Line of Duty

Filming for the new series started up again in September and is still ongoing, with Adrian Dunbar, Vicky McClure and Martin Compston reprising their roles as detectives Superintendent Ted Hastings, DI Kate Fleming and DS Steve Arnott.

AC-12, the anti-corruption unit, will be met with a new, inscrutable adversary called DCI Joanne Davidson, played by Kelly Macdonald (Giri/Haji),

The series will pick up a year and a half after the closure of Operation Pear Tree, with Hastings returning to head up the unit after his exoneration at the end of series five.

Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio decided he probably should learn to write – after he’d already penned a hit BBC drama series. “I did it backwards,” the former medic told the RTS Midlands Careers Fair 2020.

Mercurio had been a junior doctor working in Birmingham hospitals when he replied to an advert in the British Medical Journal. It had been placed by a production company looking for drama ideas.

The Line of Duty big guns Ted Hastings, Kate Fleming and Steve Arnott will pause hunting down bent coppers to become experienced channel hoppers, with co-stars Adrian Dunbar, Vicky McClure and Martin Compston joining the show.

Adrian Dunbar commented: “It’s an honour to be part of the esteemed Gogglebox line up especially when it’s raising money for the phenomenal work Stand Up To Cancer do.”

Line of Duty 

BBC iPlayer​

Line of Duty has become a national institution, with series six still to come.

In a whole new spin on the police procedural, Line of Duty puts the coppers themselves under the microscope, as the series follows the anti-corruption investigations of AC Unit 12.

Set in contemporary London, the six-part series portrays the death-defying and life-saving work of the Metropolitan Police Bomb Disposal Squad, also known as “Expo”.

A summer terrorist campaign wreaks havoc on the capital, and it’s up to Expo to defuse a series of improvised explosive devices.

Vicky McClure (Line of Duty) plays the experienced but reckless operative Lana Washington. As Lana begins to suspect her unit is the bomber’s true target, she sets out on a desperate search for proof and the bomber’s identity.

Series six of the police procedural will rejoin AC-12 a year and a half on from the closure of Operation Pear Tree, following the Unit in their investigation of Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald), who is working on an unsolved murder case.

“DCI Joanne Davidson will prove the most enigmatic adversary AC-12 have ever faced,” said writer and showrunner Jed Mercurio.

Coventry’s Guz Khan took home the Best Male Actor award for his performance in Tiger Aspect’s BBC Three comedy series Man Like Mobeen and the Best Writer prize, jointly with co-writer Andy Milligan. The two prizes, presented at the late-November ceremony, brought Khan’s tally to five RTS Midlands Awards in just two years.

Davidson is the senior investigating officer of an unsolved murder, but her unconventional methods raises suspicion at AC-12.

Macdonald is best known for her roles in Trainspotting, No Country for Old Men and has recently starred in The Victim and Giri/Haji.

Filming for series six begins next year and Macdonald will join Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar, who have all been confirmed to return.

More than 350 people attended a series of workshops, masterclasses and panel events run by industry professionals from across the creative sector.

BBC Studios talent manager Julie Forbes and BBC NI senior resourcing advisor Nicola McConville ran a CV masterclass. The duo offered advice on how to break into the competitive TV and film industries, and gave one-to-one “creative clinics” to hone interview skills and CVs. Their tips included: “Never send the same CV twice – get to know the companies around you.”