Adrian Dunbar has teased that the hotly anticipated new season of Line of Duty is ‘coming soon’, saying it should be released in ‘the next couple of months’.
The Irish actor, 62, who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings in the BBC police drama, also admitted it was ‘tricky’ shooting the ‘very complicated’ story out of sequence in a new interview on The Graham Norton Radio Show.
Filming for series six was suspended back in March 2020, before the cast resumed work in September after a five-month hiatus due to the Covid crisis.
Exciting: Adrian Dunbar has teased that Line of Duty series six is ‘coming soon’, saying it should be released in ‘the next couple of months’ (pictured in March 2020)
Chatting about Line of Duty with Graham, Adrian said: ‘The story is this: first of all BBC One are repeating season two from next Saturday night.
‘Beyond that then of course we have finished. We started, like everybody else we stopped in March because of lockdown, and then we picked it up again basically after I did the travel series [Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland].
‘It will go out, I suppose, within the next couple of months, I’d imagine.’
Adrian also reflected on making the latest series which also stars Vicky McClure as Kate Fleming and Martin Compston as Steve Arnott as other members of AC-12.
AC-12: The Irish actor, 62, who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings in the BBC police drama alongside co-stars Vicky McClure as Kate Fleming and Martin Compston as Steve Arnott
He explained: ‘We were shooting out of sequence all over the place, so it was kind of tricky getting your head around what all the time is a very complicated story.
‘Is it going to be up to the same standards? We’re on tenterhooks waiting for it to come out.’
‘It’s turned into an event of course because people do watch it in real time, because of the storyline, because of the twists and turns.
‘We all tend to do that, sit back and go “here we go”. So, fingers crossed. Kelly Macdonald is playing the lead this time, and yeah it’s coming soon.’
Adrian was also positive about their being even more series of the show to come, crediting Line of Duty’s creator with keeping the standards high.
Keep them coming! Adrian also seemed positive about the prospect of the show continuing beyond six seasons as the quality has remained so high (pictured in the BBC show)
He said: ‘I think as long as there’s an appetite from our audience for the show, we’ll keep going. Why would we stop?
‘We’ve managed to keep the standard, Jed (Mercurio, the show’s creator) rather, has managed to keep the standard so high for so long, and people love the show. I hope it does go on.’
‘But of course everything is finite, I see Peaky Blinders is coming off after six fabulous seasons. When it ends, it will end, and we’ll have all had the most wonderful time.’
Adrian also admitted that he is ‘nervous’ about the upcoming series because of the stop-start nature of filming in another interview with RTE Radio One’s Ryan Tubridy.
He said he is usually able to get an understanding for how shooting has gone, but said he can only hope this series will be ‘the same standard’ as the previous five.
Not long to go: The show is thought to be returning to screens in March, however no exact date has yet to be announced (pictured Martin Compson, Adrian Dunbar and Vicky McClure)
He explained: ‘I’m a bit nervous. I haven’t got a handle on it, you know what I mean?
‘Usually, you’ve got a good feeling of overall of how it’s all gone. But this time it’s been a bit more difficult to kind of get a handle on it. I’m nervous about it. I’m hoping it’s going to be of the same standard as usual, fingers crossed.’
Elsewhere in his radio interview with Graham on Sunday, the actor chatted about his upcoming new show Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland.
The two-part show will air on Thursday 4 February on Channel 5, and will see Adrian reconnect with his roots as he travels the wild and rugged west and north coasts of Ireland.
Speaking about the perks of filming the show, Adrian told Graham: ‘I’m just doing what everybody else really wants to do at the minute which is get out in the fresh air, meet some lovely people, eat some great food and see some incredible places.’
Adrian filmed much of the show in Graham’s ‘neck of the woods’, visiting many places for the first time: ‘I try to get out to The Skelligs, and people will know The Skelligs from Star Wars and so forth, but they really are the most incredible monastic settlement on this island off the south coast, the Kerry coast.
‘I tried to get out a couple of times before with the family but never made it. They got us out onto it and it really is a big alpha destination. It’s an incredible place, hugely spiritual. I think some of the visuals we have on The Skelligs are just incredible.’
Adrian filmed the series at the end of the first lockdown last March and told Graham that he ‘got the place to myself, which is an absolutely extraordinary thing’ as some repairs were being done and the location was closed.
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New project: The actor has also worked on show Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland in the past year, which will air on Thursday 4 February on Channel 5