Personnel File: Brian Lane, Detective Inspector (ret)
JACK: “Ex-DI Brian Lane, Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman.”
BRIAN: “Pullman. Sussex University, accelerated entry, 1987. Bramshill, ‘92. DI, Murder Squad, ‘92-’95. DCI, Armed Robbery Squad, ‘95 - ‘98.”
Our first introduction to Brian Lane, Detective Inspector (ret) shows us three key character traits about Brian: his photographic memory, his indifferent social skills, and his obsessions, but with detective work in general.
As a character, Brian most closely resembles the defective!detective trope in mystery fiction--or the brilliant but insufferable genius: he’s the Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot of the team.
His nickname is “Memory” Lane because his memory is really that good. He knows the record of every officer in the Met for the last thirty years. He apparently knows every crime and criminal in the files also. He’s a computer database but better.
He’s brilliant, and a brilliant detective (Jack says that he’s a “first-rate detective,” and coming from Jack, that’s the highest praise.) He works best by coming at puzzles from a different angle, by seeing patterns that no one else sees. The problem is, while he can see the most obscure patterns clearly, he can’t see the ones that are in front of his face.
It shows up most in the show with Esther, his long-suffering and loving wife, but it also shows up with the rest of the UCOS team. Brian misses social cues, has difficulty with conversations and manners that other people take for granted, has a need for certain rituals and patterns of stability in his life.
Esther is his cornerstone; Jack and the UCOS team are important supportive bricks. DO NOT TOUCH HIS DESK.
Brian specifically says that he has OCD, he’s a recovering alcoholic (sober 2 years, 2 months, 8 days as of the pilot.) And it’s strongly coded although never specifically spelled out that he may be on the autism spectrum.
In the pilot, he mentions both a car and grandchildren: in later episodes he doesn’t drive and has no children.
Brian is a deeply flawed but very appealing character. He is capable of deep friendship, loyalty, and generosity to the people he cares about--he can be extremely sensitive to other people’s feelings--but he can also be oblivious, selfish and a downright pain. He goes off on obsessive hobbies, and has terrible personal grooming habits. He doesn’t like wearing a suit, and likes wearing dress shoes even less. (It’s interesting to chart how “comfortable” Brian is by what he’s wearing.)
He’s depressed, obsessed, and paranoid (a paranoia that can become downright delusional when he isn’t on his medication), and the crux of his personal wounds are his guilt and regret over the man he let die in his custody.
There’s always been more to the story, he insists. And we desperately want to believe him. Part of his character arc over the seasons is watching him come to grips with, and grow from his mistakes. Jack’s a big part of that, but Esther, Esther is always his guiding light.
“Our customers?” He asks. Who are the Met’s “customers?”
Brian, like the other two old dogs, has a biting sense of humor (see his one-liner to Gerry in the Pill Scene: “Pale blue, lozenge shape. Well, you know what that’s for. Go on, it’s not hard.”). He’s also represents the third leg of the working class background: he’s made it half-way up the Met’s pecking order, but no further.
He’s an old-fashioned copper, out-dated and out of touch with policing methods, but not at all past his prime. In some ways, UCOS, with it’s stable environment and team connections makes him a better detective than he ever was with the Met.
“You mean, he did it, let’s prove he did it, then we can say we are not looking for anyone else in connection with this inquiry?”
Brian does his own fair share of techno-speak, but he can speak just as clearly and simply as Jack and Gerry. He has no guff with press-speak or police jargon.
ESTHER! Dear God, loving kind Esther, has been married to Brian for at least thirty years as of the pilot. She’s his anchor. With her, he falls to pieces, and no matter how oblivious or selfish he’s being, he really deeply cares about her. He loves her, and the best signs of how he loves her is how he tries to make himself a better man because she asks him to.
She’s worried about him rejoining the Force, even as a civilian. “Brian, I don’t want you doing this—for your own sake. Next time you might not just crack, you might break.”
But being a detective is his life’s work -- and being in UCOS gives him a chance to figure out how he was scapegoated for Antony Kaye’s death.
Yes, he is exactly that orderly.
Later on he will display his obsessive organization and memory to Sandra and Jack again:
“I’ve arranged the case evidence alphabetically. I’ve also listed it with the trial notes chronologically. That way you can cross-reference it more easily.”
