Line of Duty's Martin Compston almost 'pulled out' of hit BBC series for different show

Line of Duty star Martin Compston has disclosed how he nearly passed up the chance to play Steve Arnott in the hit BBC series. At 40 years old, the actor almost let go of what would become a pivotal role in his career, as he was tempted by a part in a Scottish film akin to The Godfather.

Alongside Adrian Dunbar, 65, and Vicky McClure, 41, Compston has become a household name through the show created by Jed Mercurio.

Speaking to The Big Issue, Compston shared: "When I was offered ' Line of Duty ', I'd already been offered the film The Wee Man."

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He continued: "And at the time my focus was really on The Wee Man because growing up on the west coast of Scotland, that story is so ingrained in the culture, it's like our version of The Godfather."

"So I was actually panicking. I was about to pull out of 'Line of Duty'. I'm forever grateful to my agent who said, you have to do this. I had no idea what a big success it would be. I just knew it had an amazing cast and script. I had no idea it would be that big.", reports the Mirror.

Martin recently expressed his joy, stating he was "delighted with the response" to the news of the show preparing for its seventh season. Speaking on his Radio X show with Chris Moyles, he said: "I'm delighted with the response. People are now really intrigued to see if there is another one, but there's nothing changed for us in terms of where we're at after we finish a series... We always take a year between [seasons] at least.

"The dust settles and Jed figures out whether there's a story to tell. So I'm delighted that people are so excited and so desperate to find out but, as I say, this is what we've done after every series so we'll just wait and see what he thinks."

This follows Martin's conversation with the Mirror about the future of the programme. He stated: "I'm sorry," before adding: "They're some of my closest friends, we all love Jed [Mercurio], and we'd all love to work together at some point but there are no immediate plans."

He continued: "It's just getting us all together and stuff. We'd like to but yeah, these things are a bit complicated. But there are no immediate plans."

The final episode of series six concluded on May 2, 2021, averaging around 15.39 million viewers after popularity surged during the coronavirus lockdown.

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