You're loving Line of Duty, right? We're loving Line of Duty. Every year a new, reliably gripping dive into police corruption, with an ambiguous villain and some sterling character work by Britain's finest actors.

But we're not here today to raise theories or analyse the latest episode.

We're here to heap scorn upon DC Jodie Taylor.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. I tell you who's a pain in the backside, Jodie #fuckoffjodie #lineofduty @Line_of_duty — Vicky Sills (@lemonadesocial_) April 23, 2017

Don't get us wrong – this isn't a criticism of actress Claudia Jessie, who has been superb in the role, nor of writer Jed Mercurio. If anything, we're celebrating just how good a job the whole production team have done to make us hate that swotty head girl of a detective constable so much.

She does whatever Roz Huntley asks of her, even when it involves spying on colleagues or bending the procedural rules. For even a whiff of promotion she'd sell her soul, all the while convinced that she was doing the right thing – for the greater good – because the saintly Roz can do no wrong.

But Roz isn't saintly, as Jodie would know if she were able to stand back and get even an inch of perspective on her boss. Not that she ever would.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. Nothing gives me more joy than typing 'Jodie Line of Duty' in search twitter and seeing the swathes of hate. We are not alone. #LineofDuty — Richard Jones (@rickyyyjones) April 24, 2017

The wardrobe department have styled her brilliantly: she's well groomed but utterly blank, a walking Muji catalogue, what you'd get if you typed "neutral" into Pinterest. She looks like she's about 12 years old. Those glasses hint at intellectual superiority, and also a barely-disguised disdain for what she sees through them.

Well, what has she got be so hoity-toity about, eh? She's a baddie and she doesn't even know it!

…OR IS SHE?

This is the brilliance of Line of Duty. Viewed from one perspective, yes, Jodie is a swotty brown-nose who's done her best to wreck the AC-12 investigation and, through her blinkered devotion to Roz Huntley, help get innocent people fitted up for crimes they didn't commit.

But from another perspective, none of that is true.

Of course she idolises Roz – as a young, gifted woman in the police force, one would imagine she has precious few role models to follow. Roz is a famously capable detective – one who, to all appearances, has managed not only to succeed in her career, but also to continue being a high-flier after a ten-year break raising her family. That's an achievement in any field. Why wouldn't DC Taylor be devoted to a mentor like that?

BBC

Who wouldn't be flattered to be noticed by an experienced, legendary leader who, just maybe, sees something of their younger self in you? It would be intoxicating.

Jodie couldn't possibly know that Roz killed Tim Ifield (in self-defence, remember), so you can't blame her for that. And Michael Farmer is, as far as Jodie knows, by far the most likely suspect for the Operation Trapdoor murders.

From her point of view, AC-12 are interfering busybodies determined to fit up her boss to justify their own expense accounts. She hasn't watched Line of Duty. She doesn't know Steve, Kate and Ted are the good guys – as far as she's concerned, they're a disgraced unit who unwittingly harboured a criminal ('Dot' Cottan) among their number for years. Of course she's going to try to block their investigation.

And there's more. By buttoning DC Taylor down, dressing her in chic but inconspicuous shades of grey, tying her hair back smartly, the show is artfully suggesting that she has desexualised herself in order to survive in the macho, male-dominated world of cops and robbers.

Her appearance seems designed to get up the nose of the kind of person – the kind of viewer – who thinks a woman in the workplace ought to smile more, or wear 'feminine' clothes, or otherwise suit their expectations. Why should she? What has she done that her colleagues in the Trapdoor squad haven't done?

In casting the young-looking Claudia Jessie (who is in fact 27), they've pushed the buttons of everyone who has ever felt threatened by a youthful, up-and-coming fast-tracker. Is that her fault?

By hating on DC Taylor, what assumptions are we bringing to the table?

DC Jodie Taylor, we salute you: you awful, brilliant swot.

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