The actor, who played Ted Hastings in the BBC’s bent coppers’ drama, said the role touched so many because folk want those in power to do the right thing
Adrian Dunbar said viewers love his Line of Duty character so much they want him to be Prime Minister.
The actor, who played Ted Hastings in the BBC’s bent coppers’ drama, said the role meant so much because folk are desperate for those in power to do the right thing. He said the idea of ‘civic duty’ appeared to have disappeared from real public life.
Dunbar hinted a long-awaited seventh series of the smash hit show could soon be underway. He said series creator Jed Mercurio was ‘doing something’ and he himself would be ‘very busy’ next year.
Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast the star, who turned 67 on August 1, said: “There was a bit of a perfect storm of idiots running the place, especially Boris. I’m glad he’s keeping his head down.
“One of the reasons people gravitated towards the character was because they wanted to think there was somebody in charge who would do the right thing despite what personal issues it might throw up. There’s a certain thing called ‘civic duty’ which seems to have disappeared.
“Ted embodies that old school civic duty where you do the right thing no matter what. That’s why people gravitated towards his character and thought, ‘that’s who we need in charge, we need someone like that in charge’.
“Therefore I was getting all kinds of offers coming down the line including PM. People were sending me texts and things were appearing online, ‘Ted for Prime Minister’.”
Speaking about a possible return for the show he did not rule it out. “We’ll see if there’s going to be, probably going to be something else happening in the near future,” he said.
“Jed’s doing something, we’re all kind of waiting on the BBC to say, ‘yay, it’s all happening, let’s go’. But they will be making some kind of statement some time.
“I decided this year I wasn’t going to go chasing any work because I think next year is going to get busy. Famous last words of course; I have a feeling next year might be busy.
“It could have something to do with Jed. Who knows it could be another musical?”
Line of Duty – which also starred Martin Compston and Vicky McClure – started out charting the antics of police Anti-Corruption Unit 12 on BBC Two in 2012 and was such a hit more series were quickly commissioned. It became the highest-rated show on BBC Two in 10 years before being promoted to BBC One in 2017.
When its sixth series ended four years ago it was the highest-rated drama in the UK since 2002. Mercurio, 58, a former RAF officer and hospital doctor who penned all 36 episodes, directed some and served as producer, was awarded a fellowship of the Royal Television Society in 2017.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
