As Line of Duty continues to shoot its highly anticipated seventh season, star Adrian Dunbar has revealed the unexpected drawback to returning to the smash hit BBC show: it’s just too bloody hot while filming it.
The actor, who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings on the series, has spoken in a new interview about working in Belfast on the new series, teasing that he and his castmates are “happy to be back together”. He added that series creator Jed Mercurio has “written a fabulous script and I don’t think he’s going to disappoint the public”.
However, he issued a single complaint while talking to The Times during one of this summer’s heatwaves. Asked what it’s like to wear one of the show’s trademark bulletproof vests during the hot weather, Dunbar expressed annoyance.
“You’ve put your finger on something there,” he said. “We’re dying in the heat! We’re filming inside an old building without air conditioning – the heat is unbelievable.”
Line of Duty is the biggest British crime drama in recent years, and follows the intricate investigations of AC-12, a squad of detectives tasked with rooting out corruption within the force. Dunbar stars alongside Vicky McClure and Martin Compston.
Many believed series six, unveiled in 2021, brought the show to a close, as it appeared to wrap up the long-running mystery of “H”, the name given to a crooked officer working within the upper echelons of the force.
But viewers widely panned the finale, which was watched by a staggering 12.8 million, as “disappointing”, and now the show has been brought back.
The identity of “H” was revealed as bumbling DSI Ian Buckells, the twist being that Buckells was not a “criminal mastermind” as AC-12 believed “H” was, but instead an individual who did small favours for several organised crime groups.
Dunbar said last year that he predicted the backlash as the episode “robbed us of a huge denouement”, adding: “When you find out it is this idiot, Buckells, it is so frustrating. There is a scene where the three of us are told who it is, and we look at each other and go, ‘What?’ We asked Jed to write that scene because we realised how our audience would feel.
“But Jed’s point was that police corruption can hang on one cop deciding to ignore one piece of information that comes across his desk.”
In the surprise seventh season, Dunbar, McClure and Compston will be joined by Trainspotting’s Robert Carlyle, who was cast as one of the high-profile guest stars for the hit show’s forthcoming new series.
It’s also been revealed that the new series will reintroduce the plotline surrounding “H”.
