Adrian Dunbar has promised more iconic catchphrases from Superintendent Ted Hastings when Line of Duty finally returns for its long-awaited seventh season.<\/p>\n
The actor has played AC-12’s formidable boss since the very beginning, during which time his Ulster utterances have become a beloved character trait.<\/p>\n
Among the most famous of the past six instalments have been “Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey”, “going like the clappers” and “now we’re sucking diesel”.<\/p>\n
A three-minute compilation<\/a> uploaded to the BBC’s YouTube channel highlights other gems, including Hastings describing his subordinates as looking like “a couple of kids who have been caught robbing an orchard”.<\/p>\n A niche reference, but undoubtedly evocative. See more here:<\/p>\n Want to see this content?<\/p>\n Accept and continue<\/p>\n Ahead of the hotly anticipated Line of Duty season 7<\/a>, Dunbar assured that Hastings will retain his creative vocabulary \u2013 even revealing one of his new phrases.<\/p>\n During a guest appearance on BBC Radio Ulster’s Red Lines programme<\/a>, he said: “I’ve got a couple coming along this time in this series.<\/p>\n “I say something like, ‘Come on, guys, don’t stall the digger’. ‘Don’t stall the digger’ is going to be my new one,” continued Dunbar, predicting it could be the next Ted-ism to go viral.<\/p>\n “There’ll be a mug for that, too.”<\/p>\n On the origins of his character’s distinctive turns of phrase, Dunbar shared a personal connection to at least one of them.<\/p>\n Want to see this content?<\/p>\n Accept and continue<\/p>\n “‘Mother of God’ was something my father used to say all the time, so I kind of stuck that in a couple of times and it worked,” he revealed.<\/p>\n Line of Duty season 7<\/a> reunites Dunbar with longtime co-stars Vicky McClure and Martin Compston as well as series creator Jed Mercurio, who pens the pulse-pounding scripts.<\/p>\n Filming concluded in Belfast earlier this year, after being briefly paused when violence broke out<\/a> in the city, with the BBC eyeing a premiere date in 2027.<\/p>\n Trainspotting and The Full Monty star Robert Carlyle has been announced as the series’s guest lead, continuing the show’s tradition of casting a high-profile actor at the centre of each investigation.<\/p>\n Dunbar has spoken warmly about the return, saying the cast are happy to be back together and praising Mercurio’s script<\/a>, which is rumoured to expand on the controversial ‘H’ twist<\/a>.<\/p>\n Line of Duty season 7 is coming soon to BBC One and iPlayer. Catch up on old episodes now.<\/p>\n Add Line of Duty to your watchlist on the Radio Times: What to Watch app<\/a> \u2013 download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.<\/p>\n Check out more of our Drama<\/a> coverage or visit our TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what’s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews listen to The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Dunbar has promised more iconic catchphrases from Superintendent Ted Hastings when Line of Duty finally returns for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-618197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618197","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=618197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}