Line of Duty: How accurate is your favourite show?

But they won’t be silent on social media if the creators become complacent and make mistakes in their favourite anti-corruption show.

That’s exactly what happened yesterday (Sunday) when lead actor Martin Compston, playing Detective Inspector Steve Arnott, made two big blunders regarding Scottish law and order.

The sixth episode of the current season was broadcasted on BBC last night that saw actor Compston, a Scotsman, saying a death certificate had been completed by ‘The Glasgow City Coroner’.

He followed that up, saying a subsequent ‘Inquest’ had recorded a finding of suicide.

However, the Line of Duty fans on Twitter were quick to point out that Scotland neither has any ‘coroners’, nor ‘inquests’.

In Scotland, the Lord Advocate is responsible for investigating “all deaths which require further explanation.” Similarly, an inquest for England is Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) for Scotland.

You realise you may be taking your work too seriously when you get annoyed when #lineofduty scriptwriters don’t know that death certification process is different in Scotland. Glasgow coroner! Missed the next bit of the plot by moaning about it to my unimpressed husband!

— Julie Ramsay (@juliemramsay) April 25, 2021

This the not the first time the fan-favourite series has made factual errors in its script.

In season three, the term 'WPC' (Woman Police Constable) is used for female constables in official documentation. This term has not been in use for many years. All constables are now just 'PC' (Police Constable).

Similarly, the members of the firearms team are described as Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) in season three. The characters shown in the episode were in fact Specialist Firearms Officers (SFOs).

The previous seasons have shown prisons with glass partitions, while visitors are seen sitting in closed cubicles. In fact, British prisons do not have glass partitions between prisoners and visitors. Instead, visits are carried out in open rooms with other prisoners and their visitors. Prisoners sit at individual tables with their visitors, and touching is usually allowed within reason.

Police personnel are usually the ones who find most mistakes in this anti-corruption show. If you are a police personnel (retired or otherwise), we would like to hear your thoughts on the show.