THE portrayal of the police and crime commissioner (PCC)in the hit TV show Line of Duty has been slammed as 'totally unrealistic' by a man who has been doing the job for real for five years.

Arfon Jones, the North Wales PCC, says he is a 'big fan' of BBC One’s ratings blockbuster but says the behaviour of his television counterpart, Rohan Sindwhani, does not ring true.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4 , Mr Jones said: “I don’t think it’s particularly realistic, it’s not true to life.

“A police and crime commissioner wouldn’t be getting involved in the operational side of policing as that police and crime commissioner does.

“The most unrealistic part is when the PCC resigns after the Chief Constable calls for less political interference. That just wouldn't happen – a far more likely scenario would be for the PCC to call for the Chief Constable to resign.

“It annoys me. Clearly, whoever has advised the producers of Line of Duty are either not aware of the role of police and crime commissioner or they are trying to blacken the reputation of the role?

“After initial concerns, I now fully support the concept of PCCs as they are more effective and efficient and conduct better scrutiny than 17 members of a police authority.”

The fictional commissioner for Central Police plays a key role in the mind-bogglingly complicated twists and turns of the plot in Line of Duty.

Sindwhani was elected on the platform of 'shaking things up" and exposing police corruption in full'.

But he is then forced to lie about the outcome of the Operation Pear Tree investigation into institutionalised links with organised crime when his senior legal counsel, Gill Biggeloe, was an active member of the Organised Crime Syndicate that killed police officers.

Theories and predictions are swirling around Line of Duty as the sixth series prepares to come to an explosive end on Sunday night.

The seventh climactic episode will be one of the most eagerly-awaited TV events of recent years.

Mr Jones, who will stand down from the role at the May 6 elections, has confessed to being an avid watcher of the series and has thoroughly enjoyed most of it.

He knows policing inside out, having served and an officer of North Wales Police before retiring as an inspector after 30 years on the force.

He was elected to become the region’s second ever PCC when as the Plaid Cymru candidate he won the 2016 election with a landslide majority of 25,000.