Line of Duty star Anna Maxwell Martin reveals SECRET of Carmichael’s evil stare!

Patricia Carmichael Line of Duty
(Image credit: BBC/World Productions)

Patricia loves giving a good stare in Line of Duty!

Line of Duty star Anna Maxwell Martin has revealed the secret of DCS Patricia Carmichael’s evil stare on the hit BBC1 drama.

The 43-year-old, who’ll soon also be seen in Motherland Season 3, is deliciously wicked as Carmichael, who dramatically swept in to take over AC-12 from under the nose of Ted Hastings in episode five.

She’s a character that Line of Duty fans love to hate and she can always be relied upon to be giving an evil look.

But Anna revealed she wasn’t quite sure what to do when asked to perform a stare, so she simply thought about what she was having for dinner!

Speaking to Craig Parkinson on his Obsessed With… Line of Duty podcast, Anna said: “I know I was asked to stare a lot and I really didn’t have any clue what I was doing so I just would think about what I was gonna have for dinner and things like that!.”

Craig then asked Anna if the character was fun to play. “Oh yeah, I love it. I love it! Absolutely love it. You could just do ANYTHING and it would be OK within the realms of Patricia Carmichael. She could just walk up to Hastings and pop her finger in his mouth and he didn’t say anything and that would be OK.”

Poor Hastings! Meanwhile, the debate rages about who is H and Carmichael is now near the top of many people’s lists of suspects.

There’s even a theory that Jimmy Lakewell told Steve Carmichael was H in episode four. Lakewell said to Steve that he needs to “Look beyond the race claim to find H.”

Now, “race claim” is an anagram of Carmichael except for the letter H! Hmm, we’re not sure about that one!

Line of Duty Season 6 continues this Sunday on BBC1 at 9pm (see our TV Guide for full listings).

David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.


Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 


David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.


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