Line Of Duty: Adrian Dunbar says he was ‘shocked’ when he saw series six’s storyline come together

Line Of Duty is set to return to the BBC on Sunday, with fans desperate to know just who is behind the mysterious identity ‘H’. 

And Adrian Dunbar, who heads AC-12’s unit as SuperIntendent Ted Hastings, admitted it was a ‘shock’ to see the series come together after the trailer was released earlier this month.

The actor, 62, admitted he found shooting series six incredibly difficult as the coronavirus pandemic meant they had to film the scenes in a non-chronological order, due to safety measures in place.

During a Q and A about the upcoming series, Adrian said of filming: ‘I did find it difficult. 

‘Jed and the directors had to remind me sometimes exactly where we were because we were jumping between scenes. You know, it’s sometimes difficult how to pitch something when you’re moving, as Vicky said, between directors and episodes.

‘I did find that pretty difficult, it was strange. Normally we shoot in blocks. We have one director for the first three episodes, then another because it is so complicated.

‘We’re used to that system but Covid just threw that completely.

‘When I saw the trailer the other day it was a shock to me, because we saw the storyline compressed. 

‘It had taken so long to do it and you have lots of elements of this storyline that as actors you’re not in possession of all the elements. 

‘Once you see it all together you think “god this really think is going to be something else.” And that slipped my mind, let’s put it like that.’ 

Producer Simon Heath explained how the show had to be halted in it’s fourth week of filming, two weeks before the nation was plunged into lockdown. 

Some of the cast and crew had been experiencing Covid symptoms and, with testing not being readily available, both Simon and writer Jed Mercurio decided to shut the production down all together.

When they returned months later, rigorous safety procedures were enforced to minimise the risk of anyone catching the virus. 

Vicky McClure, who plays DI Kate Fleming, explained a whole new set was built for AC-12’s interview room to improve ventilation. 

‘We built a set so that we had a ventilation system, you know, say AC-12 the interview room wasn’t great for Covid, it’s a glass box,’ she said.   

‘There was talk of us doing our own make up which I was sad that didn’t happen for just one day, just to see how that panned out. There was a lot of changes.

‘The schedule was probably one of the biggest changes from an actor’s perspective because it meant that we were shooting different episodes on the same day with different directors.’

Vicky added: ‘The chronological order of the episodes wasn’t possible because we were bound by location and safety.’

The nature of filming meant the producers shot more footage than planned and so had a dilemma about how the show would conclude. 

Jed explained the decision behind extending the series from six episodes to seven. 

‘It would have ended early if we had six,’ he said.

‘It wasn’t the case of planning seven, it’s the effect of the interruption shooting, for all kind of reasons related to safety. 

‘What we found when we got to the end, we initially conceived having a 90-minute episode six, but with all the additions it was pretty clear it would be two hours.

‘So we had a conversation with the BBC and the decision was to split it into two episodes.’ 

Series six will follow the dynamic AC-12 trio investigating the force’s highest profile murder to date. 

Guest lead Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) is assigned as the senior investigating officer on the unsolved murder case, but her suspicious conduct attracts the attention of the anti-corruption team.

Shalom Brune-Franklin, 26 — who has appeared in BBC’s Our Girl alongside Michelle Keegan — is the new addition to the AC-12 team as Detective Constable Chloe Bishop.  

Some viewers branded the finale of the fifth series, which aired in May 2019 and drew more than nine million viewers, as an ‘anti-climax’, after it was revealed that mysterious criminal mastermind H was in fact code for four people.

So fans will be hoping the show finally reveals the fourth person’s identity — and the teaser suggests it might not be a man they are looking for.

This series of the Jed Mercurio drama features seven episodes, the longest to date.

Line of Duty will return on Sunday 21 March at 9pm on BBC One.