Will Line Of Duty return for season 7?

Line Of Duty star Martin Compston has dashed fan hopes of the police show arriving back on our screens in 2024, with the disappointing update that there are "no plans at all" for series seven.

The show's main cast, which also includes Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar, are regularly quizzed on when Jed Mercurio's hit show could return, but it looks unlikely to be in the near future according to Compston.

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Speaking to The Sun, the actor who stars as DI Steve Arnott 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, the show’s creator] 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."

So will there be a seventh series? We have a look at what we know so far.

When did the sixth series air?

The sixth series of the BBC police drama aired in 2021 and from the minute it wrapped there has been much speculation about whether it would come back for another run.

Fans of the tense TV hit have made it clear they want to see more from AC-12.

Creator Mercurio hasn’t confirmed anything 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 has been said about the show coming back?

Back in June, Compston told This Morning that he and the rest of the cast would “all love to do one at some point”, but it seems nothing is official yet.

“Unless you hear anything from us, I’d just leave it at that,” he said.

“There's always rumours, and I am delighted that there's always rumours, that means people want us back and that is a lovely feeling.”

Vicky McClure, who plays DI Kate Fleming, said last year that she’d like to do another series because the sixth was shot during the coronavirus pandemic and she would not want to end like that.

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."

Adrian Dunbar, who stars as Superintendent Ted Hastings, also dropped a big hint when he shared that he, McClure and Compston were getting together with Mercurio for a meal.

"We are going to have a curry," he said on This Morning.

"We are all just kind of really keen to get back together, we'd all like to see each other again."

But a few months later Compston said on Good Morning Britain that there was nothing imminent in the pipeline.

“Unfortunately at this point in time there is nothing immediate, there's nothing coming very soon," he said.

What would a seventh series 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.

Read more: Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio snaps at reporter over future of show

“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.”

Watch: Martin Compston dashes hopes for more Line Of Duty soon