SANDRA: “I don’t suppose you know the contents of her stomach, do you?”
BRIAN: “Fish, peas, spinach. But no potatoes, which seems odd.”
The team will quickly get used to Brian knowing everything; it turns up as a plot point when he doesn’t.
Soon Brian will discover the marvelous world of computing, but not quite yet.
That is HIS coat hanger, and don’t you forget it. Brian doesn’t share easily. We learn later on that he has some good reasons for that, but for now we just think he’s a bit compulsive.
Yes, he does label his things.
Yes, Brian’s manners need some polishing. (Other fabulous one-liners in this scene: “Don’t smoke the filter, Mrs. Collard. I used to do that, now look at me.”)
Nice pocket knife, Brian.
“Corns, bad. Do you get them?”
“I don’t like public transport. I get people to give me a lift.”
Gerry, Jack and Sandra will spend a lot of time over the next decade giving Brian and his bicycle a lift.
Although Jack is about a decade older, Brian arguably has just as many health problems. It is vaguely suggested that he might be something of a hypochondriac--but it might just as easily be a side effect of the medication.
Brian takes pills for sciatica, lumbago, arthritis, rheumatism in his shoulder, as well as anti-depressants. In the pilot, he’s apparently only taking one medication for depression. By the next few episodes, Brian will start taking a lot more depression medication. It suggests that he had a pretty rough and tumble career as a police officer. At the time of Kaye’s death in 1997, he was having therapy for his depression.
Like all the men on UCOS, he carries a tape recorder and knows how to use it.
GERRY: “You know Jack, is he mad?”
BRIAN: “No. But I am.”
“He was black. Like you. Which automatically made things more difficult, more political. I found him face-down, having apparently choked on his own vomit. I was the arresting officer. I’d left him for less than two minutes, but no one else saw me in that time. I was being treated for depression. The Union advised me that I should submit a doctor’s report, pending the investigation. It wasn’t flattering. In fact, it basically said I was barking mad. Which gave the Met their get-out. Problem is, I think Antony Kaye was killed—and not by me. He was murdered inside that station. The Met are shielding someone, and I’m gonna prove it. Then we’ll see who’s mad, and who isn’t.”
Brian’s soliloquy in this part of the pilot is heartrendingly good. (Alun Armstrong’s performance is bravo.)
GERRY: “Isn’t it all just a bit busy inside your head?”
BRIAN: “There’s probably a lot more going on than in yours”
“Nobody touches this desk. Right? I’ll know if you have. AND my God is a jealous God and He shall smite thee severely.”
Brian loves Esther. It’s a marriage with its ups and downs, but Brian loves Esther. Full stop.
“I don’t break the law. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I take my medication. And you know what? My mind’s on fire.”
Brian has two loves: Esther and detection. One of those comes first.
“This DNA new forensics lark, makes our job easier, does it?”
Brian, hanging a lampshade on police work in the 21st century.
THE file.
Someday, we will know the truth of what happened; more importantly, Brian will, and will be at peace with himself. And the character growth of a decade will be complete.
JACK: “No, no you don’t. You only think you know what happened to him.”
(Jack’s right. Jack’s always right.)
BRIAN: “That’s why I left it at home.”
SANDRA: “Home?!? You brought evidence home?”
BRIAN: “How else was I gonna get it all filed?”
SANDRA: “You do realize that if they find out you did this, we’ll get crucified.”
BRIAN: “Why? Who’s going to tell them?”
They do things differently at UCOS. And Sandra, aside from realizing that she’s going to have to deal with a new kind of person in Brian, also realizes that he’s right. No one on UCOS is going to betray UCOS. That’s the loyalty and trustworthiness that will let Brian learn to grow and give back.
Brian, the big eater; Brian, with his silly napkin; Brian, who loves a free lunch.
Brian, with his toast.
Someday, sometime down the road, Brian will figure it all out, and be at peace. He’ll be a good husband to Esther, a good father and grandfather, and a good friend to Jack, Gerry and Sandra.
This time, he’ll know the truth, and leave on his own terms.
discoholicmusic
pixelskylines
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
dailybridgerton
romaincrisis
ellievsbear
baratheonpilled