Actor Martin Compston has noted that the popularity of his hit show Line Of Duty is somewhat bittersweet thanks to the attention it garners.
The 36-year-old has appeared on the entire run of the show – now in its sixth season – and told Dermot O’Leary on his BBC Radio 2 show this weekend about how the series has become a ‘mammoth machine’.
‘We had a Zoom catch-up last night – Me, [co-stars] Vick [McClure], Adrian [Dunbar] and [writer] Jed [Mercurio] – we chat once a week while [the show’s] on because we each know what the other one is going through and we can have a proper moan,’ he said.
All eyes on him: Actor Martin Compston has noted that the popularity of his hit show Line Of Duty is somewhat bittersweet thanks to the attention it garners
‘The support we have is amazing, but you know, the show’s just become this mammoth machine. That amount of attention isn’t something that kind of sits naturally with me.
‘I’m really appreciative of it, but we’re at that point now where everything we’ve said in the past just gets scrutinised, so it’s good to just get the first [episode] out and it becomes more about the show because that’s what people have got to talk about rather than us. And that’s the main thing.’
Adrian Dunbar, who plays AC-12 boss Ted Hastings, revealed this week that he wants to do more stunts on Line Of Duty.
The actor, 62, even joked that it’s normally his co-stars Martin, and Vicky McClure, 37, who get to do the ‘exciting stuff’ on the show.
Attention: The 36-year-old has appeared on the entire run of the show – now in its sixth season – and told Dermot O’Leary on his BBC Radio 2 show this weekend about how the series has become a ‘mammoth machine’
Action: Adrian Dunbar, who plays AC-12 boss Ted Hastings, has revealed that he wants to do more stunts on Line Of Duty (pictured in 2019)
The Irish actor told the Daily Star: ‘I do like things that are a bit reckless, so long as the people around me are professionals. Stuntmen will see you through anything.
‘It is all about timing. The safety comes into the timing. So I love doing stunts like that. But sadly mostly Martin and Vicky that get to do the exciting stuff these days’.
It comes after Adrian’s co-star Vicky admitted that despite considering her co-stars as ‘family’, they sometimes have dramatic bust-ups as she remarked: ‘Of course we’ve p****d each other off’.
Hilarious: The actor, 62, even joked that it’s normally his co-stars Martin Compston, 36, and Vicky McClure, 37, who get to do the ‘exciting stuff’ on the show (pictured in show still)
Speaking about the dynamic behind-the-scenes, the actress explained that at times things can get quite heated between the trio on the set, but their fall-outs are ‘never something so bad it’s not repairable.’
On screen, Vicky’s character Kate, DS Steve Arnott (Compston) and Supt Ted Hastings make quite the formidable team, having spent years catching ‘bent coppers’ as part of police anti-corruption unit AC-12.
And despite being great pals in real life, Vicky revealed that there can sometimes be tension between the three, though she brushes it off as ‘no big drama’.
Getting involved: ‘It is all about timing. The safety comes into the timing. So I love doing stunts like that. But sadly mostly Martin and Vicky that get to do the exciting stuff these days’
Speaking to The Mirror, she said: ‘You can have a laugh and if anything it’s Adie who gets the brunt of it having to put up with me and Martin acting like a pair of school kids around him. There’s a perfect dynamic.
‘The reality of it is of course we have, of course we have p***** each other off. It would be wrong of me to say ‘that has never happened’ as that would be a lie.’
It comes after Line Of Duty’s series six premiere became Britain’s third most watched show of the year on Sunday, with nearly 10million viewers tuning in for the return of AC-12.
The new series saw the formerly tight-knit Anti-Corruption unit in a state of disarray, as a new murder investigation with DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly MacDonald) at the epicentre, took hold of the force.
Fans were instantly hooked with the BBC One show averaging 9.57million viewers, a 44.5 per cent share of the ratings.
At its peak between 9pm and 9.15pm, the show was watched by an even more mammoth 9.69million viewers.
Ups and downs: It comes after Adrian’s co-star Vicky admitted that despite considering her co-stars as ‘family’, they sometimes have dramatic bust-ups as she remarked: ‘Of course we’ve p****d each other off’ (pictured in 2019)