Episode four of Line Of Duty saw the reappearance of Jimmy Lakewell, played by Patrick Baladi, one of the key characters from season four of Line Of Duty. But if you’re still wondering where you’ve seen him before and why his reappearance now is relevant, read on…
We first saw Jimmy Lakewell in season four. A solicitor and friend of Nick Huntley, husband of DCI Roz Huntley (the season’s key character, played by Thandiwe Newton). Lakewell first appears in episode four as Nick Huntley’s cocksure solicitor when Huntley is questioned over a violent attack on Steve Arnott at his office building.
It is later revealed that Lakewell had represented a man called Michael Farmer who was the prime suspect in a murder case, and appeared to be being set up. But it is only when DCI Roz Huntley is arrested herself for the murder of Forensic Co-ordinator Tim Ilfield, which she carried out in self defence, that it’s revealed that Lakewell has been acting on the orders of an Organised Crime Group. Requesting Lakewell as her solicitor during her interview with AC-12, Huntley uses the opportunity to reveal that he was the one who tipped off Balaclava man to Steve Arnott’s whereabouts at Nick Huntley’s office, and that he identified Michael Farmer as a suitable fall guy for Operation Trapdoor. Lakewell admitted that he was acting upon orders as part of a scheme to encourage vulnerable officers to manipulate evidence, so they can be subjected to blackmail later. He also revealed that part of the gang’s MO was to keep frozen body parts of their murder victims, so the DNA could be used to set up and manipulate people in the future.
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The epilogue to the series reveals that Lakewell was in prison for perverting the course of justice, having declined witness protection and refused to testify.
Why is Jimmy Lakewell important in this season of Line Of Duty?
This is where we find him in episode four, season six when Arnott identifies him as the man talking to murdered journalist Gail Vella in a recording uncovered on her hard drive. He refers to ‘balaclava men,’ a detail not many people would know, which tips Arnott off.
When Arnott visits Lakewell in prison, he indicates that he feels unsafe to share any information with AC-12 because there are prison guards who are part of the wider conspiracy. Arnott then sneaks him out of prison in an armoured police convoy, where Lakewell is offered a chance at witness protection if he can reveal what he knows. Before Lakewell can decide, the convoy is attacked, and the van Arnott and Lakewell are in is overturned, leaving one police officer dead.
A shaken Lakewell then rejects AC-12’s offer of protection, claiming there is no such thing as protection from the OCG, and instead requests a return to prison. Once back, he is taken into a cell with a visibly shaking Detective Superintendent Ian Buckells, before being strangled by fellow prisoner Lee Banks - an associate of the Organised Crime Group and the man who murdered PC Maneet Bindra, who we last saw in season five.
So we may never discover just how much Jimmy Lakewell knew about the wider conspiracy and the machinations of the Organised Crime Group, or how much he would have been willing to reveal if he’d taken the officer of witness protection. But his brief reappearance in season four is a reminder of just how deep into the mythology of Line Of Duty this conspiracy goes, and how many characters (Buckells included) appear to be tangled up in it.