Martin Compston has opened up on the possibility of a seventh series of Line of Duty, as well as speaking about the surprise James Nesbitt cameo in the sixth series, and how he met his wife by singing Irish songs in a bar in LA.
The Scottish actor, who plays Steve Arnott on Line of Duty, was speaking on the Table Manners podcast, with Jessie and Lennie Ware.
He was promoting his new series, the four-part drama Our House, which is currently running on ITV.
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Asked about whether we'd see a return of Line of Duty in the future, Martin was deliberately guarded, but told his hosts: "My party line is - I'm delighted that people have taken it so much to the heart. Every time we finish a series we've always took two years off. It's gotten so big that people are determined to find out what's happening next, as if there's some big mystery, but it's the same as we've always done it.
"Jed lets it go for a year because he wants people to be excited, but also because he wants to see if there's a story there. If he doesn't think there's a story, it won't come back."
The actor was also quizzed on the surprising -but short-lived - cameo of James Nesbitt in Line of Duty's sixth series. Fans of the show may remember that James Nesbitt's image was used several times for the character of Marcus Thurwell - a corrupt officer who AC-12 were investigating - but that he never made an actual appearance.
Lennie Ware asked Compston about the theory that James Nesbitt was supposed to have a bigger role - possibly as 'H' - but that this plan was scuppered because of Covid.
Martin, laughing, confirmed that this wasn't the case. He said: "No, Jimmy was on another show which Jed had done, and just - for a favour to throw in a red herring - he came in and got his picture taken, and that's all it was.
"When I saw it, it opens up this whole other world where it could've been him. But no, it's a wild theory."
The actor added that he's enjoyed seeing some of the theories which fans have offered over the course of watching the show.
He said: "There is some wild theories out there, which is fun, especially when you see it on Twitter after, and some of them are pretty close. Some people are bang on with some of the things. There was some going about that I was somebody's son, because there was an acronym or something, and I was going to Jed asking him was it true, but it wasn't it."
Martin Compston also said that it was overwhelming seeing millions of people tuning in each Sunday to watch the show. He revealed that the structure of week-by-week episodes would never change, even in the era of streaming on demand.
He also added that the intensity of those weeks when the show actually came out was sometimes "too much" for him.
"The first episodes started during the end of lockdown, two episodes in lockdown, and the build up was too much. By the last episode I was desperate for it to end, it was intense," he said.
"And it was surreal, people were watching it in the garden in the pubs, like a football match. We were aware when there's such a frenzy like that, people thinking it's going to go one way, and it doesn't go like that."
The 37-year old actor also opened up about first meeting his wife, Tianna Chanel Flynn, and how he used his Irish heritage to woo her.
He told the hosts: "She was the hostess in a bar in LA. I was over for 'Pilot season'. So in January to March, the whole acting world would descend on LA. My friend and I had a tradition that, when we arrived, we'd go on the piss the first day. So we went to this place on a Monday which was doing Happy Hour, and it was completely dead.
"And my wife, who's strikingly beautiful, was serving us. She was this mixed race American girl, but she had a Claddagh Ring on, so I asked her why and she said her dad was Irish."
He revealed that he knew that she wasn't 'promised' to anyone by the way the ring was pointed on her finger, and that his own Irish connections helped him out.
"The ring was turned the other way on her finger - so that means it's game on!" he joked.
"I'd grown up a west coast Scottish Catholic - a Celtic fan - so to impress her I sang 'Fields of Athenry' and I sang 'Grace' to her, which is one of the most beautiful songs ever written."
Listen to the full podcast here.
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