Make this make sense.

The 5 Fairford suspects spent 36 hours in police custody.

The police claim extensive interviews were made.

36 hours under arrest.

What 36 hours actually contains

Under PACE, the clock doesn't all go to interviewing. You have to subtract:

Custody processing (booking, medical checks, risk assessments) — typically 1–2 hours

Right to a solicitor — each suspect is entitled to legal representation, and interviews can't proceed without it being offered

Mandatory breaks — 1 hour per 2 hours of interviewing, plus an 8-hour break in any 24-hour period

Staggering — five suspects means five separate interviewers (or sequential sessions), not one shared interrogation room

After all that, a realistic effective interview window per suspect is roughly 6–10 hours in that timeframe. That's enough for an initial detailed account, a showback of evidence (phones, CCTV, scene photos), and a follow-up on inconsistencies — but it's not the multi-day, multi-session deep interrogation you'd get under the Terrorism Act's 14-day regime.