Whatever you think of this fourth series of Line Of Duty – and we definitely don’t think it has been the best of the bunch – there’s something so addictive and so intoxicating about this show, you just can’t help going along for the ride. And what a ride. People are now playing Line Of Duty bingo on the internet, people now speak like Ted Hastings on social media… Line Of Duty has really entered into the nation’s consciousness. Even though this site has expressed reservations about a few of the narrative elements and characters (read that here), tonight’s finale proved to be a superb ending to an enjoyable if frustrating series. It had a lot of work to do and a lot of questions to answer. There were at least four biggies: who is the Balaclava Man, and is he the serial killer? Who killed Ifield? Is Farmer guilty, or is Huntley framing him? And is any of this tied in with the network of police corruption discovered in previous series?
NB: For the love of God, spoilers inside, fella Continue reading Review: Line Of Duty (S4 E6/6), Sunday 30th April, BBC1
So, what is happening with Hinterland? Series three of the Welsh procedural premiered on S4C last year in its original, eight-part, Welsh-language version. For spoilery reviews, go 
I love Line Of Duty. I love Steve Arnott and his chippy little ways; I love Kate Fleming’s calm insouciance; I love Ted Hastings and his paternal, old-fashioned sheriff ways; and, more to the point, I love the fact that writer and director Jed Mercurio has torn up the rule book when it comes to crime drama. He kills people – established characters no less – without too much concern. Big-name actors, too. I love the fact that the characters he allows to stick around are deeply flawed but have so much ambiguity you don’t know whether you’re coming or going with them. Lenny James’ Tony Gates, Keeley Hawes’ Lindsay Denton, Daniel Mays’ Danny Waldron. and not forgetting Craig Parkinson’s Matthew ‘Dot’ Cottan. Heck, even the members of AC-12 are hardly heroes in the traditional sense. They all had so much going on with their characters – nuances, depth, emotional entry points. You weren’t sure whether to love them or hate them. So the addition of Thandie Newton – a seriously good actress – and her character DCI Roz Huntley should have been a shoo-in into this esteemed gang of flawed are-they-aren’t-they characters. But with the series finale looming large on the horizon, I’m still waiting for the moment when things click with me with Roz Huntley. As dazzling and as addictive as the show is, I’m not quite there with it this series. Why?
One the shows we’re really excited about this year is the follow up to The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story. Ryan Murphy’s latest dramatisation of true events will focus on Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005, and its catastrophic aftermath. We knew it was going to appear on the US cable network FX later in the year, but now we know that it’ll be the BBC who broadcast it in the UK. 
After last week’s shocking cliffhanger (when isn’t there a shocking cliffhanger in Line Of Duty?) we couldn’t wait to see whether our chippy wee fella Steve Arnott continued his recovery, and whether Roz Huntley and her husband Nick’s relationship – Jeremy Kyle will surely come calling after this series – further dissipated. All bubbling up nicely…
The Bridge is currently filming in Sweden and Denmark and it’s very exciting really – we’re starting to get little drips of news filtering through from the set as the show gears up for its New Year’s Day transmission day (in northern Europe and the Nordic regions, at least). The news today is that Danish actor Mikael Birkkjær – who we all know and love from shows like The Killing and Borgen – has joined the cast of series four. 
Last year we brought you news of an Icelandic series – Stella Blomvist – and the fact that one of the writers on Trapped, Óskar Thór Axelsson, had been drafted in to work on the project. It was an interesting premise: Based on a series of first-person novels penned by the pseudonymous Stella Blomkvist, a hard-nosed lawyer who takes on mysterious murder cases, the series delves into the murky waters of Icelandic politics, recently in the news in the aftermath of the “Panama Papers” scandal. No English-language translation exists, but the makers – who have been touting the series at the French Series Mania TV festival – have announced that there is now a lead. 
We’ve all seen how difficult it is to get prequels right – well hello Prime Suspect 1973 – but Endeavour, and specifically this year’s series four of Endeavour, often got things very right. It had that right mix of lore (in this case Morse lore), comfortable English bucolia and decent storylines and character progressions. So it’s good news that ITV said yesterday that filming has now begun on the fifth series. 
The Killing Times 