Hastings the singing detective!

OFFICIALLY, ITV say they ‘can’t speculate’ about their new sunday night detective drama Ridley filling the hole left by morse and endeavour and turning into a longrunning staple.

But that hasn’t stopped the cast, including line Of Duty favourite Adrian Dunbar, from hoping.

Dunbar, 64, says he’s excited by the prospect of developing his character, Alex Ridley, a former detective brought out of retirement to help solve a murder, beyond the initial four episodes.

‘Ridley’s on a journey of redemption after a tragedy, so there are aspects of his personality, such as his sense of humour, that we don’t see initially,’ he says. ‘He isn’t at that place yet where he can laugh at things — but hopefully he will further down the line.’

He lost his wife and daughter in a fire; and one of the ways he copes is by singing in a nightclub he owns. Dunbar, an accomplished singer himself, suggested the detective should have a musical bent and was delighted when producers agreed. ‘I’ve always liked the idea of a singing detective — it has a nice ring to it! so you see me performing and even playing the piano a little bit.’

Dunbar has played Ted Hastings in line Of Duty for six series. He says he’s delighted to be playing someone less office — and uniform — bound than Hastings.

‘Ted’s uniform, especially the starched white shirt, didn’t do me any favours,’ Adrian concedes. ‘I met a woman in Tesco who said: “You don’t look nearly as fat as you do in line Of Duty. It’s probably those police-issue white shirts, isn’t it?” I thought: “Charming!” ’

The new show will go out later this month.