Between THE LINES

LEILA FARZAD and ANDREW BUCHAN on TV's latest police corruption drama

- IAN MACEWAN

Law-enforcement officers have long cultivated relationships with criminals to obtain inside information on illegal activity. But what happens when the cop gets in too deep and decides they want out?

This is the dilemma at the heart of BBC1's Better, a new crime thriller starring Leila Farzad (I Hate Suzie) and Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch).

Written by Jonathan Brackley and Sam Vincent, who created C4 sci-fi show Humans, the five-part series revolves around the close links between talented Leeds police officer DI Lou Slack (played by Leila) and ambitious local drug smuggler Col McHugh (Andrew), who grew up in Northern Ireland.

Their decades-long arrangement, whereby Lou turns a blind eye in return for tip-offs from Col, has served the pair well over the years. But when a family emergency prompts a change of heart in Lou, she finds breaking up with Col is hard to do.

TV Times caught up with Leila and Andrew to get their take on the story...

DI LOU SLACK

LEILAFARZAD

The respected Leeds cop has close ties to local crime kingpin Col.

COL MCHUGH

ANDREW BUCHAN

The softly-spoken Northern Irish drug trafficker is a ruthless operator.

Col and Lou have known each other for 19 years. How did their deal start?

ANDREW Col was sent over to Leeds to handle that branch of the crime family, and got nabbed for a minor misdemeanour by Lou Slack. He ended up wriggling out of it by giving her a tip-off, and they went on to climb their own individual ladders.