History Recap / LineOfDuty

A woman is abducted by a man in a Balaclava, but he bungles it and gets noticed. The officers working on Operation Trapdoor, led by DCI Roz Huntley, identify his car at the house of Michael Farmer, where they find a teenage woman chained up alongside trophies of other kidnapped girls. Farmer is arrested for the abduction and the murders of two other girls, Bazwinder Kaur and Leonie Collersdale; forensic scientist Tim Ifield goes to [=AC-12=] with concerns that evidence clearing Farmer is being ignored by Huntley to get a conviction. The investigation is slow-going, until Ifield's murder sets off a chain of cover-ups and lies to protect the career of Roz Huntley, which mount and mount, until they collapse under their own weight. This eventually brings out the key players behind the Gates case, and sets [=AC-12=] on the path towards rooting out the bent cops that colluded with Tommy Hunter and put The Caddy on their force.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E1InTheShadowOfTheTruth In The Shadow Of The Truth]]": Michael Farmer is arrested for the murders of two girls, but forensic scientist Tim Ifield raises concerns about his guilt to [=AC-12=]. Roz Huntley tries desperately to prove Farmer's guilt and find the rat in her team.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E2WhoSowsTheWind Who Sows The Wind]]": Suspicions grow; Roz Huntley is missing, and shortly after she reports in, Ifield is found dead in his flat. Huntley rushes to cover up her visit there, and the lies start to pile up.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E3InTheTrap In The Trap]]": [=AC-12=]'s suspicions turn to Nick Huntley, who is hiding something himself. New evidence planted by Roz links the murders of the girls to Ifield. Arnott is grievously injured.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E4MoralSuperiority Moral Superiority]]": Nick Huntley is in the crosshairs over Arnott's injury outside his office. [=AC-12=] latches onto an overwritten evidence bag, which might link to Roz.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E5LyingNest Lying Nest]]": Hilton recuses [=AC-12=] from the investigation into Roz Huntley, while Nick grows increasingly suspicious of her actions on the night of Ifield's murder. Meanwhile, her festering wound is discovered.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E6RoyalHuntingGround Royal Hunting Ground]]": [=AC-12=] recognises the links to the Gates case in Balaclava man, and tries to retrace Huntley's movements on the night of Ifield's murder. Huntley is interviewed and charged, and she uses her power to charge lawyer Jimmy Lakewell with the responsibility for Arnott's injury.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS6E5Episode7 Episode 7]]": [=AC-12=] intercept [=OCG=] communication, and are able to stop an ambush on a prison transport carrying Jo to Hillside Lane. New evidence found by Cybercrime identifies "H", and they bring him in for interview. Ian Buckells has been living a double life, playing the fool while on duty, but secretly managing communications between the disparate [=OCGs=]. Steve and Kate heal their relationship and finally accept medical help. Jo enters Witness Protection.

'''''Series/LineOfDuty''''' is a police procedural drama series revolving around the investigations of Anti-Corruption Unit 12 and their efforts to root out bent coppers and clean up the force. The show has been running on {{Creator/TheBBC}} since 2012, and is still going strong. Series 1-3 aired initially on BBC Two, and after the significant success of the third series, it was moved onto BBC One, and has remained there since.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E1ADisastrousAffair A Disastrous Affair]]": DS Steve Arnott is transferred to [=AC12=] after the shooting of Karim Ali. He joins the investigation into DCI Tony Gates, while Gates covers up a hit and run by Jackie Laverty.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E2TheAssault The Assault]]": [=AC12=]'s investigation turns to the hit and run Gates tried to cover up. Gates makes a troubling discovery about the identity of the victim, and what it means about Jackie.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E4Terror Terror]]": [=AC12=] tries to link Gates to the Greek Lane murders. Gates is pressed into service for mysterious crime lord 'Tommy', and tries to find Jackie's body.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E5TheProbation The Probation]]": Gates unites with [=AC12=] to bring in the man behind the Greek Lane murders, Wesley Duke and Jackie Laverty, the enigmatic 'Tommy'.

DI Lindsay Denton accepts a call from DS Jane Akers asking for secure transport of a witness, and she's soon on her way. However, halfway to the station, her convoy is is attacked by men in black biker leathers; they ram her off the road and kill the three other police officers in the second car, before setting fire to it and burning the witness. [=AC12=] soon opens an investigation into possible collusion between Denton and the convoy's attackers. The investigation grows and grows as the truth unravels, and soon DCC Mike Dryden is in their crosshairs, while the true mastermind, known only by the pseudonym "The Caddy", pulls strings behind the curtains of [=AC12=].

