The Scottish Trainspotting actor will join the ranks of previous famous faces Lennie James, Keeley Hawes, Stephen Graham and Thandiwe Newton to appear on the acclaimed BBC<\/a> drama when it returns for a seventh run next year.<\/p>\n Filming is scheduled to start next month in Belfast, with lead trio Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar all returning as police officers hunting down their corrupt colleagues.<\/p>\n Carlyle, also known for British comedy The Full Monty and horror sequel 28 Weeks Later, will play Detective Constable Shaun Massie, with creator Jed Mercurio stating: \u201cI know viewers will be on the edge of their seats wondering what his character will do next, and why.” <\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Robert Carlyle has joined the cast of \u2018Line of Duty\u2019 (Jeff Spicer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n The actor himself said of his casting: \u201cThe scripts for the series are excellent and will absolutely maintain the quality that the audience have come to expect from this fantastic show. DC Massie is an extraordinary character and I look forward to bringing him to life.\u201d<\/p>\n Massie is described as a veteran marksman, operating with Tactical Operations Unit 7 (TO-7) to take down Organised Crime Groups. He is dragged into controversy when his boss, Detective Inspector Dominic Gough, is accused of being a sexual predator, which is investigated by the central trio in their \u201cmost sensitive case so far\u201d. The actor playing Gough is yet to be announced.<\/p>\n The press release for series seven reads: \u201cIs Gough\u2019s case a deliberate distraction from a bigger threat still operating in the shadows?\u201d with the BBC stating, when Gough comes under suspicion, \u201cMassie’s otherwise detached demeanour changes drastically\u201d.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Vicky McClure, Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar in \u2018Line Of Duty\u2019 (World Productions\/BBC)<\/p>\n Earlier this week, it was reported that Line of Duty will also reintroduce the controversial plotline<\/a> surrounding the enigmatic \u201cH\u201d, the corrupt copper at the centre of the anti-corruption unit\u2019s search. <\/p>\n The identity of \u201cH\u201d was revealed as Nigel Boyle\u2019s bumbling DSI Ian Buckells in the 2021 finale, which proved divisive among viewers. The twist was that Buckells was not a \u201ccriminal mastermind\u201d, as AC-12 believed \u201cH\u201d was, but instead an individual who did small favours for several organised crime groups. <\/p>\n Boyle addressed the fan outcry at the time, stating: \u201cThere\u2019s always going to be some element of disappointment. You can\u2019t have every series end with a big shoot out. Sometimes a subtler message is more important.\u201d<\/p>\n Line of Duty first aired on BBC Two before moving to BBC One for its second season.<\/p>\n The series six finale <\/a>became the biggest drama episode<\/a> \u2013 excluding soaps \u2013 since modern records began in 2002, as 17 million viewers tuned in to find out the identity of \u201cH\u201d across 28 days. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-434073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Robert-Carlyle.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Vicky](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6acc0cf438bb26c3b089bcf907fb8c09Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzYzNTc0OTc0-2.49205122.jpg\")
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