Line of Duty Season 7: Martin Compston says he will be ‘heartbroken’ if BBC police drama doesn’t return

Martin Compston is hopeful Line of Duty will return for another series – and says he will be “heartbroken” if he doesn’t work with the cast again.

The Greenock-born actor, who played DI Steve Arnott in the hugely-popular BBC series, was asked during an interview with ES Magazine if creator Jed Mercurio is planning a seventh series.

“The genuine answer is that we don’t know,” he said. “But that’s nothing new. Jed always takes time away from it.

“I think what I would say, the two things I would say, is that the idea that I would never work with all the guys again together would be heartbreaking.”

The 37-year-old also said he understood some fans who felt let down by the season six finale when the identity of arch villain “H” was finally revealed.

He said: “You’ve got to respect people have invested so much in this thing and everybody has a different version of their ending.”

Line of Duty stars Vicky McClure and Martin Compston, who play Kate Fleming and Steve Arnott in the popular drama. (BBC/World Productions/Steffan Hill)

Line Of Duty has become the UK’s most-watched drama series of the 21st century so far, after official ratings showed this year’s season finale had a TV audience of 15.24 million.

This is 80,000 higher than the previous record, which was set by an episode of Heartbeat on ITV back in February 2000 which had a TV audience of 15.16 million.

It means the BBC One police thriller is now the highest-rated TV drama series since March 1999, when an episode of ITV’s A Touch Of Frost won an audience of 15.83 million.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.