Line Of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar plays a different sort of copper in his moody new series

Over the past decade Adrian Dunbar has carved out a place in our hearts as Line Of Duty’s Supt Ted Hastings, the Ulsterman dedicated to rooting out bent coppers within the police force. Having become so popular thanks to Hastings, it was understandable that when Adrian was offered the chance to play another cop in ITV’s new crime drama Ridley, he hesitated. 

But only for a moment, after Adrian made sure that ex-DI Alex Ridley would be nothing like Ted. For starters, in between cases Ted Hastings would never sit at the piano and croon mellow jazz tunes to an appreciative audience. 

But retired copper Ridley co-owns a jazz club, which conveniently gives Adrian a chance to show off his musical prowess. 

‘If this was a series of books, it might be called, What Ted Hastings Did Next,’ quips Adrian, 64. ‘However, for me, a character out of uniform is a completely different character. 

Adrian Dunbar (pictured) has carved out a place for himself as Line Of Duty’s Ted Hastings. The actor has been given the opportunity to play a different kind of copper

‘Ted is office-bound and uniform-bound, very dignified and formal, whereas Ridley is complicated. You don’t feel a pile of warmth from him at the start.’ 

And what swung it for Adrian is that Ridley is the lead in a TV drama. ‘I thought, first and foremost, it’s me stepping out there as the title character – that’s quite a big thing to take on, but I did have some input into what he was going to be like.’ 

Adrian insisted that Alex Ridley be musical, just like him – Enniskillen-born Adrian was a teen musician who once played alongside an Elvis Presley impersonator and performed with a country band before finding fame as an actor. 

He’s been a staple of our screens since landing roles in acclaimed films such as My Left Foot (1989) and The Crying Game (1992), and in TV series including A Touch Of Frost and Ashes To Ashes. Yet when TV roles were hard to come by in his 40s, Adrian fell back on his first love and returned to gigging in pubs. 

Adrian, is pictured here singing on Irish TV, was a teen musician who once played alongside an Elvis Presley impersonator and performed with a country band before finding fame as an actor

Adrian, is pictured here singing on Irish TV, was a teen musician who once played alongside an Elvis Presley impersonator and performed with a country band before finding fame as an actor

‘I’ve always been interested in music,’ says Adrian. ‘My mother was a fabulous singer, so when this came along, I said to Jonathan Fisher, the producer, “It’s got to have a musical element. 

‘I have to have a way to bring in stuff I know into this character.” So we both agreed that for his retirement Ridley would have set up this club with a friend, played by Julie Graham, and now and again he’d get up and sing a song.’ 

First and foremost, however, Alex Ridley is a retired Detective Inspector who is carrying with him the heavy burden of a great tragedy. Some time ago, his wife and daughter were killed in a house fire that was intended to kill him.

Ridley is melancholic and seeking redemption, and he expresses his grief on a public stage through music 

Yet just as Ridley retreats from his police career to nurse his broken heart, he gets sucked back in as a consultant by his former protégée, DI Carol Farman (The Fall’s Bronagh Waugh). Their first case sees Ridley and Carol investigate the murder of a local farmer. 

Fourteen years ago Ridley had questioned the same farmer over the disappearance of a three-year-old girl, but he was never charged and the girl never found. Carol calls in Ridley to help, convinced his knowledge of that case can help with solving the murder. 

Later episodes see Ridley helping investigate the death of a woman found buried on moorland, and a case with a link to the arson attack that killed his wife and daughter. 

Adding to the drama are spectacular windswept backdrops that make a case for calling Ridley ‘Northern noir’. Set in and around a fictional town in Lancashire and filmed in winter, the murder mysteries are played out on the dramatic moors and dales under lowering skies. 

It may look good on screen, but the actors confess that filming in inclement weather meant they needed plenty of layers – Bronagh Waugh’s DI Carol Farman wears the sort of knitwear last seen in the Danish thriller The Killing. 

Bronagh Waugh’s DI Carol Farman wears the sort of knitwear last seen in the Danish thriller The Killing

Bronagh Waugh’s DI Carol Farman wears the sort of knitwear last seen in the Danish thriller The Killing

‘It was very chilly so we really needed our thermal undies,’ confirms Adrian. ‘But it’s great because it creates a lot of atmosphere. 

‘After the summer heatwave we’ve had, people might be quite happy to look at something that’s a bit chillier.’ 

Ridley is another crime drama but one with its own distinctive character. Its melancholic lead is a man seeking redemption, who expresses his grief on a public stage through music. 

The drama uses haunting songs by singer-songwriter Richard Hawley, including Hold Back The Night. 

‘A lot of Richard Hawley’s work concerns itself with male grief, and that’s what drew me to it when I started hearing the songs,’ says Adrian, who has plans to do a gig in London’s Soho this September with actor friend John Altman (EastEnders’ Nasty Nick Cotton) and who has been ‘talking to a few people’ about an album. ‘Maybe I’ll do “Ridley at Christmas”,’ he jokes. 

Ridley’s moody ambience does seem a world away from Ted Hastings, yet Adrian understandably feels the dual pressures of taking the lead role and of playing another cop, especially since he’s recently said he doesn’t think we’ve seen the end of Ted. 

‘There’s a big appetite for more Line Of Duty,’ he said. ‘It could be three or four episodes, I don’t think there’s going to be six.’ 

But for now he’s focused on Ridley. ‘There’s a lot of me here,’ says Adrian. 

‘When you come off the back of creating a really interesting character like Ted Hastings, you want the next character you play to be one the audience can once again engage with and feel for.’

  • Ridley, Sunday, 8pm, ITV 

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