The BBC released first-look images Thursday from the seventh series of “Line of Duty,” confirming that Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar will return in 2027 with Robert Carlyle as a guest lead. The six-part series will air on BBC One and iPlayer, five and a half years after the sixth series ended in 2021 with an audience of about 15 million. The BBC has not set a date. Some outlets expect a January launch, which remains unconfirmed.
Compston, McClure and Dunbar again play detectives Steve Arnott, Kate Fleming and Ted Hastings. The images show them in interview rooms and, in one frame, wearing body armor inside a building. The new series opens after the anti-corruption unit AC-12 has been disbanded and rebranded as an inspectorate, and the trio receive their most sensitive case to date, according to the BBC.
That case centers on Carlyle’s character, Police Constable Shaun Massie, a veteran marksman and Specialist Rifle Officer who works with Tactical Operations Unit 7 against organized crime groups. The BBC describes him as a gruff loner. His detached manner changes when his commanding officer, Detective Inspector Dominic Gough, played by Tom Weston-Jones, faces an accusation of sexual predation. Gough is a charismatic officer praised for a string of organized-crime takedowns. The BBC’s synopsis asks whether the accusation is a deliberate distraction from a larger threat.
Laura Aikman, Levi Brown and Amy Leigh Hickman play members of Massie’s team: DC Paula Beckman, DC Luke Tobin and DC Nira Rashid. Mark Bonnar returns as former Deputy Chief Constable Mike Dryden, Owen Teale as Chief Constable Philip Osborne, Perry Fitzpatrick as DS Chris Lomax and Christina Chong as DI Nicky Rogerson.
Filming took place in Belfast and wrapped earlier this year, with World Productions, the company behind “Bodyguard” and “Vigil,” producing. Jed Mercurio created the series.
The wait has kept expectations high. McClure and Compston have both said publicly that the show would return only if the reasons were right, and fans have debated for years whether a seventh series could match the sixth, which divided viewers with its resolution of the long-running hunt for the corrupt police figure known as H. The BBC has not said how the new story connects to earlier mysteries.
