He was the most talked-about man in Britain as the most-recent season of Line of Duty reached its epic conclusion on BBC One in May, yet Adrian Dunbar has told Female First that his show-stopping performance as police superintendent Ted Hastings may be one of the last of its type on a changing television landscape.
Speaking to us in his role as a judge in a short film competition run by Virgin Media Ireland, he gave us an insight into what comes next for Line of Duty fans and the transformed landscape of television over the course of his three decades in the business.
When can we expect to see Line of Duty come back to our screens?
Well, I believe they have commissioned two more series and we should be back again in 2021. They take a good while to film and that is the way with all television these days, which reflects the change in the industry over the course of my career.
People used to call it the medium of television and there was a reason for that. It was never very well done and it was well below movies on a number of levels. TV productions used to slow, there was a lack of time and attention given to scripts and for some of us back in the 1980s, working in TV became a little bit boring, yet roll the clock forward to 2019 and that landscape has changed beyond recognition.
Binge-watching an entire series has become the norm now, but Line of Duty bucks that trend as there's still a week between episodes. Why do you think that is?
Boxsets are great and we all enjoy binge-watching in front of the TV at home, but now and again something comes along that bucks a trend and thankfully for us, Line Of Duty is one of those rare shows. We used to see this kind of thing when 18 million people watched the Morecambe and Wise Christmas show in the 1980s and everyone felt a part of a collective viewing experience, but that idea has gone in recent years, so to be part of that again is such a privilege for all of us involved in Line of Duty.
What is the secret of the show's success?
People just can't bare the thought of going into work and being told what had happened before they saw it themselves and I feel that Line of Duty is successful at attracting that water cooler audience. By that I mean viewers who have a few minutes break at work to talk to their colleagues and they want to talk about a programme that has got everyone gripped, everyone talking about what is coming next.
Why has Line of Duty been so successful? So much is thrown into a mix that includes great writing from Jed Mercurio, a wonderful cast and everything is thrown into the mix and thankfully my character Ted has survived longer than many on Line of Duty to take his place when filming for Season Six gets underway.
So is it more enjoyable to work on TV rather than on movies now?
We find ourselves now at a moment when TV has become the place to go to watch well-written, insightful, forward-thinking drama. It is a completely different ball game now, especially with this binge-watch and box set option available that has changed the way we all consume our programming.
It's a whole new world, but the major thing that has happened in TV is the level of screenwriting and work that is done has gone through the roof.
When you look at the production values we see on the best television in Ireland, the UK and America, there is no doubt that TV is now right up there with film.
The only difference is, of course, that film will always have the advantage of being a collective experience. Going to the cinema will never lose its appeal because there is something so special about sitting in a room with a few hundred people who are all excited about seeing something new for the first time and getting carried away with the emotion of the moment, but TV is right up there with movies now.
Tell us about your role in the Virgin Media Discovers competition.
I love working with and encouraging young filmmakers, especially back home in Ireland. We have so much talent out there and we don't have many platforms like this for them to realise their dreams, so it is really, really welcome that Virgin Media have decided to do this because there are not enough outlets for this kind of work to happen.
People who don't have a lot of experience can suddenly get a foot in the door with something like this, so it is a very important initiative and I would like to see a few more people of influence giving more Irish filmmakers similar opportunities.
Things can happen for talented people on the back of a competition like this. They get the big break, it propels them to a stage they have not been on before and they can rapidly establish themselves in the industry.
The Virgin Media Discovers competition attracted more than 600 entries and was won by Innocent Boy, a 10-minute short film by Cluster Fox Films and writer Tiernan Williams. The winning entry will get a screening at next year's Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, will debut in Ireland Virgin Media Television and will be given a €35,000 production budget.
Words by Kevin Palmer, who you can follow on Twitter @RealKevinPalmer.
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