Ridley's Adrian Dunbar reveals how a friend's tragedy is at the heart of police drama

Set two years after the original 2022 season, the new episodes follow Alex as he works with his former protégée DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh), while still coping with his grief following the death of his wife and adult daughter four years before — a grief that causes him to imagine his daughter is still alive when he sees a woman who looks similar to her.

That heartbreaking scene in the first episode is directly inspired by one of Dunbar’s friends.

"I remembered there was someone I knew, whose daughter had died tragically in a car crash, and he never quite got over it," Dunbar said in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"He never got over it to the extent that he didn’t quite believe that she was dead, and that somehow he would turn a corner and she'd be there. It’s a kind of strange reluctance of the mind to accept something.

"So I thought, when a young girl shows up at the start [of the first episode], why don't we try and let Ridley immediately project onto her? Because I know this person did this, he would meet a young woman who was so close to the attributes of his daughter and it was almost like she had shown up."

"These things can be disturbing. So I thought, let’s use that element. I didn’t want to leave his grief behind," explained Dunbar.

"The first series was set two years beyond that moment [when his wife and daughter died], and then at the start of the second series it is another two years along, but that particular incident of losing his wife and daughter, that is the noise in the background for the rest of his life, and so it’s never going to leave him.

"At the same time, I think it’s important for audiences that there is an element of being able to move on from grief, because we have to, as humans. But I’m trying to do it in a gradual way. And if we get another series, we’ll be able to move him on further."

As well as revealing his hopes for a third season of Ridley, Dunbar shares that a new seventh season of Line of Duty with Martin Compston and Vicky McClure is definitely on the way in 2026, though no date has yet been set for filming to begin.

"I wish I could give you a definite date we're starting, you know, like January 18th. I wish I could tell you that, but I don't know," he said.

"I do know that Jed [Mercurio, creator] has written lots of stuff. I do know that the three of us have been contacted, and we've all said yes, and then it's down to our friends at the BBC to make the announcement as to when we're going to start filming.

"But I think it's more or less on the cards that next year we will be working back in Belfast. Fantastic, yes, hopefully solving another few cases."

Despite his singing in jazz club scenes in Ridley and having taken to the musical stage earlier this year as the lead in Kiss Me Kate, Dunbar doesn’t think his vocal talents will be put to use in the next Line of Duty run, however.

"You can't imagine Ted Hastings really getting up and grabbing the mic, can you?" he laughed. "I think he'd have to have a few glasses of whiskey first. I do think a Line of Duty musical episode would be good, but I can't see Jed writing it.

"Might have to hand the writing over of it to someone else — I don't think Jed has got the kind of humorous chops to deal with that. If he wrote it, 'Leave That Dead Girl Alone' would be one of the songs!"

Ridley returns to ITV1 and ITVX on Sunday 10th August 2025.

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