The Real Line of Duty
Between 2012 and 2021, hit BBC drama Line of Duty (2012) told the story of a fictional anti-corruption unit that famously went after bent coppers. Now for the first time, the senior police officers behind the real life sting operations re-open the casebooks to reveal the methods used to uncover corruption and secure convictions. They take us back to the crime scenes, show us the operations in detail, how they gathered the evidence, discovered the guilty and built the case that led them to jail. The Real Line of Duty uncovers the wider story of anti-corruption units: why and how the Metropolitan Police turned the torch on their own.
- 2024-2024
- 1 season
- Documentary, Suspense
Between 2012 and 2021, hit BBC drama Line of Duty (2012) told the story of a fictional anti-corruption unit that famously went after bent coppers. Now for the first time, the senior police officers behind the real life sting operations re-open the casebooks to reveal the methods used to uncover corruption and secure convictions. They take us back to the crime scenes, show us the operations in detail, how they gathered the evidence, discovered the guilty and built the case that led them to jail. The Real Line of Duty uncovers the wider story of anti-corruption units: why and how the Metropolitan Police turned the torch on their own.
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2024
Episode 1
Episode #1.1
46 mins
Fifteen years prior to Line Of Duty hitting our screens, a little-known until of the Metropolitan Police was being secretly set up to crack the cycle of corruption that infiltrated the country's biggest police force. The unit was CIB3 and its purpose? To expose corrupt police officers and bring them to justice. One of the first targets was former Met Detective Duncan Hanrahan, and with the newly formed CIB3 ready to go, Operation Eden was put into motion.
Episode 2
Episode #1.2
46 mins
After the success of Operation Eden, the next target was private investigation firm Southern Investigations, a firm linked to the Daniel Morgan murder. A painstaking and complex undercover investigation produced another successful result for CIB3 and following intelligence from the Ghost Squad, concerns were raised about a branch of the Flying Squad and a massive sting operation was put into place. Operation Brunei and Operation Ethiopia were born.
Episode 3
Episode #1.3
47 mins
In the late 1990s, CIB3 carried out one of the most high-profile investigations into a team of hard-drinking road detectives who called themselves the Groovy Gang which became known as Operation Russia. In 1998, the Met Police Chief told a commons select committee that the force had hundreds of corrupt officers within its ranks but whilst they were not all convicted, the Ghost Squad certainly left its mark.