He gave an incredible performance
A lot happened in episode three of Line of Duty’ sixth series. There weren’t too many groundbreaking revelations, but the episode did confirm a lot of things everyone had suspected.
Buckells has been taken in for questioning after Kate Fleming works out who Ryan Pilkington actually is, and DCI Davidson tells her how he managed to get onto their force: through a recommendation by Buckells. That, and everything else pointing to Buckells being bent.
Steve is getting himself into all sorts of bother with Steph, John Corbett’s widow, finding her £50,000 hidden in the attic, while Hastings has cottoned onto his pill problem.
But the crescendo of this episode came when Ryan Pilkington, who Steve and Kate had earlier identified as the juvenile member of the OCG who nearly cut off Steve’s fingers back in series 1, made an attempt on Terry Boyle’s life.
Terry Boyle – a man with Down’s Syndrome who the OCG have been abusing since the very beginning – now stands accused of murdering Gail Vella. While it is clear to the viewers that he could not possibly be the guilty party, it is up to Steve Arnott, and now Kate Fleming, to prove exactly that to avoid a miscarriage of justice.
Just as Terry seemed on the verge of revealing some big information, DCI Davidson pulled the plug on the interview, supposedly out of concern for Terry’s welfare as he grew stressed. This did nothing to alleviate Kate’s suspicions about Davidson, and seeing that Ryan Pilkington would be escorting Terry back to his residence that evening, Kate decided to follow the patrol car.
What followed took even the most dedicated theorists by surprise, as Ryan diverted the driver onto a different route, waited for Terry to fall asleep in the car, requested his window be lowered, and attacked the driver, Lisa Patel, swerving the car into a lake.
Ryan’s attempt didn’t quite go to plan, though. Lisa survived initially, escaping the car, before Ryan then drowned her in the lake. Kate then arrived at the scene, meaning he could not finish his mission to kill Terry, and then had to lie through his teeth to Kate about why his window was down, the tires were fine, and Lisa had bruising around her neck.
It was a compelling hour of television, with star performances coming from Tommy Jessop, who plays Terry, and Gregory Piper, who plays Ryan.
Fans were keen to heap praise on the acting duo for their gripping performances in this sequence, and Jessop expressed his gratitude on Twitter.
A fan account dedicated to the show tweeted:
this is a tommy jessop and gregory piper appreciation tweet! can we please take a moment to talk about their incredible performance in tonight’s episode 🙌🏼 #LineOfDuty pic.twitter.com/lDVhExJyvC
— best of line of duty (@bestoflod) April 4, 2021
Jessop then replied: “wicked! Thanks #LineofDuty followers.”
His performances in many high tensions scenes have been one of the highlights of series 6 so far, and it’s great to see Jessop receive his dues. Just look at some of the replies.
You were superb Tommy, a few left the room when they thought you were being done in, large cheers when you popped out the water 👍👍👍👍
— Jonathan hill (@Jhill1965) April 4, 2021
Tommy you had me shouting at the telly during the interview scene and again in the lake. You are a fantastic actor and I really hope we see a lot more of you on TV.
— Linda Ní Chonghaile (@LinnieC78) April 4, 2021
Wow, what fantastic acting, especially that scene in the interview room. We are loving this series!
— parrner (@parrner) April 4, 2021
