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Line of Duty: All the clues that point to DI Kate Fleming’s fate after Sunday’s cliffhanger
LINE Of Duty fans were left reeling as this week’s cliffhanger saw DI Kate Fleming staring death in the face.
The detective, played by Vicky McClure, faced evil cop PC Ryan Pilkington in an armed stand-off.
Line of Duty fans were left reeling as this week’s cliffhanger saw DI Kate Fleming staring death in the face[/caption]
The episode ended abruptly with the sound of two gunshots, leaving viewers aghast that one of them had been killed.
Now Vicky’s co-star, Adrian Dunbar, who plays AC-12’s Supt Ted Hastings, has whipped fans into a frenzy by suggesting there was a clue to who survives.
On Good Morning Britain yesterday, Adrian teased: “I know and a lot of Line Of Duty fans know. All will be revealed in the fullness of time — there’s been a very big clue.”
Devotees believe he is referring to Kate wearing a distinctive jumper in AC-12’s interrogation room in the trailer for the hit crime show’s current outing.
The fact the scene has yet to feature in series six suggests she survived the “duel”.
Kate, played by Vicky McClure, faced evil cop PC Ryan Pilkington in an armed stand-off[/caption]
Adding to the mystery, TV mag listings say this Sunday’s penultimate episode will feature a tragedy.
That indicates Kate may die after all. Or if she has survived, it begs the question: Who has taken a bullet?
The series, written by Jed Mercurio, certainly has viewers hooked, with a record 10.1million tuning in on Sunday.
With the nation on tenterhooks, devotees are scanning every frame for clues and signals and drawing some interesting conclusions.
Here we look at some of the best . . .
- Line Of Duty continues on Sunday on BBC1 at 9pm.
Tommy Hunter is DCI Davidson’s dad – and uncle
ALTHOUGH the heroes of AC-12 don’t spell it out explicitly, it seems DSI Jo Davidson, the bent copper at the heart of this series, is the product of her mother having sex with her own brother.
It was a big enough surprise to learn that DSI Davidson, played by Kelly Macdonald, was related to crime boss Tommy Hunter, but in Sunday’s show they gave us all the shocking information.
A note on an evidence board read: ‘A match has been made to Tommy Hunter stating she (Jo Davidson) is both his niece and daughter’[/caption]
DI Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) told Kate of the family link then added: “That’s not the worst of it. There’s an unusually high percentage match of homozygosity.”
Many viewers might not have heard or understood what he said, but homozygosity is a medical term for someone who is born as the result of incest.
Another eagle-eyed fan spotted a post-it note on one of AC-12’s evidence boards that states: “Jo Davidson DNA has been identified at Farida Jatri’s house.
“A match has been made to Tommy Hunter stating she is both his niece and daughter.”
That means evil Tommy had sex with her mother, who we believe to be the late Sam Davidson, the woman pictured with Jo in the photograph in her flat.
The revelation would certainly explain why she was seen in episode one hurling a wine glass at the image in a fit of frustration — because this could be the hold that the criminals clearly have over her.
Tragically familiar plot
MANY viewers pointed out the new case that emerged this week — the fatal attack of Lawrence Christopher — is a mixture of two true crime stories that highlighted police institutional racism.
In Line Of Duty we are told Lawrence was a young black man who was attacked outside a railway station before being taken to a police station where officers made monkey noises as he died of his injuries in a cell.
The case of Lawrence Christopher was being investigated by TV journalist Gail Vella, whose murder is the mystery at the centre of this Line Of Duty seiess[/caption]
The storyline combines the killing of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in 1993 in South-East London, whose investigation was botched by the Met, and Christopher Alder, 37, who died in police custody in Hull 1998 after receiving a severe head injury.
As well as keeping the spotlight on the two shocking cases, it also thrusts the death of Lawrence Christopher into the heart of the plot.
The case of the young architect was being investigated by TV journalist Gail Vella, whose murder is the mystery at the centre of this Line Of Duty seies.
It was previously thought that the key case was one involving a VIP paedophile ring, which led to the murder of whistleblower Oliver Stephens-Lloyd.
On Sunday night’s show it emerged that the two cases had one person in common — their senior investigating officer, DCI Marcus Thurwell, played by Jimmy Nesbitt.
What’s going to happen with Thurwell
FANS have been looking for clues as to how former DCI Marcus Thurwell’s story will be told in the show, given he is now retired and his involvement in the Christopher and Stephens-Lloyd crimes dated back years.
But an exclusive photo published yesterday in The Sun showed that this will probably be done in flashback, with Thurwell, who now has grey hair, still sporting dark hair and wearing police gear.
Another theory is that Supt Hastings has some history with Thurwell, mainly because actors Jimmy Nesbitt and Adrian Dunbar are both from Northern Ireland and Thurwell’s character is likely to hail from there too.
