REAL TED HASTINGS

'Line of Duty' holds its status as the defining TV crime drama of today and the conspiracy theme chimes at a time when public institutions and representatives are distrusted. Ted Hastings, the show's head of anti-corruption, has emerged as the beating heart of the series. This book reveals how the compelling drama reflects real crimes, events and figures, most notably that of Robert Mark and his battle against Met corruption. He was the inspiration for Ted Hastings, the man who took on his entire corruption-riddled detective branch in his first brutal speech as the new Met Commissioner. The scale of the problem facing Robert Mark was institutionalised corruption in CID. Throughout the 1970s he battled against shameless corruption. Straight as a die and undaunted, Sir Robert oversaw the departure of 478 men from the Met during his almost five-year tenure when departures in the previous decade had averaged about 16 a year. Jarossi links the work of Robert Mark's A-10 and Ted Hastings' AC-12 by highlighting the difficult circumstances under which both the real and the fictional Top Cop worked, drawing parallels in cases from 'real life' with those dramatized in the series. He shows how the character Dot Cottan was not wholly unlike Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Moody who was jailed for corruption. And extraordinarily the CIDs do swagger around claiming they were the superstars or the brains! Here is the true story. 235pp, paperback.