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS2E1TheAmbush The Ambush]]": DI Lindsay Denton comes under investigation from [=AC12=] after she alone survives an ambush on a convoy carrying a protected witness. [=AC12=] meanwhile try to deal with blocks on information that might prove or disprove her guilt, and show the ropes to new recruit Georgia Trotman.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS2E2Carly Carly]]": Trotman's defenestration galvanises [=AC12=] against Denton; she does her own digging into them, while taking on the Missing Persons case of a teenage girl called Carly Kirk.

Sergeant Danny Waldron and his team of [=AFO=]s, Rod Kennedy, Jackie Brickford and Harinderpal "Hari" Bains, are on an op to stop a target from committing a gangland execution. When they catch up to the target, though, Waldron runs ahead and, while his team are arming themselves, shoots the target three times in the head after he's disarmed himself. He immediately stages a cover-up, and [=AC12=] get involved, smelling pre-meditated murder. Waldron's own death soon after, though, sets them on the trail of a selection of high-level police officers implicated in historic sex abuse, and The Caddy grows increasingly desperate in his attempts to keep [=AC12=] from finding out his employers.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS3E1Monsters Monsters]]": Sergeant Danny Waldron kills a defenceless man, then conspires to cover it up with his team. He starts leaving a trail for [=AC12=] to follow after they open an investigation into him, but this gets The Caddy's attention.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS3E4NegativePressure Negative Pressure]]": Denton's release splinters [=AC12=], and Dot takes the opportunity to set up Arnott as The Caddy.

A woman is abducted by a man in a Balaclava, but he bungles it and gets noticed. The officers working on Operation Trapdoor, led by DCI Roz Huntley, identify his car at the house of Michael Farmer, where they find a teenage woman chained up alongside trophies of other kidnapped girls. Farmer is arrested for the abduction and the murders of two other girls, Bazwinder Kaur and Leonie Collersdale; forensic scientist Tim Ifield goes to [=AC12=] with concerns that evidence clearing Farmer is being ignored by Huntley to get a conviction. The investigation is slow-going, until Ifield's murder sets off a chain of cover-ups and lies to protect the career of Roz Huntley, which mount and mount, until they collapse under their own weight. This eventually brings out the key players behind the Gates case, and sets [=AC12=] on the path towards rooting out the bent cops that colluded with Tommy Hunter and put The Caddy on their force.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E1InTheShadowOfTheTruth In The Shadow Of The Truth]]": Michael Farmer is arrested for the murders of two girls, but forensic scientist Tim Ifield raises concerns about his guilt to [=AC12=]. Roz Huntley tries desperately to prove Farmer's guilt and find the rat in her team.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E3InTheTrap In The Trap]]": [=AC12=]'s suspicions turn to Nick Huntley, who is hiding something himself. New evidence planted by Roz links the murders of the girls to Ifield. Arnott is grievously injured.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E4MoralSuperiority Moral Superiority]]": Nick Huntley is in the crosshairs over Arnott's injury outside his office. [=AC12=] latches onto an overwritten evidence bag, which might link to Roz.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E5LyingNest Lying Nest]]": Hilton recuses [=AC12=] from the investigation into Roz Huntley, while Nick grows increasingly suspicious of her actions on the night of Ifield's murder. Meanwhile, her festering wound is discovered.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E6RoyalHuntingGround Royal Hunting Ground]]": [=AC12=] recognises the links to the Gates case in Balaclava man, and tries to retrace Huntley's movements on the night of Ifield's murder. Huntley is interviewed and charged, and she uses her power to charge lawyer Jimmy Lakewell with the responsibility for Arnott's injury.

After an Organised Crime Group attacks and burglarises a transport of drugs, [=ED 905=], leaving all but one officer dead, [=AC12=] is brought in to investigate possible police collusion to engineer the ambush. Their investigation soon leads them to Operation Peartree, the aim of which is to embed an undercover officer in the same crime group that they're investigating. So starts a game of cat and mouse as [=AC12=] chase the undercover officer, DS John Corbett, but they are being betrayed from within. Is it Arnott, who feels sympathetic to Corbett's true goal of unmasking the enigmatic "H"? Is it Hastings, who is acting increasingly erratically and making unexplained visits to OCG members? Is it someone as yet unseen? As Corbett goes further and further beyond the line between right and wrong, links start to appear between his own investigation into H and [=Supt.=] Hastings' past in the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS5E2Episode2 Episode 2]]": An [=AC12=] officer is dead, and the investigation into the [=OCG=] gathers pace. Corbett raids a shipment of assault rifles, and makes contact with Arnott.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS5E5Episode5 Episode 5]]": [=AC12=] is taken off the investigation into Peartree, and suspicion around Hastings reaches boiling point as he lies and breaks protocol to bring in what remains of the [=OCG=].
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS5E6Episode6 Episode 6]]": [=AC3=] is brought in to investigate and interview Hastings after Steve and Kate's complaint to DCC Wise. While they cross the country hunting the origins of Peartree, Hastings fights for his life against a mountain of evidence.

