Now we’re sucking diesel... Adrian Dunbar has given hope to Line of Duty fans by hinting there could be a seventh series.
The actor said he was hopeful that writer Jed Mercurio was working on a fresh outing for his much-loved character Ted Hastings and the rest of the AC12 team.
While there has been no official update so far, Adrian said: “I think generally there’s a willingness amongst everybody to do something – but I think we’re just gonna have to wait a little bit longer.”
Adrian, 64, said it would feel wrong to end with a series made during lockdown, when he and co-stars Vicky McClure and Martin Compson were unable to have as much fun as they usually do.
On filming the sixth series, screened last year on BBC1, he said: “It wasn’t quite as fun. We couldn’t hang out, we couldn’t go out. We were all in a kind of bubble so it didn’t have the same feel – which is one of the reasons we’d like to do another one.”
He also defended last year’s revelation of bent copper Ian Buckells as elusive criminal mastermind H, which led to a fan backlash.
He said: ”Even though it was kind of frustrating for the audience who probably thought we were going to have a big reveal, you can’t really introduce a big-reveal character within one episode to go over a 10-year series.”
Asked if he would ever consider a spin-off for Ted, he told RadioTimes.com: “You’ll always be in the market for considering whatever people throw at you. So I mean, that would be interesting. Yes is the answer to that, I suppose.”
It could mean another outing for Ted’s “Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey” catchphrase. He said: “Everybody loves that. Coming up to Christmas, I think there’ll be even more wee donkeys about.”
He is currently fronting Channel 5’s Adrian Dunbar: My Ireland, a follow-up to his previous series Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland.
In it, he takes viewers to some of his favourite places including the homes of old mates. He said: “I get to visit some friends who I know so that makes the whole thing very easy to do and very kind of casual.”
He also has hopes of a second run of ITV series Ridley, in which he plays a retired detective who sings. “I can’t say for certain but the noises are very positive,” he said.d
