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Eagle-eyed Line of Duty fans spotted a significant spelling mistake as criminal mastermind 'H’ messaged John Corbett (Stephen Graham) in series five, episode three, of the police corruption drama – and it seems many turned to the internet to double-check, with Google searches for both "definitely" and "definately" rocketing while the show aired.

Lisa McQueen (Rochenda Sandall) and Corbett were receiving their typed online orders from "UNKNOWN", who warned that the Eastfield Depot job was "definately high risk." As we well know, Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio does nothing by accident, so the misspelling must be a major clue about the identity of 'H'.

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That's why Google data for Sunday night reveals a dramatic spike in searches for both the right and wrong spellings of the word. Take a look at this Google Trends graph for "definitely" (in blue) and "definately" (in red) and you can spot exactly when the clue appeared on screen...

searches for Definitely after Line of Duty

Line of Duty began at 9pm on Sunday 14th April, and not long afterwards searches for "definitely" increased around 30-fold. "Definately" wasn't far behind as viewers checked that the word did NOT contain an "a".

Now we'll just have to keep an eye on all of our suspects and see who has dodgy spelling...

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Line of Duty continues on Sundays at 9pm on BBC One.


Authors

Eleanor Bley GriffithsDrama Editor, RadioTimes.com
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