Line of Duty fans were thrilled last month when it was confirmed that the beloved police thriller would be returning to screens for its seventh season, with Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar all set to reprise their legendary roles.
While details about the show's next outing are understandably being kept under wraps for the time being, Martin, who plays DI Steve Arnott on the show, has opened up about the co-stars who are set to appear alongside him. While he also didn't reveal anything about the possible cast, he teased during a Radio X appearance that "some of the other cast they've got coming in is quite exciting".
The show has attracted an incredible guest cast over the years, including the likes of Keeley Hawes, Stephen Graham, James Nesbitt, Thandiwe Newton and Kelly Macdonald. Recounting Keeley's best roles, The Killing Times, which focuses on crime shows, called her portrayal of DI Lindsay Denton "complex and unpredictable".
Appearing in the show could serve as a massive boost for a star's careers, with many of the lead actors and actresses picking up award nominations and wins for portrayals on the show. Keeley Hawes, Stephen Graham, Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston and Vicky McClure have all picked up awards during their time on the show.
One new character has been confirmed for the show, although the casting hasn't yet been announced. Detective Inspector Dominic Gough is described as a "a charismatic officer winning plaudits for a string of takedowns of organised crime" who is accused of "abusing his position of trust to act as a sexual predator".
Martin also promised that show creator, Jed Mecurio, had come up with a "great story" before addressing the gap between this season and the last, which aired back in 2021.
© World Productions/Steffan Hill"We always thought we'd do another one, but we just didn't want to give people false hope and say, 'Look, we're doing one' and then, as it has been, it's been five years," he explained.
Despite the long gap between this series and the previous one, the show has been one of the BBC's most popular dramas since it started airing in 2012. The sixth season's finale became the most-watched piece of TV in the 21st century, attracting 15.24 million viewers, surpassing an episode of Heartbeat, which had been broadcast in February 2000, which had attracted 15.16 million viewers.
Upcoming seventh season
When the show's return was announced, a much smaller AC-12 was confirmed as one of the major storylines. The unit has been disbanded and rebranded the Inspectorate of Police Standards. The synopsis says: "Anti Corruption work has never been more difficult and in this challenging climate Steve Arnott, Kate Fleming and Ted Hastings are assigned their most sensitive case so far."
© Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock PhotoHELLO!'s Acting TV and Film editor, Nicky Morris said that the show had plenty of questions to answer when it does eventually return. Some of those include whether the likes of Ian 'H' Buckells and Marcus Thurwell, played by Nigel Boyle and James Nesbitt respectively, will return, and whether show stalwart, Captain Ted Hastings could be a corrupt officer himself.
In the sixth season, DI Buckells was exposed as 'H', the criminal mastermind with links to police and organised crime, although it was a twist that left many viewers frustrated. Adrian Dunbar even said at the time: "He's not 'H'. We just got the guy we could actually pin a charge on. We didn't get 'H', we got Buckells, the patsy."
© BBCJames, meanwhile, played Marcus Thurwell, an officer suspected of being H before seemingly being found dead by the Spanish police. Fans have, however, theorised that the officer had faked his death, leaving a possible door open to his return.
She mused: "AC-12's commanding officer managed to explain his way out of the infamous 'definately' misspelling, saying he was posing as 'H' after studying the OCG messages, but he's come under suspicion numerous times over the years and are we totally convinced that he's not bent? While it appears as though Hastings remains the moral compass of AC-12, Mercurio isn't afraid to shock viewers with a major twist. "
