back Ryan Pilkington, who\u2019d been a delinquent schoolboy in season 1 and had grown up into a gangster\u2026<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n It goes back to what I was saying about putting things in place that you might use at some point down the line. That relationship in season 1 between young Ryan and PC Simon Bannerjee (Neet Mohan) \u2013 Ryan developing a rapport with an officer who cares about social issues and might save him from a life of crime \u2013 could have gone any number of ways.<\/p>\n In season 5, we went inside the OCG for the first time. As it happened, Gregory [Piper] would be of age by then, so we got Kate Rhodes-James to find out if he was still acting and he was. It was a way of seeing the legacy of the show on-screen, someone who\u2019d grown up in the time that the show had been on-air, which was very fulfilling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There was the start of the \u201cH\u201d storyline too\u2026<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n That exploited the whole Balaclava Man mania of season 4. We\u2019d never done a mystery before because the audience always knew who the Caddy was. It was just a case of whether he\u2019d ever be caught.<\/p>\n When we built up Balaclava Man across season 4 and this riddle of who he might be, it appealed to the mass audience. That became a prelude to the \u201cH\u201d mystery of season 5.<\/p>\n At the end of season 4, we shot a scene specifically to hint there might be something amiss with Hastings. I remember looking at the edit and feeling like there was something missing, so we went back to the AC-12 set and had Adrian peer out of his office at Steve and Kate, like he wasn\u2019t sure what they were up to. That was enough to carry into season 5 and build on the \u201cH\u201d mystery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What was your most memorable moment from season 5?<\/b><\/p>\n Feeling like a really talked-about show. Out and about in Belfast, the cast were getting big reactions from people. Everyone was asking if Hasting was bent and who \u201cH\u201d was. 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