Last week’s season six finale of Line of Duty had fans (including us) divided. On one hand, it was a fairly logical ending, on the other hand – all that build up for, well… that? It set our WhatsApp chats alight with hope that there would be a seventh season of the BBC franchise on the horizon – especially when it was revealed that the final episode pulled in a whopping 12 million viewers.
So, what do we know so far? Well, we know that more episodes of the Brit crime drama haven’t been ruled out. Jed Mercurio who is the show’s creator, told The Radio Times: “We’re in a situation where it’s not entirely clear that there will be a seventh series”.
He added: “We would hope there could be. But we’re having to do our planning coming out of COVID, and a whole bunch of other things, around the idea that these things aren’t guaranteed at all now. A lot of it depends on the key creatives – that’s me and the main actors – finding new stories to tell within that universe”.
The BBC also weighed in on the chat about the future of Line Of Duty. BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore said earlier this week: “I’m looking forward to having a conversation with the team about where we go next and what the future of the series might be.”
She also took the opportunity to congratulate Jed, the cast and the crew for “delivering such an incredible drama series.”
Without throwing any spoilers into the mix – whilst the identity of the ‘fourth man’ was finally revealed at the end of the sixth season, it does feel like there are a lot of questions still left unanswered. And, without a dramatic conclusion to the show, the writers have certainly left space for a future series.
Have the lead actors said anything? Well, yes. Adrian Dunbar who plays Ted Hastings has confirmed he’d love the show to continue. He told reporters: “We’ve got to do another series – We’ve got to get onto Jed and say ‘Look, we’ve got to do one that’s not like when we were in lockdown. We’ve got to do one where we’re back on the ground, we’re out there, we’re in the city, we’re having fun”.
Whilst Martin Compston who plays Steve Arnott said: “I think with Jed, there’s always potential for it to go on. He could always start a new case, there’s always anti-corruption out there, as he would say.”
Season six began airing back in March (this season had seven episodes compared to the usual six) and was delayed due to the pandemic affecting filming. Prior to that there had been roughly two years between each season, meaning that if there were to be an eight series it wouldn’t be hitting our screens until at least spring 2023.
Our gut feeling? It’s just a matter of time before Jed confirms what we’re all hoping for…
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