Dick seemed more angered by poor policing on TV than in real life. She’ll be missed by her friends in government, if no one else
Cressida Dick absolutely despised Line of Duty. The endlessly promoted Metropolitan police chief really crossed the road to tip on the BBC smash hit – so tellingly incensed by a show about sidelined cops doing the painful and unpopular work of rooting out bad apples. As Dame Cressida finally resigns from the spoilt barrel of the Met, I couldn’t help but recall a 2019 Radio Times interview in which she expanded on her issues.
“I was absolutely outraged by the level of casual and extreme corruption that was being portrayed as the way the police is,” Dick told the magazine. “It’s so far from that. The standards and professionalism are so high.” Mmm. It was left to the show’s creator, Jed Mercurio, to offer a little background. “My inspiration for creating Line of Duty was @metpoliceuk shooting an innocent man and their dishonesty in the aftermath,” he explained icily, “so thanks to Cressida Dick for reminding me of our connection.” Dick, of course, ran the bungled counterterrorism operation that resulted in Met officers fatally shooting Jean Charles de Menezes, an entirely innocent 27-year-old electrician.
Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist
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