Fans of Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar’s twisty detective drama Ridley have received some bad news after the show was quietly axed by ITV. Airing for two seasons between 2022-2025, Ridley stars Dunbar as a retired detective named Alex Ridley who is enlisted as a consultant on a murder case by his former protégée, DI Carol Farman, played by Bronagh Waugh.
According to a Radio Times report, ITV has decided not to renew the show for a third season, a spokesperson telling the publication: “There are currently no plans to return to Ridley.
“We’d like to extend our thanks to creator and writer Paul Matthew Thompson, executive producer Jonathan Fisher and the team at West Road Pictures for producing two successful series.”
ITV
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Previously speaking about the role, Dunbar said of Ridley: “He’s complicated in many ways, quite a distance away from anything I’ve played before, even though it’s me, it looks like me, and there’s obviously echoes of Ted Hastings, because he’s a cop.
“But there are so many interesting layers to his personality, so many things in his background, his history, especially with all the different places that he goes to and the different things he has to deal with. The complications of the guy, I think, was the main thing that attracted me to it.”
While this is bad news for fans of Ridley, Dunbar fans recently received confirmation that he would be reprising the role of Ted Hastings for a seventh season of Line of Duty, which begins production in Belfast this month.
Vicky McClure will also return as Kate Fleming, while Martin Compston is back as Steve Arnott.
ITV
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Speaking about the new season of the beloved show, creator, writer and executive producer Jed Mercurio said: “Everyone involved in Line of Duty feels enormous gratitude to the show’s fans.
“We’re privileged to have had so many of you follow the ups and downs of AC-12 over six previous seasons and we couldn’t be more delighted to be returning for a seventh. Corruption in this country is supposed to have come to an end while Line of Duty was off air so I’ve been forced to use my imagination.”
Seasons 1-2 of Ridley are available to stream on ITVX.
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