Line of Duty will reportedly return to BBC screens in late January 2027 after television bosses brought the seventh series of the police corruption thriller forward from its traditional March broadcast window.
Lead stars Vicky McClure, 43, Martin Compston, 42, and Adrian Dunbar, 68, finished filming the new episodes in July after four months on set. McClure shared a photograph on Instagram alongside her two co-stars to mark the end of production as the trio reunited for the first time in five years.
Although the BBC has historically broadcast the drama in March, a television insider told The Sun that executives decided to move the seventh run to late January after reviewing early cuts of the series.
"This will be welcome news for fans who have already been waiting five years for the next instalment in the story of AC-12," the insider told The Sun. "They will have been expecting this to land in late March and moving the show is a vote of confidence in the new series as January is when the Beeb likes to showcase its big dramas."
The source added: "Other shows, such as Sherlock, started off being broadcast in the summer, then shifted to January. It's also when it debuted The Night Manager. Rumour has it that bosses have viewed early edits of the new run and are delighted with what they see." The Daily Mail approached the BBC for comment on the scheduling report.
Inspectorate of Police Standards and series seven plot
Series seven picks up with Steve Arnott, Kate Fleming and Superintendent Ted Hastings after Anti-Corruption Unit 12 has been disbanded and rebranded as the Inspectorate of Police Standards. The three officers are assigned their most sensitive case so far under the overhauled structure.
In February, it was revealed that British Academy Film Award winner Robert Carlyle had been cast as guest character Detective Constable Shaun Massie. According to the official synopsis, Massie is a veteran marksman whose loyalty is tested when his superior officer faces serious allegations.
The synopsis states: "Detective Constable Shaun Massie is a Specialist Rifle Officer (SRO), a veteran marksman, operating with Tactical Operations Unit 7 (TO-7) to take down Organised Crime Groups. A gruff loner, Massie keeps himself to himself, but when his boss, TO-7's commanding officer DI Dominic Gough, is accused of being a sexual predator, Massie's otherwise detached demeanour changes drastically."
Series creator Jed Mercurio also gave viewers an early glimpse of the seventh run on Instagram earlier this year. He shared a photograph of Dunbar dressed in full police uniform looking out across a busy office while preparing to film scenes as Hastings, accompanied by the character's best-known line: "There's only one thing I'm interested in and one thing only and that's bent coppers."
Robert Carlyle and the returning AC-12 cast
Carlyle, a Scottish actor from Glasgow, won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the 1997 comedy film The Full Monty. He is also widely known for his performances in Trainspotting, the television series Hamish Macbeth and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.
Carlyle joins the core trio who have led the drama since its debut. Compston, a Scottish actor from Greenock who made his breakthrough in Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen, plays Steve Arnott. Nottingham-born McClure, a BAFTA winner for This Is England '86, plays undercover specialist Kate Fleming, while Northern Irish actor Dunbar portrays Ted Hastings.
Series six finale and BBC broadcast history
The new episodes follow a five-year hiatus after the sixth series ended with a polarising finale that disappointed many viewers. In that conclusion, bumbling Detective Superintendent Ian Buckells, played by Nigel Boyle, was unmasked as "H", the shadowy mastermind behind an intricate network of police corruption.
Created and written by Mercurio, a former hospital doctor and Royal Air Force officer who also penned the BBC political thriller Bodyguard, Line of Duty originally premiered on BBC Two in 2012. Rising ratings prompted the corporation to move the procedural drama to flagship channel BBC One from its fourth series onwards.
Moving the broadcast to late January places the seventh run in the winter slot BBC One previously used for flagship dramas including Sherlock and the John le Carre espionage adaptation The Night Manager. Series seven of Line of Duty is expected to air in early 2027.
