Adrian Dunbar was relieved to discover his 'Line of Duty' character was not the villain.
Adrian Dunbar
The 62-year-old actor plays Ted Hastings in the BBC One drama and admitted he was thrilled to find out that Ted was not the mysterious 'H' his anti-corruption team have been tracking.
Speaking on the 'How To Fail' podcast, he said: "'It was absolutely a relief for me, as I spent all this time playing this character as I saw him with a sense of duty and a moral core.
"And to have found out I was somehow an arch villain... I would have been in real difficulty accepting that.
"Also [show creator] Jed Mercurio was aware that our audience and audiences in general, like to think that those people who are in charge do have a sense of moral fortitude and that there are people out there who will do the right thing…
"So all that was riding on the idea that Ted could be a baddie, so I am glad he came out of it with flying colours."
Meanwhile, Adrian also revealed that he often gets recognised from real-life police officers, who are fans of the show.
He said: "The police recognise me and might give me a thumbs up and it's quite good fun that.
"I think they do appreciate that 'Line of Duty' does try and show that there is a lot of slog in police work.
"There's lots of sitting in front of computers for hours on end trying to find one clue… and we a bit of that and show it takes a long time to get to the answers sometimes."