{"id":307290,"date":"2026-02-20T03:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T03:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T03:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T03:21:16","slug":"robert-carlyle-joins-line-of-duty-cast-in-lead-role-for-new-series-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/307290\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Carlyle joins Line Of Duty cast in lead role for new series \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottish actor Robert Carlyle<\/a> will join the cast of Line Of Duty<\/a> to play an \u201cextraordinary\u201d guest lead role in the new series.<\/p>\n

The 64-year old, known for Trainspotting and The Full Monty, will portray specialist rifle officer Detective Constable Shaun Massie in the seventh series of the BBC<\/a> show.<\/p>\n

He will join actors Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar<\/a> \u2013 who will reprise their roles in the next instalment of Jed Mercurio\u2019s hit crime thriller, which is due to air next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been a huge admirer of Jed Mercurio\u2019s work for many years, I\u2019m delighted to be given the opportunity to join such an exceptional cast for series seven of Line Of Duty,\u201d Carlyle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scripts for the series are excellent and will absolutely maintain the quality that the audience have come to expect from this fantastic show.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassie is an extraordinary character and I look forward to bringing him to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Series seven will follow the anti-corruption unit AC-12, after being disbanded and rebranded as the Inspectorate of Police Standards, as the team are assigned their most sensitive case so far.<\/p>\n

Carlyle\u2019s character, a veteran marksman described as a \u201cgruff loner\u201d, will be tasked with taking down organised crime groups as part of the Tactical Operations Unit 7 (TO-7) \u2013 however everything changes when his boss, DI Dominic Gough, is accused of being a sexual predator.<\/p>\n

The Scottish actor follows in the footsteps of previous Line Of Duty guest series leads including Trainspotting costar Kelly MacDonald, Adolescence<\/a> actor Stephen Graham<\/a> and Westworld actor Thandiwe Newton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more thrilled that Robert Carlyle will star in series seven as specialist rifle officer Shaun Massie,\u201d series writer Mercurio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a huge fan of Robert\u2019s work for many years and it will be a career highlight to work with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert always brings mesmerising power and depth to every role; I know viewers will be on the edge of their seats wondering what his character will do next, and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, added: \u201cSometimes a piece of casting feels so right that you just can\u2019t imagine anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert Carlyle is one of our greatest actors and the perfect fit for the phenomenon that is Line Of Duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Line Of Duty series seven will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer next year. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scottish actor Robert Carlyle will join the cast of Line Of Duty to play an \u201cextraordinary\u201d guest lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13695,1578,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-307290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-adrian-dunbar","tag-bbc","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}