They are around the same age — Ted 57 and Thurwell 55 — so could have crossed paths in the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Fans also believe that Thurwell could be H, because the crime overlord was using a laptop to message the late John Corbett in the last series and Det Supt Jo Davidson in this episode.
And AC-12’s technical whizz pointed out that the signal for the messaging service was traced to Spain — where Thurwell is now living in retirement.
Patricia Carmichael could be mysterious H
ONE of the most intriguing theories surrounding H is that DS Patricia Carmichael, played by Anna Maxwell Martin, is the final, fourth villain everyone is looking for.
It wasn’t just because she returned to the show on Sunday night and caused mayhem at AC-12 by taking over control and pulling their observations of PC Ryan Pilkington.
DS Patricia Carmichael, played by Anna Maxwell Martin returned to the show on Sunday[/caption]
She has previously tried to fit up her old nemesis Supt Ted Hastings, by implying that he was H — the ultimate bent copper at Central Police who is in cahoots with the criminals
One viewer took to Twitter to point out that in the interview between crooked lawyer Jimmy Lakewell (Patrick Baladi) and investigative journalist Gail (Andi Osho), he told her to “Look deeper into the race claim.”
This could have been a cryptic clue, because it has been pointed out that adding the letter H to the words “race claim” forms an anagram of the dreaded Detective Superintendent’s surname — Carmichael.
It could be a clever signal that we have been reintroduced to the ultimate baddie of Line of Duty.
Or there is every chance that is is yet another of writer Mr Mercurio’s infamous “Jed Herrings.”
Most read in Drama
Vicky: No Greggs, no Hollywood
IS Kate alive? That’s the big question on every Line Of Duty fan’s lips after the heart-stopping stand-off between DI Kate Fleming and baby-faced assassin PC Ryan Pilkington, writes Kate Jackson.
Ruthless LoD writer Jed Mercurio isn’t afraid to bump off main characters, but there will be outcry if the ballsy heroine, played by the Vicky McClure, is one of them.
Such is the adoration for Fleming, demands for her copper-toned crop hairstyle have soared at salons.
This sort of adulation will be water off a duck’s back to Vicky, 37, possibly the least “starry” star you could meet. She loves nothing more than a sausage roll and a good cuppa.
Moving to Hollywood would be impossible because she would be “nowhere near a Greggs.”
And she refuses to live in London because she “begrudges paying that much for a pint”.
Instead, Vicky has stayed in Nottingham, where she grew up with her joiner dad and hairdresser mum. She lives with her fiance, actor, director and talkSPORT presenter Jonny Owen.
There have, of course, been some showbizzy moments — but Vicky takes them in her stride.
In 2008 she flew to the Berlin Film Festival on a private jet with Madonna, who handpicked Vicky for her directorial debut Filth & Wisdom.
The following day, Vicky was back at her day job in an office sorting out the mail.
“I just feel like I’m such a normal person in an industry that is so chaotic and crazy,” she said in 2012, just before the nation became obsessed with Line Of Duty.
At 14, Vicky passed up an offer to attend Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London because her parents couldn’t afford the tuition fee.
But she loved her low-key drama school, the Television Workshop in Notts, even though it was a “bit of a s***hole”.
In 1999, when she was 15, she met fellow Midlander Shane Meadows, who cast her in his comedy-drama A Room For Romeo Brass.
It didn’t turn her into Julia Roberts, as she had hoped, but it did lay the foundations for her ascent into the top league.
In 2006 Shane cast her in This Is England, about the 80s skinhead culture. Vicky played Lol, alongside her future LoD castmate Stephen Graham and Emmerdale’s Joe Gilgun.
The role earned her a Best Actress Bafta. She has said: “Lol is what created me, I suppose.”
As well as critical acclaim, the part also brought her love.
Jonny, a Shameless star, fell for Vicky in 2013, after hearing her on the radio. He said: “I loved Lol but this person I was hearing was a much bigger personality. She was funnier and sexier.”
He doubted the “hottest actress” would want a part in his rock comedy, Svengali, but he had to try. she did, and for Vicky, the attraction was just as swift.
She said: “I came off the phone and I just knew. We got to talking about love. I was like, ‘He’s the man for me’.”
They moved in together a week after meeting. She said: “I love him more and more every day.”
He proposed on Christmas Day, 2017, putting the ring in a box of tea, knowing it would be the first place Vicky would go in the morning.
While filming the sixth series of LoD in Belfast, Vicky was holed up with her “best mates”, Martin Compston (DI Steve Arnott) and Adrian Dunbar (Super-intendent Ted Hastings).
She roped them into filming a TikTok dance that went viral. Vicky said: “You can tell Martin hasn’t a clue what’s going on but Ade got involved and now he’s called ‘Snakehips’.”
So did Sunday night’s episode spell the end for DI Fleming? We’ll have to wait until Sunday’s episode to find out.
