The Shadow Line is a seven-part British television drama miniseries produced by Company Pictures/Eight Rooks Ltd/Baby Cow/CinemaNX production for BBC Two.

[1] It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Christopher Eccleston, Rafe Spall, Lesley Sharp, Kierston Wareing, Antony Sher and Stephen Rea.

The first episode was screened on 12 April 2011 at BAFTA's Princess Anne Theatre in Piccadilly, and was followed by a special question and answer session with Hugo Blick and Christopher Eccleston.

[3] The theme music is an adapted version of the song "Pause" written by Emily Barker and performed by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo, and made to fit the title sequence scored by Martin Phipps,[4] designed by Peter Anderson Studio[5] Drugs baron Harvey Wratten and his unstable nephew, Jay (Rafe Spall), are released from prison on a Royal Pardon (which is a rarity).

Before his arrest Harvey had Joseph set up a legitimate floral business for a clean "line" to smuggle drugs through.

The Wratten murder case is given to DI Jonah Gabriel (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who has just returned to work with a bullet lodged in his brain after a bungled undercover job left his partner dead.

No sooner has the investigation begun than Gabriel finds a case containing hundreds of thousands of pounds hidden in his own home.

So Gabriel and colleague DS Lia Honey (Kierston Wareing) look for the car driver, petty crook Andy Dixon (Tobi Bakare), to find out what he knows but he is on the run.

Jay threatens Andy's mother to find him and then a mysterious man called Gatehouse (Stephen Rea) shows up.

Sitting together in his car, Gatehouse persuades Andy Dixon to meet Jay and tell him he "messed up" and that he heard his uncle's killer say "Bob Harris says ‘hello’”.

During an earlier conversation with another officer, Honey learns that Gabriel didn't register the undercover operation that got him shot and his partner killed.

She now has her doubts about Gabriel's reliability and follows him to a house where he is welcomed by a woman who is not his wife (Agni Scott) and a little boy who calls him "Daddy".

Ross, sniffing a story, attempts to chase Beatty on his motorcycle but Gabriel intervenes and breaks the light assembly so he can't pursue.

Ironically, Ross soon gets promoted to editor-in-chief and to his dismay, is bluntly told to drop the corruption story and move on.

He tells Gabriel that Harvey earned his pardon for saving his life by alerting police to a car bomb and giving a tip-off about the drug deal.

By studying tube CCTV, Gabriel links the dead Dixon to Gatehouse, who is now in pursuit of Peter Glickman (Antony Sher), a key player in the former drug operation who went into hiding after Harvey's murder.

Joseph, who is emotionally vulnerable due to his wife's volatile behaviour, has started a brief affair with Petra (Eve Best), Peter Glickman's girlfriend.

During their conversation Glickman detonates a bomb he had installed as a security measure but it fails to kill Gatehouse and both men back off due to the imminent arrival of emergency services.

As Gabriel's memory returns he makes inquiries and discovers the money in the briefcase is marked and was actually part of a sting, not a dirty deal.

Gabriel visits Penney on his boat, who tells him that Counterpoint had originally been set up as a sting to crack down on the laundering of drug money.

Since such a pardon requires that significant help be given to an official investigation, a scam was devised whereby he appeared to give details leading to a major bust (of his own previously confiscated drugs) and provide information that would save the life of a Customs Officer (from a bomb deliberately placed for that purpose).

Gabriel arrives at the remote location to find Khokar hanging by the neck and Gatehouse calmly talking as if nothing has happened.

[8] The Telegraph continued to negatively review the series, claiming the final episode was too unbelievable to be viewed with sincerity.

Club praised the show, claiming it "really nails the big beats in an effective manner" and expressed admiration for the "thrilling action sequence" that occurred in each episode.