Line of Duty star Taj Atwal chose to leave season 6 for The Syndicate: ‘It wasn’t easy’

Line of Duty star Taj Atwal has explained why she had to miss out on returning for season six.

We last saw Taj’s PC Tatleen Sohota, a clever new recruit at AC-12, in season five as she helped DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) and DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) investigate whether their gaffer Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) was corrupt.

Taj will star in Kay Mellor’s drama The Syndicate as Roxy Varma, and despite trying to free up her schedule for AC-12, the dates didn’t match up and she was forced to choose between the two.

Series four of The Syndicate, which is returning after five years away, follows a group of ordinary people whose lives are turned upside down when they win a lottery jackpot. Neil Morrissey and YouTube star Joe Sugg are also in the cast.

Ultimately she decided to join Kay’s project as it was an opportunity to play a new character, but it wasn’t an easy choice to make as you can imagine.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Taj explained: ‘I couldn’t make the dates work alongside The Syndicate, I had to choose and it was not an easy decision.’

When host Nihal Arthanayake joked that she had asked Line of Duty Jed Mercurio to ‘stop calling’ her, she laughed: ‘It wasn’t like that! It’s not about that for me. Not at all like that.

‘It was one conversation. I’m not about that, I always want to try something different, especially while I can.

‘The opportunity to play a completely different character, I just wanted to play something different. It was not easy but, Kay is very hard to turn down because she is just so lovely, and I’ve worked with her so much previously, and Roxy was a just completely different character for me to play and just challenge myself really.’

Line of Duty meanwhile returned on Sunday night and introduced viewers to AC-12’s new target, DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald).

The launch episode was watched by 9.6million people, making it the best performing drama since Bodyguard in 2018.

Line of Duty airs Sundays at 9pm on BBC One.

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