Characters / Between the Lines (1992)

The Metropolitan Police Service

Complaints Investigation Bureau

Detective Superintendent Anthony "Tony" Clark

Played By: Neil Pearson

Deakin: [T]he reason you're here is because we think you're smart enough and, somewhere inside, strong enough not to be a liability.

Tony: Sounds rather negative.

• Consummate Liar: He constantly lies to Sue about the fact that he's cheating on her. In the first episode it's established that he had cheated on her prior to the events of the story and continues to do so throughout the first series. In "Breaking Point", after weeks of him denying it, Sue asks Tony to tell her straight up if his affair with Jenny is over, and he only gives the faintest, most timid nod, but neglects to mention that he's moved on from Jenny to sleeping with Molly.
• Married to the Job: He claims in "Breaking Point" that the only thing that means more to him than his job is Sue, but given how he behaves towards her, it seems fair to say that his job is his number one priority.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: Given how terribly he treats Sue, it's hard to see why she took him back the first time she cheated on him.

Detective Inspector Harry Naylor

Played By: Tom Georgeson

"I'm just trying to wise you up, Guv. I'm your bagman. That's my job."

• Happily Married: He's devoted to his wife, Joyce.
• Healthcare Motivation: He takes a cash-in-hand job as a security guard to pay for Joyce to get private treatment after her MND diagnosis, even though his job explicitly prohibits him from moonlighting.
• Hidden Depths: Tony and Mo discover that Harry's actually quite an accomplished ballroom dancer. We also see him practicing some rally driving near Battersea Power Station in "Watching the Detectives"
• Loyal to the Position: As far Harry's concerned, Tony is his guvnor, and that supersedes any other Conflicting Loyalties he might have with officers they end up investigating who he worked with in the past.

Detective Sergeant Maureen "Mo" Connell

Played By: Siobhan Redmond

• Minority Police Officer: Mo is well aware that this how she’s viewed by some if not all of the male higher ups, but she takes a pragmatic view of her position that she needs to take whatever advantages are available to her:
  "I might be a token policewoman but I don’t have a token career."

Detective Chief Superintendent John Deakin

Played By: Tony Doyle

"We're here to paper over the cracks, not drive wedges into them."

Commander Brian Huxtable

Played By: David Lyon

Huxtable: Well, we're all politicians now. There are cameras everywhere, waiting to catch us out. But if the camera likes us, up we go.

Tony: It also helps to be a good copper.

Huxtable: It helps, but it's not essential.

• Slave to PR: He tends to want an investigation to play out in whatever manner will best suit the press' attitude to the police that day and directs his officers accordingly.

DAC Trevor Dunning

Played By: John Shrapnel

Superintendent David Graves

Played By: Robin McCallum

• Professional Butt-Kisser: Although he doesn't think much of Deakin, he manages to worm his way into Huxtable's good graces at the same time that Tony has fallen out of favour with him.

Mulberry Street Police Station

Chief Superintendent David Pollock

Played By:

Superintendent Patrick Salter

Played By:

Detective Inspector Micky Flynn

Played By: Ciarán Hinds

Detective Sergeant Paul Tanner

Played By:

Police Constable Dave Stoddart

Played By:

WPC Jennifer Dean

Played By: Lesley Vickerage

• Ambiguously Bi: Jenny tries to offer to let Mo stay the night at hers in exchange for letting her know if she's likely to be investigated by CIB. She overplays her hand a bit because Mo realises what she's trying to do, but she certainly doesn't come across as though she'd have been gritting her teeth to get through it purely for the sake of saving her job.
• Connected All Along: She's first introduced as Tony's girlfriend, but in "A Watch and Chain, Of Course" we learn that Mo was her tutor-constable when she first joined the police.

South Lancashire Constabulary

Detective Inspector William Kendrick

Played By: Michael Angelis

"Funny old world, isn't it?"

Civilians

Sue Clark

Played By: Lynda Steadman

• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Sue's presumably from somewhere in the South of England, but Lynda Steadman seems to be fighting off her Belfast accent most of the time.

Michael Carswell

Played By:

• Miscarriage of Justice: His plotline starts off with him having his manslaughter conviction overturned after eighteen months in prison. Now that he's out, he turns his attention to having charges brought against the officers who perjured themselves in order to build a case against him.

Molly Cope

Played By: Jaye Griffiths

• Head-Turning Beauty: Both Harry and Mo comment on how photogenic she is.
• Intrepid Reporter: Works as a reporter for the Liverpool Press whose work on stories of wrongful convictions has led to the entire South Lancashire constabulary being put under investigation.
• Twofer Token Minority: She's the show's only recurring Black female character.

Kate

Played By: Barbara Wilshire