This is a drama born in reaction to the ‘post-truth era’, repeatedly staging misgivings about the ongoing conflict between PR manipulation and unflattering realities. As such, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see the tagline for series six “Lies cost lives” intended as a critique of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Underneath the trappings of this high-tension, high-action, twist-packed thriller is real concern about what people in power are getting away with. The show’s villains can generally be divided into one of three categories: desensitised brutes, high status hypocrites, and people trying – with varying degrees of success – to dig themselves out of a hole, usually of their own making. Below are 30 such characters from series one to five, all police officers who’ve committed a crime of some kind – whether they’ve been caught or not – ranked in order of immorality. Come back at the end of series six, which starts on Sunday the 21st of March at 9pm on BBC One, to see the new additions, and who may have moved up the ladder.
29. PC Maneet Bindra
Crime: Suppressing a line of inquiry that incriminated her cousin, leaking sensitive filesWorking for the OCG? Indirectly and initially, without her knowledgeCurrently: DeceasedSit. Rep: PC Maneet Bindra (RIP) was good police and a loyal cousin. When ACC Hilton asked her to leak AC-12 secrets in exchange for him stopping her gambling-addict cousin from losing his job, she followed the orders of a much senior officer. When her cousin was bribed by the OCG to help them plan an ambush on a shipment of heroin, Maneet tried to protect him. When that cost her job, she tried to put it right and they killed her.
28. PS Colin Brackley & Co.
Crime: Manslaughter and conspiracy to pervert the course of justiceWorking for the OCG? No Currently: Still serving, as far as we know. No charges were brought against the teamSit. Rep: In the opening minutes of the first ever episode, Sgt Brackley shot dead an innocent man – Kareem Ali – after the team mistook Ali’s No. 59 flat for the target flat No. 56 due to a broken door number. At the behest of Chief Inspector Philip Osborne, the squad colluded in an attempt to cover up the botched killing, but Steve Arnott refused to lie, which led to his recruitment by AC-12.
27. CC Philip Osborne
Crime: Conspiracy to pervert the course of justiceWorking for the OCG? Jury’s out on that oneCurrently: The CC of Central Police, aka the top dogSit. Rep: Come back in seven weeks and Chief Constable Philip Osborne could well have shot straight to the top of this list. The reason he’s in such a low position currently is that we only know that he pressured his Counter-Terrorism team to cover up a botched op. We suspect though, that he could well be up to his neck in the OCG. Is he the fourth senior ranking officer in their pay?
26. PC Kieran Bloom
Crime: Faking an ambush to divert resources from the Eastfield depot raidWorking for the OCG? Indirectly, yesCurrently: Presumably no longer a police officerSit. Rep: DCS Hargreaves (blackmailed by the OCG, who obtained his DNA when he abused an underage sex trafficking victim at a gang-run ‘brothel’) made PC Bloom call in the fake ambush on the night of the Eastfield Depot raid, so he’d have an excuse to be in the area.
25. DCI Mark Moffatt
Crime: Conspiring to bribe and frame Supt. Ted HastingsWorking for the OCG? YesCurrently: He was arrested and charged by AC-12, so, serving time?Sit. Rep: We met Moffatt as Roz Huntley’s Police Federation Rep. in series four, and maybe he was already in the OCG’s pocket at that point. He clearly was by series five, after his retirement from the force, when he used his new property development position to attempt to bribe Ted Hastings with £100K of the gang’s filthy lucre.
23. PC Kevin Greysham, PC Ray Randhawa, PC Carl Waldhouse
Crime: As above.Working for the OCG? Yes.Currently: Shot dead by the OCG.Sit. Rep: In Jane Cafferty’s police interview, she confirmed that the three officers killed by the OCG during the heroin ambush weren’t innocent men. Greysham and Randhawa were both on the take from the gang, while Waldhouse was being blackmailed by them over his use of sex workers.
22. DS Jayne Akers
Crime: Rerouting a police convoy to allow a witness to be murdered; bribing DI DentonWorking for the OCG? Yes, in cahoots with DI CottanCurrently: Shot dead by the OCGSit. Rep: Jayne Akers appealed to Lindsay Denton’s sense of moral justice to convince her that the only way to see Carly Kirk’s abusive pimp Tommy Hunter punished was to break the law and allow the OCG to get to him. Perhaps she also felt that she was on a crusading mission? Either way, they both took the gang’s bribe money.
21. DC Jamie Desford
Crime: Tipping off ACC Hilton so he could evade capture, attempting to abscond with suspect Jimmy LakewellWorking for the OCG? Yes, via ACC HiltonCurrently: Fired from the policeSit. Rep: DCI Roz Huntley did two good things when she realised that the jig was up: she arrested Jimmy Lakewell and talked Jamie Desford down from what would have been the very serious crime of shooting a police officer. Like PC Maneet Bindra, Desford seemed to be another officer exploited by Hilton, who didn’t care who he used.
