Line Of Duty's Adrian Dunbar backs calls for Martin Compston to play the next James Bond

Line Of Duty star Adrian Dunbar has thrown his support behind calls for Martin Compston to play the next James Bond.

The actor, 62, said he hopes his co-star brings along his character Steve Arnott’s signature waistcoat if he takes over from Daniel Craig in the 007 franchise.

Adrian is set to reprise his role as Superintendent Ted Hastings in the much-anticipated sixth series of Line Of Duty, which is set to kick off on Sunday after filming was delayed by the Covid pandemic.

He should do it! Line Of Duty star Adrian Dunbar has thrown his support behind calls for Martin Compston to play the next James Bond

Speaking on Thursday’s BBC Breakfast, Adrian said he was aware of a campaign for Martin to take over the role of James Bond and wanted to offer his support.

Asked whether he can trust anyone wearing a waistcoat, he said: ‘Waistcoats they’re a bit dodgy aren’t they?

‘There’s a bit of talk that Martin Compston may be going onto play the next James Bond, I’m getting behind that particular campaign and I hope he takes the waistcoat with him.’

Since it was confirmed Daniel will be stepping down from the Bond franchise following the release of No Time To Die, rumours have been rife about who could take over the iconic role.

00-ready? The actor said he hopes his co-star brings along his character Steve Arnott’s signature waistcoat if he takes over from Daniel Craig in the 007 franchise

Leaving: Since it was confirmed Daniel will be stepping down from the Bond franchise after the release of No Time To Die, rumours have been rife about who could take over the iconic role

Favourites have included, Tom Hardy, Sam Heughan, James Norton and Idris Elba, but 007 bosses are yet to confirm when the new actor will be unveiled.

Adrian was tight-lipped on details surrounding the sixth series, but did reveal it would pick up after a significant amount of time had passed for the AC-12 team.

He said: ‘The main thing to realise is that quite a lot of time has passed since the last series in real time in the world of AC-12, so the landscape has changed slightly and people may be a bit shocked as to where everybody sits at this particular time so that’s all I’m saying on that.’

Filming for the series was halted in March 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, with production only able to resume late last year with strict Covid safety measures.

Exciting: Speaking on Thursday’s BBC Breakfast, Adrian was tight-lipped on details surrounding the sixth series of Line of Duty

Developments: He did reveal it would pick up after a significant amount of time had passed for the AC-12 team

Speaking about the changes to filming he said: ‘We did it as if Covid wasn’t happening, we found working practises that satisfied the insurers really, those were the people that really need to know we were doing everything right and we were able to continue.

‘As with most of television and film work, if they adhere to the correct protocols then things will work out for them I mean sadly the live game, theatre and music is gone and that’s a real tragedy but on TV we were still able to do it.

‘It was difficult, we had to stay in bubbles, me Vicky and Martin we all had to stay in our own little bubble and work with Kelly and the various departments guys were all sticking together.

‘Masks, hand sanitising, testing twice a week, temperature tests every morning the whole lot, and we got through it. Our showrunner Jed [Mercurio] was very strict about things.’

Surprise: Adrian also revealed that even he didn’t know who the series’ villain would be when filming started and only learned the truth when work began on the last episode of series six

Adrian also revealed that even he didn’t know who the series’ big villain would be when filming started, and only learned the truth when they started working on the final episode of the series.

He said: ‘You don’t even know what the ending is, not till we start shooting episode 6 because there’s lots of things that happen throughout the shooting process that change the nature of episode 6.

‘Jed allows himself a bit of latitude that he can go in and change that in the direction he wants and then sometimes at the end of it he has a thought he might just say ”why don’t we do a couple of looks here at the end that suggest something else?”

‘Usually we don’t know about that it’ll just be something he’ll suggest, so yeah we’re kept in the dark quite a bit.’

Terrifying: Series six will follow the AC-12 trio investigating the force’s highest profile murder to date, with DCI Joanne Davidson assigned as the senior investigating officer on the case

Series six will follow the dynamic AC-12 trio investigating the force’s highest profile murder to date.

Guest lead Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) is assigned as the senior investigating officer on the unsolved murder case, but her suspicious conduct attracts the attention of the anti-corruption team.

Shalom Brune-Franklin, 26 — who has appeared in BBC’s Our Girl alongside Michelle Keegan — is the new addition to the AC-12 team as Detective Constable Chloe Bishop.

This series of the Jed Mercurio drama features seven episodes, the longest to date.

Breakfast airs weekdays from 6am on BBC One. Line of Duty will return on Sunday 21 March at 9pm on BBC One.

LINE OF DUTY: WHO IS THE FOURTH ‘H’?

Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio excited fans when he shared the first clue about the plot of season six to Twitter.

Uploading a snap of a packet of the Australian chocolate biscuits TimTams with the caption ‘#LineofDuty Series 6 Plot Clue No. 1’, fans began to ferociously speculate as to what it might mean.

But one plot point hanging over the next season of the show is about the identity of the ominous ‘H’.

While the mystery was somewhat answered in the season five finale, it was also revealed that there are FOUR people pertaining to be ‘H’, with the final one still unknown.

So who could it be?

Patricia Carmichael (Anna Maxwell Martin)

She was one of season five’s stand-out characters, swooping in towards the end of the series to interrogate Ted Hastings – highly suspected to be ‘H’ at the time.

And while she simply seemed to be excellent at her job – and hellbent on uncovering the corruption within the department – could it be that Patricia Carmichael was SO keen to pin the blame on Ted to take the focus away from herself.

Could SHE be the fourth ‘H’?

Her position of power and respect, along with her unnaturally steely and cut-throat demeanor, could well point to this.

Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar)

Ted Hastings was pinpointed by viewers of the show, as well as the characters on the show, to be a candidate for ‘H’.

But it seemed he was exonerated by the end of season five, allowed to walk free.

But could be potentially be triple-crossing us all? Could he in fact STILL be the potential fourth ‘H’.

The biggest issue with this theory is that Gill Biggeloe – one of the three revealed to be ‘H’ – was so against him. Surely she wouldn’t be working to deter him if they were in league?

UNLESS, she doesn’t KNOW he is the fourth ‘H’?

DCC Andrea Wise (Elizabeth Rider)

Detective Chief Constable Andrea Wise was new to the show in season five and is another high-powered contender for ‘H’.

She has been constantly interfering when it has come to supporting AC-12’s investigations, removing them from the investigation into Operation Pear Tree. She also instigated the Ted Hastings investigation.

She is also keen to cover up police corruption, despite announcing at the end of season five: ‘This constabulary will work tirelessly to root out rotten apples in its ranks.’

PCC Rohan Sindwhani (Ace Bhatti)

Police and Crime Commissioner Rohan Sindwhani demanded to be ‘in on’ a meeting between Andrea Wise and Ted Hastings. This might be a small clue but any clue could be valid at this point.

Any shady behavior suggests ‘H’ is at play, and so Rohan could indeed be culpable.