Will Line of Duty return for season 7?

Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar has offered hope to fans for a season seven, saying the cast "are all up for it".

Fans of Jed Mercurio's hit BBC show have made it clear they want to see more from AC-12 following the conclusion of the sixth season, which aired in 2021.

The show's main cast, which also includes Martin Compston and Vicky McClure, are regularly quizzed on when it could return. And Dunbar has now said everybody's fingers are crossed.

Here is everything the stars have said about a possible new season.

Will Line of Duty season 7 happen?

Dunbar opened up about the possibility of another run on Good Morning Britain, as host Susanna Reid said the "wee donkey" should return, a reference to a line said by Dunbar's character Superintendent Ted Hastings.

He replied: "Well I think so, Vicky thinks so, Martin thinks so, everybody thinks so. So, you know, it will be down to the BBC and Dr Jed Mercurio, I think, you know, whether we kind of… When and whether we do it."

"We are all up for it," said the actor. "We are keeping our fingers crossed.

"Hopefully somebody will make a decision at some point and everybody will go, ‘Oh they are off again!’”

Vicky McClure was quizzed on the likelihood of a season seven by This Morning in May 2024 and admitted the cast would all be keen.

The actor, who plays Kate Fleming, said: "I mean look, we've all said we love the show, we would want to go again, obviously. But there's nothing to talk about so it's really disappointing in terms of no news."

This Morning host Cat Deeley asked whether no news was good news that it hadn't been cancelled and McClure joked: "I'm just going to get this cushion and put it over my face..."

"We're so lucky, we love the show and we can't tell you how grateful we are," she continued. "I never would have expected to be in something that has that kind of support from the audience, so it is amazing. But I would hate to start a rumour."

Martin Compston, who stars as DI Steve Arnott, told The Mirror in April 2024 that there are "no immediate plans" for a seventh season of Line of Duty. The actor cited scheduling difficulties as the main issue surrounding its MIA status, saying: "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."

In a separate chat with The Sun in January 2024, he said: "Genuinely, there's no plans at all. We all love each other more than just colleagues now, they're some of my dearest friends, and we'd all love to work together at some point, but there's no plans."

He added: "I don't think Jed [Mercurio] would ever write it for the sake of writing it, it would have to be with a story. We went out on such a high in terms of [viewing] figures; maybe it's the best way to leave it. I know that's probably not what people want to hear.

"Never say never but with these things, the longer you leave it… but we still speak, if not daily, weekly, all of us. I miss hanging out with all of them. It was a great feeling being able to go to work with people you call best friends every day."

In June 2023, he told This Morning that he and the rest of the cast would "all love to do one at some point", but cautioned: "Unless you hear anything from us, I'd just leave it at that."

McClure said in June 2022 that she'd like to do another series because the sixth was shot during the coronavirus pandemic.

She told Good Morning Britain: "We've been working together for over 10 years now and you know, the last series was incredible in terms of the response that we got, but it was really quite tough to shoot because obviously it was within COVID so it would be lovely to go back and not end on that kind of way."

Dunbar also dropped a possible hint when he shared that he, McClure and Compston were getting together with Mercurio for a meal.

He told This Morning in August 2022: "We are going to have a curry. We are all just kind of really keen to get back together, we'd all like to see each other again."

Mercurio hasn't confirmed anything either, but after the sixth season he told the Radio Times that part of it came down to them "finding new stories to tell within that universe".

What would Line of Duty season 7 look like?

There are rumours that Line of Duty could come back for some sort of mini-series.

Dunbar previously teased that a future instalment could air as two 90-minute specials rather than a series of six episodes.

He told The Times: "There's a big appetite for more Line of Duty. It could be three or four episodes; I don't think there’s going to be six, for some reason. It might be two 90 minutes. But it’s all entirely down to Jed what the storyline is going to be. It’s a big ask for him."

Line of Duty is streaming on BBC iPlayer