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Line Of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar drops Hastings plot twist

Star reveals "it's not looking good" for his character

Actor Adrian Dunbar has dropped a huge hint that his Line Of Duty character Superintendent Ted Hastings could be a corrupt cop.

Speaking on today’s Lorraine, the actor revealed: “It’s not looking good for Ted, it has to be said.”

He also revealed: “At the end of the last episode there was this indication that maybe something was happening with Hastings. He does comes under scrutiny in the new series.”

Adrian Dunbar on Ted Hastings
Line Of Duty returns this Sunday, with Adrian Dunbar hinting Ted Hastings could be a baddie (Credit: ITV)

Fan of the show Lorraine Kelly quipped: “If he turns out to be a bad ‘un that’s it then. I can’t believe anybody about anything.”

Read more: Adrian Dunbar reveals suspicious scenes were added in at last minute

“Nobody is safe. That’s the way Jed Mercurio writes,” Adrian said. “We’ve had Danny Mays, Jason Watkins and Jessica Raine and bumpf, they’ve gone.”

Asked if the stars of the show know how the series will end at the start of filming, Adrian confirmed the scripts are drip-fed to the cast and his co-star Vicky McClure is always the first to read them.

Line Of Duty Ted Hastings on Lorraine
The actor wasn’t giving much away ahead of the first episode going out this weekend (Credit: ITV)

He laughed: “Vicky is the first to read them and then she’ll text me and Martin [Compston, who plays DS Steve Arnott] and say things like: ‘Oh my god, you won’t believe what’s happening to you in episode two.'”

He added: “She winds us up a bit.”

Revealing that “you get to know a little bit then you can speculate what happens after that”, Adrian said that writer Jed keeps the last episode of the series “fluid”.

“I think Jed probably likes to see how things are progressing, what it’s looking like before he makes definite decisions about the last episode.”

With the nation hooked, Lorraine asked the question on everybody’s lips – how long will the series continue?

Read more: Martin Compston teases most dangerous Line Of Duty villain yet

“We’re going to do series six,” Adrian confirmed, “but whether we’ll all be in it we don’t know. What’s going to happen in it, nobody knows.”

He added: “In a returning series you never really know if you’re going to survive, but in this series you really don’t know if you’re going to survive. It’s down to Mercurio.”

Line Of Duty series five promo shot
Stephen Graham joins Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian in this series (Credit: BBC)

With the nation hooked, this time AC-12 go after the head of the Balaclava Men gang John Corbett, played by “brilliant” guest star Stephen Graham.

Earlier in the week, Martin Compston described the new villain as the show’s “most dangerous” yet.

Line Of Duty series five kicks off on BBC One on Sunday March 31 at 9pm.

Do you think Hastings will turn out to be a baddie? Head over to our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and leave us a comment to let us know!


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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