Line Of Duty’s new series will be a “head wreck” for viewers, one of its stars has promised.
Adrian Dunbar, who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings on the hit BBC police drama has revealed the first details of what to expect from the new series during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show.
And when we catch up with AC-12 as the show returns later this month, things are very different, with 18 months having passed since the events of the last series.
“The landscape has completely changed,” Adrian told Graham. “We are starting from a place that the audience will probably find a bit shocking at first.
“Things and people have been moved around so the first episode is going to be one of those ‘head-wrecks’ for the audience.”
All three lead actors, Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar are back as DS Steve Arnott, DI Kate Flemming and Superintendent Ted Hastings.
They will be joined by new addition DC Chloe Bishop, played by Shalom Brune-Franklin.
One possible change to AC-12′s set up was spotted by fans when the show’s creator Jed Mercurio posted some pictures from filming last October.
Some eagle-eyed fans noticed a tiny detail in the snaps that suggests one character has either been demoted, or is heading undercover.
The new series will see the team face their “most enigmatic adversary” yet in the form of Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson – played by Kelly Macdonald – whose suspicious conduct on an unsolved murder case attracts their attention.
The sixth season has been eagerly anticipated as it had originally been due to air in 2020, but shooting was halted for six months last March due to the pandemic.
Speaking about the show’s huge success since its humble beginnings on BBC Two in 2012, Adrian also told The Graham Norton Show: “It was a slow burn. The first series was great, but we didn’t know we would get a second one. Then we got a second one and halfway through that suddenly the numbers built and since then it’s just taken off – it’s big and the anticipation is massive. It’s intense.”
The BBC announced last week that Line Of Duty returns on Sunday 21 March at 9pm on BBC One, with the new season including an additional episode, with seven instalments instead of the usual six.
The Graham Norton Show airs on Friday at 10.45pm on BBC One.