Will Line of Duty return for season 7?

Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar has appeared to confirm series seven will happen, saying they are just waiting for "the grown-ups to make an announcement". However, his co-star Vicky McClure sounded less sure as she said "until we all say something's happening, nothing's happening".

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.

Meanwhile, Anna Maxwell Martin who played the icy DCS Patricia Carmichael in seasons five and six has said she would return to the show "in a heartbeat".

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

Will Line of Duty season 7 happen?

Adrian Dunbar gave the clearest signal of a series seven on the horizon yet in November 2024, when he told Lorraine there was "definitely" somewhere new for the story to go following H's season six reveal.

He added of a new series: "Everybody wants to. There's more than a little bit of hope that it's going to happen, it's just when the powers that be, the grown-ups, decide to make an announcement about it.

"We don't want to tease the British public forever about it. We want it to happen, everybody wants it to happen, it just depends when all the stars align."

Dunbar added of show creator Jed Mercurio: "Of course, Jed has to write it. We have to put him in the shed at the bottom of the garden and let him get on with it."

Earlier the same week, he had told Times Radio: "All the signals and everything is [positive] but until the script hits the desk, you can’t be 100 per cent sure. We’re all hoping that someone somewhere will make an announcement and say, ‘Yes, it’s happening’. And we can all take it from there. I can tell you one thing … the day they announce it, it’s going to burn up the internet."

But just a few weeks later, Vicky McClure appeared to put a dampener on fan excitement as she told Good Morning Britain "until we all say something's happening, nothing's happening".

Asked about the Instagram post of her and co-stars Dunbar and Martin Compston riding through London in a rickshaw together, she explained: "It's not even that we're teasing, we very rarely get together now. We're all all over the shop, we're all flying around, so the fact that me, Martin, Adi and Jed were all in London at the same time gets us over excited.

"So we were walking to the restaurant and it was like oh, there's a rickshaw, let's jump on it. It was an impulsive moment and then we just go, oh, we're going Instagram live. Because we know people will enjoy it."

Pressed on season seven plans, she added: "Look, I've said a million times, as has Martin, Adi and Jed, we all love the show and we love how much people love it. We're in a very lucky spot with that. But until Jed and we all say something's happening, nothing's happening."

Host Ed Balls asked: "You can't do a one-off Christmas special, can you?" and McClure laughed: "Oh no, no time for that."

Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin, who played terrifying DCS Patricia Carmichael in seasons five and six, and spoke to This Morning in October 2024 about featuring as the character everyone loved to hate.

"I love Pat. I'd do that again in a heartbeat, that part, I absolutely had a laugh. (The audience) didn't like her, but you know...good!" she said.

Maxwell Martin added of joining the main cast: "I didn't feel pressure because I felt so lucky. Some jobs, you just think, oh my god I feel so lucky to be here. I would have made a cup of tea in the back of shot - I just felt really lucky to be there. I didn't feel pressure. I just thought, yippee."

The show's main trio Adrian Dunbar, Martin Compston and Vicky McClure also proved they were as close as ever in October 2024, sharing a video of an AC-12 reunion in the back of a party rickshaw as they sang along to Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive.

In the video captioned "AC12 oot and aboot", McClure said they were "trying to get to a restaurant" but the stars broke off from singing to point out a row of police vans parked at the side of the road as they shouted out "police!".

Adrian 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