Line of Duty stars in 'clear space' to reprise roles as BBC drama set to return

Line of Duty fans have reason to rejoice as a seventh season is expected to begin filming next year. The long-running police drama has been on the air since 2012 - with fans thrilled by the antics of characters played by and

The show has aired six seasons so far, encompassing 36 episodes and shows Adrian's Ted Hastings investigating police corruption from within the force. For nine years, viewers were gripped as they watched Hastings and his team try to track down a villain who went by the code name "H".

The master villain was unmasked as Detective Superintendent Ian Buckells, played by Nigel Boyle, at the end of season six - but some fans were disappointed by the reveal. Now more crime-fuelled drama is expected to erupt as the cast are reuniting for new batch of episodes.

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It has been reported that Adrian, Vicky and Martin will reunite to film six new episodes. The show, created by Jed Mercurio, is expected to begin filming in January 2026.

reported: "This is the news Line of Duty fans have been waiting for since the sixth season left them deflated when it aired back in 2021. The BBC almost immediately requested more episodes to continue the story, but the success of the show meant Vicky, Martin and Adrian were instantly snapped up for other projects.

“But after several meetings with Jed [Mercurio, creator and writer] and the production team, they’ve finally managed to clear space in their calendars next year to commit to making the show.” The has contacted the BBC for comment.

Line of Duty has attracted an impressive cast of guest stars over the years - with Mission: Impossible star Thandiwe Newton, actress Kelly Macdonald, and Adolescence star Stephen Graham among the impressive cast members. Rumours of a possible seventh season have been building for months.

Last month, fans were excited to see Vicky and Martin's attend the 2025 BRIT Awards - with their appearance coming hot on the heels of speculation a seventh season of their hugely popular cop show was being developed. In February, Christina Chong, who plays DI Nicola Rogerson, let the cat out of the bag when she revealed she had been contacted about reprising her role.

She told the Daily Mail: “So I have been asked about a season, is it seven? Yeah. Potentially Nicola Rogerson will be back for season 7.” In August last year, lead star Adrian Dunbar, who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings, told Good Housekeeping that he was desperate to get back into his police uniform.

He gushed to the publication: “We all want another series. We filmed our last series in lockdown, which meant we didn’t get to do anything other than work, so we’re really keen to get together for one last hurrah."

Last year, a source told The Sun that the Line of Duty cast had already been brought together for top secret talks with show creator, Jed Mecurio. They claimed: "Jed is close to Vicky, Martin and Adrian and they often meet for dinner – this time it was different. A topic of conversation was how they could align their schedules in 2025 to ensure Line Of Duty 7 happens. The ambition is filming could start next year and on screens by early 2026."

Also last month, Martin spoke to Lorraine Kelly of his hope for new episodes. He said: "I hope so at some point. One of the great things about the success of that show is that it's given us all a big career outside of it.

"I was with Jed the other week, he was out in Vegas because he's doing his show in LA so he came up for a visit. Vicky is doing Trigger Point, I'm doing Red Eye," he said. "So we're all quite busy. I'm sure we'll get to it at some point. It'll be a sad day when people stop asking but we're also very aware of getting people's hopes up and then people get annoyed when it keeps coming up."

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