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8 Thoughts About Line Of Duty S06E01 From CHIS Handler To Jizz Handler

Line Of Duty has returned to BBC One tonight. Of course, we have some thoughts…

1. It's A Right Chis

It sounds like Jizz, it's spelt Chis, and it will be the word that every Brit will be using on Twitter this week, standing for Covert Human Intelligence Source. Because Jed Mercurio's Line Of Duty is back, the police procedural BBC drama that gets around any accusation of glorifying the police's work by focusing on AC-12, the police who investigate other police for corruption. And often end up being just as corrupt themselves. We know the score; every series will have a charismatic character being investigated, played by an A-List actor and having a backstory and rationale that allows the viewer to join them on their journey from copper to Big Bad. This series is Kelly MacDonald, playing DI Jo Davidson and following Lennie James, Keeley Hawes, Thandie Newton and Stephen Graham.

2. There's A Considerable Amount Of Paperwork In AC-12

All the while, there is the underlying plot that the people at the top are just as corrupt and covering up for corrupt cops as part of some wider organised criminal net. Who is the fourth point of H? What information will series 6 spill? Well, one episode in… none at all. Only that AC-12's Hastings is dealing with the fallout of being suspected of being H. And as it starts, DI Steve Arnott is stuck having to deal with police faking sickness to work in the family haulage business having to provide doctor notes., and looking for a way out. Which is why a case of a senior police officer giving a potential murder suspect of crusading journalist Gail Vella time to escape by diverting a team to deal with an in-progress armed robbery that may have been set up by said suspect gives them a little more to get their teeth into.

3. Loins Of Duty

And handily that means involving DI Kate Fleming, who quit AC-12 last year but is now working for Jo Davidson's homicide team. Even speaking the same lines as her, is there a possible romance with an AC-12 suspect ahead? And so provides an in for AC-12's DI Steve Arnott – now sporting a terrible beard and waistcoat instead of a limp – whether she likes it or not, with all the dividing loyalties that will bring. Handy, given that Arnott's original source on this investigation, the returning PC Farida Jatri, has been shagging Davidson until that relationship broke down, which makes every single thing she says entirely suspect. And will Fleming and Davidson be a thing now? That was quite the hand-brush before the title music began to kick in.

4. Villain With A Point. Or A Parent.

So what are the big backstories of DI Jo Davidson that will somehow justify what she does and her involvement with as-yet-undetermined organised crime? She tells Jatri that she has no family, but there's a suspiciously mother-looking photo that she throws her wine glass at. Who killed her mother? Who is her father? Does she have any connection to the young boy from the first series, corrupted his whole life and last seen taking a job with the police?

5. Small Town Syndrome

Because coincidental lines like this are being drawn, I have to say, Terry Boyle has had it hard in Line Of Duty, a Downs guy used and abused in the previous series, and now set up to take the rap of murder. And for his semen to be repeatedly examined and shoved back in his face. From the CHIS handler to the jizz handler. And we all know a missing freezer can mean just one thing. Either way, this show might as well be set in a small village as a large unnamed city that's not Belfast, the number of people that recur. Note, the return of Kingsgate Printing Services in a background shot, a front for the bog organised crime syndicate in the last series.

6. It's All Just Dead Kids

Presumingly all sorts of heat will come down upon the kids caught in an armed robbery to find out who arranged their job. And with a CHIS killed to take a witness off the board, how many more of them will be killed episode to episode? Will one spill his guts before his own guts are spilt?

7. Identity Cards

Where did Terry Boyle's original pseudonym Ross Turner come from? Carl Banks, the supposed real murderer –  any reaction to Lee Banks? And if we want a Scottish connection, could Davidson's father be Tommy Hunter? The organised crime boss and paedophile from Glasgow in Series 1 who went into very mismanaged witness protection in Series 2? These are the kind of lines that are being drawn… and Jo Davidson does have an awful lot of locks on her door to hide her secrets.

8. H Marks The Spot, Probably With More Semen

Line Of Duty airs on BBC One at 9 pm on Sunday nights for eight episodes.

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