What should we expect from Line of Duty season 7? | Radio Times

Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston and Vicky McClure are seldom idle. In regular rotation like the figures on a Swiss cuckoo clock, no sooner has one of them completed their latest drama series on screen, than it’s time for another one of the trio to pop up. In Radio Times parlance, due to their frequency in our pages, they are what we fondly term "friends of the magazine".

Of this phenomenon, two things are true. The first is that all three openly admit they wouldn’t have a tenth of their renown, and ability to greenlight so many solo TV projects, if they weren’t also Jed Mercurio’s chosen three – the leading alumni of the TV ratings juggernaut that was Line of Duty, his police corruption thriller that bowed out after six seasons in 2021, to an audience of 15.79 million, making it the highest rated UK drama since modern records began.

Equally, they all know that, during their many sit-down interviews with RT, they can count the minutes on one hand before the question invariably comes… "When is it coming back?" Up to now the answer has always been a variation on, "We’d love to do it, but you’d have to ask Jed.” (Notice they don’t say "ask the BBC", in acknowledgement of the fact that Beeb bosses would obviously chew Mercurio’s hand off if it were holding a script - such power do those ratings bring a writer, good to see.)

Until today when, finally, there is no need to ask, because the BBC has finally cemented the constant rumours, and confirmed that season seven is on its way. This is undoubtedly an (increasingly rare) good day to be a BBC boss, of the pop-the-cork variety, but is it good news more widely? Of course – no TV writer has been able to keep us on the edge of our seats in the way Mercurio managed through six seeasons of a show that began life as a word-of-mouth sizzler on BBC Two, made household names of its leading trio and a selling point of Mercurio’s readiness to despatch ruthlessly other, bigger guest stars. It’s a rare universe where being Stephen Graham or Daniel Mays isn’t enough to keep you in the credits. Keeley Hawes’ career was transformed with her glow-down as Lindsay Denton, and we all became as fluent in Dunbar’s Irish lyricism – "now we’re sucking diesel" - as in deliberately dense police jargon – "for the tape, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

Line of Duty finally crashed out in 2021, with the identity of arch-villain ‘H’ revealed in a season six finale that saw one of those national grid-measured moments of shared TV experience, like the old days. But was it a whimper or a bang? Many viewers groaned that ‘H’ turned out not to be some Bond super-nemesis operating from his lair, nor even Hastings himself, even if the nation couldn’t have coped with that on top of lockdown. Instead, the ultimate antagonist turned out to be ruthless dullard DSU Ian Buckells – the totem of Mercurio’s message that ineptitude allows corruption to triumph while evil sleeps. I found myself in a minority of one in being satisfied with this nuanced pay-off, while everyone else declared themselves let down, and demanded a recount.

Six years later, and the people have had their way. Contrary to all writers’ rules of leaving them wanting more, Mercurio has been persuaded to break the glass for some emergency inspiration and give his audience what it demands.

I have questions. For a start, exactly how are they going to deal with the previous resolution of H’s uncovering? Will Steve Arnott wake up and find the whole of season 6 was a Bobby-Ewing-shower situation? Or is there a tiny little Easter egg of an idea that Jed had buried away in seasons 4 or 5 for just such moments? Even if he has, having previously stuck to his principles in opting for a subtle, provocative and semi-realistic denouement instead of a High Noon shoot-out, how will he ride those two horses this time around to once again satisfy his vision while giving us braying masses what we want?

The only thing we know for sure is that, as he’s done so masterfully in the past, Mercurio will keep us guessing to the end.

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Watch Line of Duty stars Gregory Piper and Nigel Boyle discuss a potential Line of Duty season 7 at the Radio Times Covers Party back in 2022 below:

Line of Duty seasons 1-6 are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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