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Adrian Dunbar wants Neil Morrissey Line of Duty return

Adrian Dunbar wants Neil Morrissey to return to ‘Line of Duty’.

The 62-year-old actor – who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings in the BBC One thriller – has revealed he would love to see Morrissey reprise his role as Detective Constable Nigel Morton.

Speaking during a RadioTimes.com live Q&A, he said: "I really think that Nigel, Neil’s character, should come back – I’ve been advocating for that to see if we can get Nigel back."

And Adrian revealed his favourite scenes to film are the interrogations and he particularly enjoyed when his character was interviewed by Anna Maxwell Martin’s Detective Chief Superintendent Patricia Carmichael.

He said: "I did like the interrogation at the end of season five, with Anna Maxwell Martin – I thought she brought a great character in to interrogate me.

"I love the interrogation scenes because they are like little one-act plays, they have all these twists and turns in them and are so engrossing.

"I know a lot of actors who have said to me, who’d have thought you could put a two-shot on screen for twenty minutes and people would be absolutely locked in, how does that work?

"Well it does work, when the story is great and you’ve got these fabulous twists and turns – so those are my favourite bits!"

Meanwhile, ‘Line of Duty’ creator Jed Mercurio recently revealed the show was almost rejected by the BBC.

Although the series has gone on to be a huge success for the broadcaster, Jed revealed that some executives were not enthusiastic about the project when he first pitched it.

He said: "Maybe there were reservations that something about police corruption might be problematic for a mainstream audience.

"There’s selective amnesia about things like that. Everybody, and every TV commissioner or TV executive, who was involved in rejecting ‘Line Of Duty’ now pretends that it didn’t happen.

"It’s not that I seethe, we’re in a fantastic position and I’m certainly not bitter.

"But if you consider all the other projects that have been rejected over the years, the opportunities missed, and the ones that still are rejected, then of course it’s disappointing.

"You worry that something that you’ve worked on and you believe in is never going to see the light of day."