Line of Duty Roz Huntley in hospital
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Line of Duty: Most outrageous moments other dramas wouldn’t get away with

It's Line of Duty so we're going with it!

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Love it as we do, there are times when Line of Duty gets just a teeny bit far fetched…

But of course, due to the general brilliance of the BBC cop show, we’re prepared to suspend disbelief and soak it all up.

As we knuckle down for series six, applying a suitably forensic approach, here’s the lowdown on some of the more head scratching Line of Duty moments.

Line of Duty series one Tony and the whiskey glass
Tony takes strange measures with the whiskey glass (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

Gates’ whiskey a go go: Series 1

After witnessing Jackie’s brutal murder, Tony pops up looking cool as ice, his composure rattled only by his knowledge he’s screwed up by leaving a whiskey glass complete with his prints in her house.

So he snaffles it and, while Steve’s search becomes desperate, Tony tries to throw it in a lake.

He is thwarted by a watching fisherman, and then lays a false trail telling various colleagues it’s either in a storm drain, a skip or a pond.

But really he’s stashed it in the police station kitchen cupboard, after running it though the dishwater.

And this still begs the question: why doesn’t he just smash it to pieces and pop it in the recycling? 

Line of Duty series 4 Huntley is alive!
Roz Huntley isn’t dead after all (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

“Hello Tim!”: Series 4

After a scuffle gets out of hand, Tim Ifield believes he has the corpse of Roz Huntley in his kitchen.

Putting aside the probability that, as a forensic expert, he might be able to tell that she was in fact alive, he heads to the shops to purchase some bits and pieces to get himself out of the mess.

But just as he’s about to get busy with his shiny new chainsaw, Roz suddenly comes to, giving Tim the fright of his life. What’s left of it. 

Read more: Line of Duty season 6: Cast admit opening episode will be a ‘head wreck’ for viewers

Dot Cottan escapes Line of Duty
Dot Cottan does a runner from the interrogation room (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

“Urgent exit required”: Series 3

As he realises the game is up, Dot sends the infamous SOS text from one of his many burners.

This instantly causes machine gun toting cops to burst in, covering him while he flees the building.

Kate, in hot pursuit, flags down a passing delivery lorry, and sails down the high street, clinging on the wing mirror like a Tom Cruise stuntman, before finally running Dot to ground.

Certainly, a sight you don’t see every day in the midlands.

Georgia Trotman death Line of Duty
Steve’s new love interest meets a messy end (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

Read more: Line of Duty: Hastings bingo – get set for all the Tedisms

Goodbye, Georgia we barely knew you: Series 2

Hopes were high when DC Georgia Trotman was introduced. Gorgeous, feisty, a hardened drinker and a superb pool hustler, Georgia had Steve smitten.

After racing to the hospital to check on the witness, they disturb a would-be assassin disguised as a nurse.

Steve cops a beating, and poor Georgia makes an extremely urgent exit right through the window. (Don’t hospitals even have double glazing nowadays?)

Arise DS Lazarus: Series 4

Steve Arnott thrown down the stairs Line of Duty
Steve is left for dead but makes a miraculous recovery (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

When Steve goes to Nick Huntley’s office and comes face to face with a baseball-wielding balaclava man, it really looks like curtains.

As Steve is sent flying down three flights of stairs and left lying on a concrete floor, with blood pouring from his head, it seems a long hospital stay is the least he’ll get away with.

But.. just a few days later, he’s back at work and seems absolutely fine. Truly, it is one of the more miraculous Line of Duty moments.

Huntley in Line of Duty loses her hand
Huntley is quick on her feet after losing her forearm (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

The miraculous recovery of the one-armed woman: series 4

Speaking of medical miracles, they must recruit these police from pretty strong stuff. First of all, Roz Huntley manages to carry on masterminding a criminal cover-up while her arm is literally rotting to bits.

Then, the day after waking up in hospital to find it’s been amputated, she discharges herself.

She keeps calm (apart from gunning for her husband) and carries on – having made the fastest recovery in post-operative history. 

Dot Cottan H code Line of Duty
Dot Cottan’s death revelation holds the key to H – or does it (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

Dying Dot’s wiggly fingers: Series 5

Dot’s dying declaration appears to have been viewed by AC-12 more times than the closing moments of 1966 Word Cup final.

But it is, of course, golden boy Steve who cracks the clue.

In a blinding moment of revelation, he notices that Dot was tapping out the Morse code for the letter H – four dots – with his left hand. 

H is not an initial, it’s a clue,” he declares. “Four dots, four caddies, four police leads in organised crime.” Got that? Er, if you say so Steve…

Hopefully more light will be shed in series six…. 

Read more: Line Of Duty season 6: Craig ‘ Dot Cottan’ Parkinson to ‘return’ and 5 other spoilers!

Line of Duty | Series 6 | Trailer - BBC

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor