WARNING. Spoilers ahead.
Line Of Duty fans have spotted a mind-blowing clue that they believe suggests Marcus Thurwell is not dead at all.
Sunday night’s episode of the hit BBC cop drama saw the character found dead at his villa in Spain following an AC-12 operation with Spanish police.
Superintendent Ted Hastings and his team watched armed officers raid Thurwell’s property through live bodycam footage, before the bodies of Thurwell and an unidentified female were found.
However, fans noticed that the officer on the footage bore a strong resemblance to James Nesbitt, who plays Thurwell.
With the former officer suspected of being in league with organised crime, fans believe he could have staged his own death to evade justice.
As we already revealed, there’s other evidence to suggest Marcus Thurwell is not dead.
Not only did we not see the face of the dead body in the villa, but there’s also the small matter of how James Nesbitt’s appearance in Line Of Duty leaked in the first place.
Earlier this month, The Sun reported that a “top actor” was joining the show after the BBC Maestro website accidentally posted two scenes featuring the star in question.
The paper described how the face of a well-known actor “could be seen on a database being searched by DI Steve Arnott”, while another “short scene in which the character appears was also shown”.
Assuming James was the only “top actor” The Sun was talking about, we’ve yet to see him actually appear in the show, as so far, his character has only been seen in pictures and mugshots.
Therefore, it would suggest there’s at least one scene we’ve yet to see that features James as Marcus Thurwell.
While question marks still remain over Thurwell’s fate, things looked much more definite for Ryan Pilkington.
Following last week’s tense cliffhanger, it was revealed he had not survived his tense armed stand-off with DI Kate Fleming, with actor Gregory Piper later sharing a lengthy goodbye to the show on Twitter.
Line Of Duty concludes on Sunday at 9pm on BBC One.