It’s Back: BBC's Line of Duty Returns for Season 7 After Five-Year Hiatus

Well, they actually did it. After vanishing for almost five years, Line of Duty is officially back on the BBC for Season 7. The last run wrapped in May 2021 after seven episodes and pulled a casual 17 million viewers for the finale, so yeah, there was unfinished business here.

• Status: Fully renewed. Season 7 arrives after a near five-year break since the May 2021 finale (7 episodes; 17 million viewers watched the ending).
• Premise: AC-12 has been shut down and rebadged as the Inspectorate of Police Standards. Anti-corruption work is tougher than ever, and Steve Arnott, Kate Fleming, and Ted Hastings are handed their most sensitive case yet: Detective Inspector Dominic Gough, a golden-boy cop praised for taking down organized crime, is accused of using his badge to prey on women. The lingering question: is Gough the story, or a smokescreen for something bigger still lurking?
• Cast: Martin Compston, Vicky McClure, and Adrian Dunbar are back as Arnott, Fleming, and Hastings. New cast members are still under wraps.
• Production: Cameras are expected to roll next spring in Belfast.
• Creative: Jed Mercurio returns as writer/creator and executive producer alongside Simon Heath (World Productions) and the BBC's Nick Lambon. Jennie Darnell is directing Season 7, with Ken Horn producing.

The big swing this time is structural: AC-12 is gone, replaced by the Inspectorate of Police Standards. Translation: the show is moving its characters into a new ecosystem where the job is the same but the politics are messier, which feels very on-brand. And the Gough case is exactly the kind of morally sticky headline these stories thrive on. The synopsis even hints that it might all be misdirection, which, if you have watched this show at all, is not exactly shocking.

Adrian Dunbar is already in full Hastings-mode about the reunion, and honestly, same.

As we count down the AC-12 days of Christmas, what a joy it is to know that the Three Amigos will be back filming together next year. Delighted with the news and looking forward to those mercurial twists and turns.

And Jed Mercurio kept it cheeky, as you would expect:

Everyone involved in Line of Duty feels enormous gratitude to the show's fans. We could not be more delighted to be returning for a seventh. Corruption in this country is supposed to have come to an end while Line of Duty was off air, so I have been forced to use my imagination.

Couple of production-nerd tidbits worth noting: Jennie Darnell at the helm should keep the show's pulse steady, and the Belfast base remains home turf for this machine. The BBC is keeping any new cast additions locked down for now, which probably means there is at least one name they would like to drop closer to filming.

Bottom line: the band is back, the rules have changed, and the show is daring you to figure out where the real rot is this time. Sounds like Line of Duty to me.