Line of Duty: We look at the six suspects who could be bent cop Jo’s mystery relative
AT the close of Sunday’s breath-taking episode of Line Of Duty, viewers were left with a cliffhanger that’s had the whole nation wondering: Which sensational figure is related to DCI Jo Davidson?
The bent copper at the heart of series six, played by Kelly Macdonald, has had her DNA analysed and DI Steve Arnott (Martin Compston), revealed the shocking findings.
After being cross-referenced with existing profiles on the police database, it was revealed she was a blood relative of a crucial character from the BBC1 drama.
The link is likely to change the course of the police thriller as it could explain what hold the criminals have over her. Here are the potential blood lines . . .
Tommy Hunter
HE was the crime boss from series one who met a sticky end at the start of series two.
He was killed in hospital while recovering from burns and bullet wounds thanks to bent copper DI Lindsay Denton (Keeley Hawes).
If Davidson is a sibling of Hunter she may be being blackmailed into helping the criminals with the threat of the link being exposed.
Either that or she was brainwashed into criminality by her evil brother and embedded in the police but decided to change her ways after his death.
He is around the same age and both have Scottish accents, which makes it more likely they are close relatives within the same family.
Tommy was also believed to be one of the paedophiles involved in the cesspit of child molesters, politicians and police which murdered journalist Gail Vella was investigating when she was murdered.
Tommy introduced bent cop DI Matthew “Dot” Cottan to the world of crime.
John McGillis
HE was the father of DS Corbett and husband of Anne-Marie McGillis the suspected police informant who went missing in Belfast during The Troubles in 1989.
But he could also be Davidson’s father. If so, it would explain why the bent cop has a photo on her sideboard in which she appears hugging a curly-haired woman who looks like Anne-Marie.
The fact that she hurled a glass at the photo suggests she feels bitterness about the link, which is clearly being used by the criminals to blackmail her.
A clue that might suggest her relative could be John was uttered on Sunday by DI Arnott, who said Davidson’s DNA matched someone “whose DNA is stored on other police databases”.
Since he came from another part of the United Kingdom, that would seem to fit.
The McGillises would also be well into their 60s or 70s now – the perfect age for them to have a daughter in her forties.
DCC Mike Dryden
HERE is another Scot around the right age to be a sibling – or cousin – of Davidson.
Deputy Chief Constable Dryden (Mark Bonnar) was the particularly bent copper at the top of Central Police who got caught out in series two.
He had links to Tommy Hunter and made an enemy of the paedophile crime boss because he publicly attacked the policy of giving villains immunity from prosecution in return for grassing on other criminals.
Being associated with dodgy Dryden, whose name in the force has been dragged through the mud, would be particularly damaging for Davidson.
But the criminals would be well aware of the blood link and may be exploiting it to full effect.
It is a twist in the tale that might just see the disgraced DCC – who also got DI Lindsay Denton pregnant and pressured her into having an abortion – brought back to the show.
DS John Corbett
IF Davidson is related to John McGillis it means she is probably related to rogue cop Corbett, who had his throat cut in series 5 by Ryan Pilkington before Ryan was yet to enter the Central Police division.
DS Corbett, played by Stephen Graham, was adopted by another family in Liverpool after his father was killed in 1984 and his mother went missing in 1989.
If he did have a sister, the siblings may have been separated, as she may have been adopted by a family in Scotland.
Any link between Corbett and Davidson is even more of a bombshell because it could mean she is labouring under the same illusion as her brother – that Supt Ted Hastings somehow caused their mother’s death.
Could the promise of revenge by the criminals be what is compelling her to do their bidding?
PC Ryan Pilkington
JUST who was responsible for bringing Ryan into the Murder Investigation Team (MIT)? It could well have been Davidson – she’s been behind virtually every other murky mystery.
Fans have been suggesting undercover criminal Ryan, pictured, has a strong link to his boss, some even saying the sinister killer (Gregory Piper), might be her son.
On initial inspection, that seems unlikely, as we met the young Ryan in series one and also saw his particularly unsavoury mother, Keely Pilkington . . . unless, of course, he was adopted by her.
Also, we have no idea who Ryan’s father is – his absentee dad may be a former lover of Davidson’s, though she is now gay. And the age gap isn’t so wide that they couldn’t be siblings. The cross reference
with his DNA would be easy because the mobster’s messenger was arrested in series one for trying to cut off DI Arnott’ s fingers.
Supt Ted Hastings
ALTHOUGH Anne-Marie was married to John McGillis, that doesn’t mean she didn’t have a daughter with another man after he died.
If Ted, inset, is her dad it would certainly explain why the AC-12 chief looked so terrified as he read the file and uttered his trademark: “Mother of God!”
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It would also explain the nervous looks of DI Arnott and DC Chloe Bishop, played by Shalom Brune-Franklin, during the unbearably dramatic closing scene to Sunday’s bombshell episode.
If Supt Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) really is her father then it blows the whole plot wide open – and is likely to mean he can no longer investigate Davidson.
And all this when his job – and department –are hanging by a thread because of budget cuts which will see the anti-corruption taskforce cut by 90 per cent, with Supt Hastings being forced into retirement.