20. DC Nigel Morton
Crime: Leaking stories to the press, faking his disability for benefits, spitting on Kate and leaving excrement in Steve’s car, and most egregiously: finding out Dot was the Caddy but not telling anybodyWorking for the OCG? NoCurrently: Retired on a cushy pensionSit. Rep: Perhaps the laziest bent copper on this list, Neil Morrissey’s character did a lot of little bad things and got away with them all.
19. Merchant and Leland
Crime: Assaulting prisoner Lindsay Denton with boiling waterWorking for the OCG? YesCurrently: Rumoured to be returning in series sixSit. Rep: These two aren’t technically police officers, but employees of SecuritVite, the private security firm that staffs HMP Brentiss. Not strictly bent coppers then, but definitely a couple of wrong’uns who abused their power to try to keep Lindsay Denton quiet inside.
17. PS Martina Tranter
Crime: Attempted murder of witness Gill BiggeloeWorking for the OCG? Oh yesCurrently: Dead, we think. Last seen being stretchered out of HQ after Steve shot herSit. Rep: What a twist. When Gill Biggeloe was rumbled, the OCG decided she wasn’t worth extracting so instead had bent AC-3 copper try to kill her in the Ladies toilet. Luckily, Steve and Kate were there to save the day.
16. PC Hari Bains
Crime: Conspiracy and murderWorking for the OCG? Yes, through Dot CottanCurrently: Presumably serving timeSit. Rep: In series three, Danny Waldron forced PC Bains, PC Kennedy and PC Brickford to corroborate his version of the killing of Ronan Murphy, then Dot blackmailed Hari to kill Waldron, who was investigating an historical paedophile ring run by the OCG. Hari shot Waldron and the others covered for him initially before Rod threatened to talk and Dot killed him, faking his suicide.
15. DCI Tony Gates
Crime: Laddering his stats, covering up Jackie Laverty’s hit-and-run, colluding with the OCG to cover up the Greek Lane murdersWorking for the OCG? Under duress, yesCurrently: Killed himself by walking into trafficSit. Rep: Gates started out mildly corrupt – massaging his team’s results to provide ACC Hilton with better stats and accepting the odd free breakfast. When his OCG money-laundering mistress ran over her accountant and he helped her to cover it up though, he got entangled with the gang, who killed Jackie and threatened to frame him for her murder if he didn’t assist in covering up a series of drug murders. Gates did bad things, but redeemed himself by bringing in Tommy Hunter before he reached the end of the line.
14. DCI Roz Huntley
Crime: Attempting to cover up the manslaughter of Tim IfieldWorking for the OCG? No, though her boss ACC Hilton and husband’s pal Jimmy Lakewell wereCurrently: Serving a 10 year sentence for Manslaughter in HMP BrentissSit. Rep: Huntley’s corruption may have been OCG-adjacent, but she was just trying to save her own skin after accidentally murdering a man who was about to dismember what he thought was her corpse. Instead of coming clean about what happened with Ifield, she cut off his fingers and tampered with evidence to protect herself, but was eventually caught out by a symbolically festering wound.
13. DI Lindsay Denton
Crime: Accepting a bribe to reroute a witness transport so the OCG could ambush it, driving a car into DS Manish PrasadWorking for the OCG? Yes, but also working for moral justiceCurrently: Shot dead by DI Matthew CottanSit. Rep: More sinned against than sinning? Denton was bent, absolutely, but her corruption perhaps says less about her than about the limitations of the law in seeing justice done. Knowing that Tommy Hunter was a child-exploiting pimp, Denton agreed to collude in his murder, recognising that his immunity deal would otherwise protect him from punishment. When she rammed DS Prasad (see below) with a car, it was because he was another child-abusing bastard who frankly, deserved everything he got.
11. DCS Les Hargreaves
Crime: Colluding in the Eastfield Depot raid, sexually abusing trafficking victimsWorking for the OCG? Yes, blackmailed to do soCurrently: Shot dead by DS John CorbettSit. Rep: The OCG ran the illegal brothel Hargreaves visited to have sex with underage trafficking victims, which meant they had blackmail material on him. Not just that, they kept his used condoms in a freezer, ready to plant his DNA on any murder victim they chose. That’s why he helped them steal the £50 million of goods from Eastfield depot, where he was killed.
10. DS Danny Waldron
Crime: Murder, kidnapping, torture, conspiracyWorking for the OCG? Absolutely notCurrently: Shot dead by PC Hari BainsSit. Rep: This is another tricky one. There’s no doubt that Danny Waldron did terrible things, but much like Lindsay Denton, he did those terrible things to some truly terrible people. Ronan and Linus Murphy were part of the paedophile ring that abused boys at the Sands View Children’s Home. When Danny killed one, and tortured and beheaded the other, it was hard not to sympathise. Once again, his acts showed a police officer not trusting the legal system to provide justice.