[[caption-width-right:350:No-one is above the law]]

[[/folder]]

After an Organised Crime Group attacks and burglarises a transport of drugs, [=ED 905=], leaving all but one officer dead, [=AC12=] is brought in to investigate possible police collusion to engineer the ambush. Their investigation soon leads them to Operation Peartree, the aim of which is to embed an undercover officer in the same crime group that they're investigating. So starts a game of cat and mouse as [=AC12=] chase the undercover officer, DS John Corbett, but they are being betrayed from within. Is it Arnott, who feels sympathetic to Corbett's true goal of unmasking the enigmatic "[NomDeGuerre H]"? Is it Hastings, who is acting increasingly erratically and making unexplained visits to OCG members? Is it someone as yet unseen? As Corbett goes further and further beyond the line between right and wrong, links start to appear between his own investigation into H and [=Supt.=] Hastings' past in the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

[[[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/line_of_duty_season_1.jpg]]

[[[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/line_of_duty_season_2.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/line_of_duty_season_4_dvd.jpg]]

[[folder:Series 1 (2012)]]
DS Steve Arnott is running a counter-terrorism op, when he's given the dreaded Fahrenheit order. His team go into the target's flat and shoot on sight. When the dust clears, the terrible truth is revealed: they entered the wrong flat. Their commanding officer, CI Phil Osborne, tells them to cover it up, and Arnott isn't having it. He's transferred to AC-12, which is currently investigating officer-of-the-year, DCI Tony Gates, over possible laddering. The investigation soon takes on a darker turn when Gates tries to cover up a hit and run by old acquaintance Jackie Laverty, and her bosses get involved.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E1ADisastrousAffair A Disastrous Affair]]": DS Steve Arnott is transferred to AC12 after the shooting of Karim Ali. He joins the investigation into DCI Tony Gates, while Gates covers up a hit and run by Jackie Laverty.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E2TheAssault The Assault]]": AC12's investigation turns to the hit and run Gates tried to cover up. Gates makes a troubling discovery about the identity of the victim, and what it means about Jackie.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E4Terror Terror]]": AC12 tries to link Gates to the Greek Lane murders. Gates is pressed into service for mysterious crime lord 'Tommy', and tries to find Jackie's body.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS1E5TheProbation The Probation]]": Gates unites with AC12 to bring in the man behind the Greek Lane murders, Wesley Duke and Jackie Laverty, the enigmatic 'Tommy'.

[[folder:Series 2 (2014)]]

[[folder:Series 3 (2016)]]

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS3E1Monsters Monsters]]": Sergeant Danny Waldron kills a defenseless man, then conspires to cover it up with his team. He starts leaving a trail for [=AC12=] to follow after they open an investigation into him, but this gets The Caddy's attention.

[[folder: Series 4 (2017)]]

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E2WhoSowsTheWind Who Does The Wind]]": Suspicions grow; Roz Huntley is missing, and shortly after she reports in, Ifield is found dead in his flat. Huntley rushes to cover up her visit there, and the lies start to pile up.
# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS4E3InTheTrap In The Trap]]": [=AC12=]'s suspicions turn to Nick Huntley, who is hiding something himself. New evidence planted by Roz links the murders of the girls to Ifield. Arnott is greviously injured.

# "[[Recap/LineOfDutyS2E1The Ambush The Ambush]]": DI Lindsay Denton comes under investigation from [=AC12=] after she alone survives an ambush on a convoy carrying a protected witness. [=AC12=] meanwhile try to deal with blocks on information that might prove or disprove her guilt, and show the ropes to new recruit Georgia Trotman.

Sergeant Danny Waldron and his team of AFOs, Rod Kennedy, Jackie Brickford and Harinderpal "Hari" Bains, are on an op to stop a target from committing a gangland execution. When they catch up to the target, though, Waldron runs ahead and, while his team are arming themselves, shoots the target three times in the head after he's disarmed himself. He immediately stages a cover-up, and [=AC12=] get involved, smelling pre-meditated murder. Waldron's own death soon after, though, sets them on the trail of a selection of high-level police officers implicated in historic sex abuse, and The Caddy grows increasingly desperate in his attempts to keep [=AC12=] from finding out his employers.