Adrian Dunbar on why the pressure is piling up for Hastings in Line of Duty - contains spoilers!
Could Superintendent Ted Hastings, played by Adrian Dunbar, really be a bent copper? After last week’s jaw-dropping episode of BBC1 thriller Line of Duty, which saw the demise of undercover officer John Corbett (Stephen Graham), expect plenty more shocks as the hunt for elusive corrupt officer ‘H’ steps up a gear.
TV & Satellite Week interrogated Adrian Dunbar to find out more about what Hastings is up to in Line of Duty…
TV & Satellite Week: Hastings has been acting suspiciously in this series of Line of Duty, could he really be ‘H’?
Adrian Dunbar: “You know you are not going to get anything out of me! But I can say Ted is under suspicion and his background is still being explored because he’s got a difficult personal life.”
TVSW: Will we get to the truth about him?
AD: “Well we have to clear up one way or another if Hastings is tactically or completely involved. Police work is a vocation to him, but he is struggling to be good. But it’d be strange for Ted to turn out to be a baddie don't you think?!”
TVSW: Did you know from the start how things were going to pan out in this run?
AD: “No, the writer Jed Mercurio doesn't give us any idea. Certainly with the last episode he’s always fluid where that’s going to go. Initially we get two or three scripts and the first thing you do is check you’re not dead! But it’s great because then you’re not making decisions based on how things will end because you don’t know. So everything’s very immediate and it keeps it alive.”
[Anna Maxwell Martin joins the show for the final two episodes]
TVSW: Do you still get a great reaction from viewers?
AD: “Oh we get so much good feedback from the public. They always say, ‘Don’t tell us anything!’ They like to watch it live and they like knowing that everybody else is watching it at the same time. There’s so much to digest at the end of every episode with all the twists, the excitement is in trying to guess where it is going to go.”
TVSW: Are the police still fans too?
AD: “Yes I get a lot of warmth and recognition from police, which is nice because you need the police on your side sometimes! I was in London the other day and these cops came flying down the hill and they stopped and rolled the window down and went, ‘Wahey!’ I went, ‘Alright lads, carry on.’”
Line of Duty continues on Sunday on BBC1 at 9pm
