Line of Duty

The Real Story of British Police Corruption

By: Wensley Clarkson

Narrated by: Rupert Farley

A fascinating insight into the true history of British police corruption, for fans of the hit BBC 1 drama.

For more than a century, police officers used their uniforms to control and bully criminals, which in turn led to wholesale bribery and corruption. From Victorian times up to the 1950s, this crooked atmosphere tainted the UK police image of the 'friendly Bobby'. Then came the 1960s and 1970s when the Great Train Robbery and other bigtime heists changed the rules of the 'game' forever. It was like the Wild West out there. No one knew who the good guys and who the bad guys were anymore.

By the early 1980s, corruption was endemic amongst London's vast force of detectives. It was only now that police commissioners across the nation finally started to tackle endemic, across the board corruption.

The hit BBC show has brought these stories back to the fore, and in Line of Duty - The Real Story we go behind the contemporary headlines to explore the real inspiration behind the hit show, looking back at the history of corruption in the police and the anti-corruption units that were set up to sniff out the bent coppers among the good.

Referencing real-life historic and notable cases and people, from a range of sources and first-person interviews, Line of Duty - The Real Story tells the truth behind the fiction and its hard-hitting impact on real-life modern policing.

©2020 Wensley Clarkson (P)2020 Bonnier Books UK