9. AFO Lambert
Crime: Shooting fellow officers to bust DI Cottan out of HQ, helping to frame Steve for Lindsay Denton’s murderWorking for the OCG? Big timeCurrently: Shot dead by DI Kate FlemingSit. Rep: A surprise maybe, that a character with no lines would be so high up this list, but AFO Lambert did very bad things. When Dot had been rumbled and requested an urgent extraction, it was Lambert who shot his fellow guard and escorted Cottan out of the premises. Prior to that, he’d helped Dot doctor the firearms paperwork that almost had Steve framed for the shooting of Lindsay Denton. In the end, Kate took him down.
8. DS John Corbett
Crime: Murdering at least five bent coppers, torturing Roisin HastingsWorking for the OCG? Yes and no. He ran it, but as an undercover officerCurrently: Killed by the OCGSit. Rep: Like Ted Hastings, DS Corbett was on a mission to rid Central Police of bent coppers, but unlike Ted Hastings, DS Corbett took an unlawful shortcut. He had the heroin convoy coppers killed, had Maneet’s throat slit and personally gunned down DCS Hargreaves. The really unconscionable act though, was his torture of Roisin Hastings.
7. Gill Biggeloe
Crime: Major cover-ups, perverting the course of justice, enabling institutional corruptionWorking for the OCG? AbsolutelyCurrently: In witness protection, somewhere bleakSit. Rep: “It’s complicated”, Gill told Ted when he asked her why she’d tried to frame him as ‘H’, but then she’s always had that “non-exclusive relationship with the truth”. It wasn’t complicated; Gill Biggeloe was just greedy and took the OCG’s money to fund her silk blouses and posh car. Not strictly an officer, she was Central Police’s Senior Legal Counsel, and as such enabled multiple crimes. Most heinously of all, she very nearly succeeded in framing Ted Hastings and disbanding AC-12.
5. DS Manish Prasad
Crime: All of the above, plus beating DC Cole to deathWorking for the OCG? Oh yeahCurrently: He requested immunity, so probably in witness protectionSit. Rep: Prasad and Cole were evil pieces of work who abused their positions to exploit the vulnerable, carried out gangland executions and generally provide the OCG’s muscle. DI Denton did get a confession out of Prasad, but seeing as she obtained it by breaking his legs with a car, it wouldn’t have been admissible in court.
4. SPO Ryan Pilkington
Crime: Years of low-level drug dealing and runner work, the murder of DS John CorbettWorking for the OCG? He’s the new Caddy, basicallyCurrently: A new recruit for Central PoliceSit. Rep: Ryan got in with the OCG when he was just a lad, and even at that age took part in some dreadful business including the torture of Steve Arnott. He’s seemingly without a conscience, happily slitting John Corbett’s throat, bullying Terry Boyle and cracking jokes about Jackie Laverty’s corpse. His recruitment as a student police officer was series five’s bitter punchline.
3. ACC Derek Hilton
Crime: Conspiracy to murder Steve Arnott and frame Michael Farmer, aiding DI Cottan’s career progression, recruiting Maneet Bindra and Jamie Desford for the OCGWorking for the OCG? YesCurrently: Shot dead by the OCG in what we assume was a faked suicideSit. Rep: ACC Hilton’s very high up on this list for a character who, as far as we know, didn’t personally kill or torture anybody, but just because he didn’t get his hands dirty doesn’t mean he wasn’t responsible for some truly terrible things, not least the attempted murder of Steve Arnott in series four. Being the Assistant Chief Constable, he had oversight of so many police operations and did untold damage to lawful investigations while being blackmailed by the OCG.
2. DI Matthew ‘Dot’ Cottan
Crime: A career’s worth of corruption assisting the OCG, the murders of PC Rod Kennedy and DI Lindsay Denton, lord knows what elseWorking for the OCG? Since he was a boyCurrently: Shot dead by the OCGSit. Rep: He was ‘The Caddy’, a legendarily corrupt officer who audaciously transferred to Anti-Corruption Unit 12 after series one to curtail their investigations into the OCG. He enabled countless crimes and committed many himself, including the blackmail and recruitment of fellow officers. He’d be top of this list, in fact, if it wasn’t for Craig Parkinson’s humanising performance in the series three, where Dot was revealed not to be a moustache-twirling villain, but someone in well over his head, who’d been groomed and exploited since he was young. And how’s this for redemption? Dot died taking a bullet for Kate Fleming. In his Dying Declaration, he regularly continues to provide AC-12 with insider tips from beyond the grave. You can hate what the Caddy did, but you can’t hate him.
1. Ch. Supt. Patrick Fairbanks
Crime: Participating in and covering up the long-term sexual abuse of childrenWorking for the OCG? In cahoots with them, yesCurrently: Serving a 10 year sentenceSit. Rep: The dreadful nature of Fairbanks’ crimes combined with his seniority are what make him the worst of the worst. A mason, he used his connections and position to quell the voices of the children he abused, and colluded with fellow abusers in the OCG to kill the sole adult who tried to help them – social worker Oliver Stephens Lloyd. A criminal protected by his status, he’s a symbol of corruption, who was living a comfortable retirement as a pillar of the community until Danny Waldron and AC-12 did their jobs and sent him down in perhaps the most satisfying collar of the series as a whole.
