Line of Duty’s Martin Compston teases ‘breaking point’ for Steve Arnott in ‘startling’ series 6: ‘He’s really struggling’

Line of Duty’s Martin Compston has teased that Steve Arnott could be pushed to his ‘breaking point’ in series six.

Fans have been (not so) patiently waiting for the return of the BBC police drama, focusing on the work of AC-12 as they attempt to stamp out corruption in the force.

Spilling the beans on what we can expect from the ‘startling’ new episodes, the cast – including Adrian Dunbar (Ted Hastings) and Vicky McClure (Kate Fleming) – revealed that their characters are still dealing with the fallout from the investigation into H last season.

‘The repercussions of five are looming large over all the characters, because the way we ended it, AC-12 – and the gaffer – was under suspicion,’ Martin told Metro.co.uk and other press. 

‘When you’re the anti-corruption unit, and the head of the unit has been under investigation – even if he’s exonerated – that sort of lingers. 

‘For Steve personally, he’s still dealing with the consequences of the attack he had in an earlier series. He’s kind of fronting up, he sees himself as a sort of super-cop so he doesn’t want to show any weakness and he doesn’t share with anybody his problems or his personal life.

‘He’s in a level of distress, he’s really struggling but he’s trying to put on a brave face at work and just keep going as best as he can. 

‘But you get a feeling there’s a breaking point coming.’

Many months have passed between the end of series five and the beginning of the new episodes, with the ‘repercussions’ having to ‘play themselves out’ – meaning we’re finding the AC-12 trio in a completely different place to where we left them.

Adrian promised a ‘shock’ in store for viewers over where some of the characters may be – as well as a ‘startling’ premiere.

We’re not too sure we’re ready for the drama…

‘The landscape has completely changed,’ he continued. ‘So I think it’s quite a shock, where we’re at at the start of this new series, because things have happened in people’s personal lives, people have moved on, things have happened. 

‘I can’t tell you anything other than the landscape of AC-12 has definitely changed, and things have to be resolved through the course of the series. 

‘I think it’s quite startling, actually, what the what the opening episode is like for an audience.’

Vicky also explained that the storylines allowed them to explore more of their characters’ home lives, giving us a balance between the action packed moments.

‘A lot went off in series five. It was a dramatic time for AC-12. So, the repercussions of that and the consequences are very much what we’re going to sort of be stepping into,’ she said. 

‘In terms of the personal lives, which I think the audience quite enjoy now because we’ve started to get more involved in people’s personal lives as the series have gone on.

‘We know that Kate’s never really had a very stable home life, and is very obsessive on her job and I think we still very much explore that as well, which is great because we enjoy doing a bit of both. 

‘It’s nice to go into the characters home lives as much as it is to be within their work lives. There’s just so much going off this series it’s hard to put it into words.’

Thankfully, fans don’t have to wait too much longer for the drama to unfold…

Line of Duty series six kicks off on Sunday, at 9pm, on BBC. Series one to five are available to catch up on BBC iPlayer.

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