{"id":468375,"date":"2026-03-10T20:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/468375\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:31:14","slug":"line-of-duty-star-adrian-dunbars-twisty-detective-drama-gets-bad-news-and-fans-wont-be-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/468375\/","title":{"rendered":"Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar’s twisty detective drama gets bad news \u2013 and fans won’t be happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> 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 prot\u00e9g\u00e9e, DI Carol Farman, played by Bronagh Waugh. <\/p>\n

According to a Radio Times<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

\"adrian<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously speaking about the role, Dunbar said of Ridley: “He\u2019s complicated in many ways, quite a distance away from anything I\u2019ve played before, even though it\u2019s me, it looks like me, and there\u2019s obviously echoes of Ted Hastings, because he\u2019s a cop.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, which begins production in Belfast this month.<\/p>\n

Vicky McClure will also return as Kate Fleming, while Martin Compston is back as Steve Arnott.<\/p>\n

\"bronagh<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: BBC hit Line of Duty confirms new detective for returning season in major “perfect fit” cast update<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re privileged to have had so many of you follow the ups and downs of AC-12 over six previous seasons and we couldn\u2019t 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\u2019ve been forced to use my imagination.”
<\/p>\n

Seasons 1-2 of Ridley are available to stream on ITVX. <\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Harry Styles, is here! Buy Harry Styles in newsagents or online<\/a>.
<\/p>\n

\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Reporter, Digital Spy<\/p>\n

Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> at Digital Spy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans of Line of Duty star Adrian Dunbar’s twisty detective drama Ridley have received some bad news after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[147950,163708,379,167769,381,96,1156,167768,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-468375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-collection-line-of-duty","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-dd199095-bbaf-4b8c-b2e3-c88fca137c6d","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-line-of-duty-stars-twisty-detective-drama-gets-bad-news","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468375","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=468375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}