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Line of Duty Season 4
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The fourth season of police anti-corruption drama Line of Duty is due to start filming this autumn, it has been revealed.
In an exclusive interview creator Jed Mercurio said: “We are shooting Line of Duty series four later this year. I don't really have time for anything else. I'm pretty full-on doing the scripts and then we start shooting in the autumn.
He continued: “It will be delivered for 2017 but it's entirely up to the BBC when they put it out and sometimes they don't put the programme out as soon as it's delivered, sometimes they hold it back for a few months, that's been our experience so far.
“It's possible that although it's delivered for next year, it might not go out next year. That's only a possibility, we're delivering it so it can go out next year,” he added.
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Vicky McClure plays undercover officer Kate Fleming
Both seasons three and four were comissioned at the same time by the BBC.
The Lancashire-born writer revealed that the scripts for the upcoming run are in the initial stages at the moment.
“We've got a fourth season and we're just at the very start of the process of what the story will be in season four and how it will unfold,” he said.
“In terms of season three there was no grand plan. It was only as we were working through it that we started to decide what kind of story might unfold,” Jed explained.
The third run of the BAFTA-winning BBC Two drama came to a startling conclusion tonight and saw the loose ends tied up neatly. Series three has been winning plaudits from reviewers and has been a big hit with viewers.
Speaking about the show’s overwhelmingly positive reaction this year, Jed said: “It's great to know that in between the episodes people are speculating on some of the mysteries, some of the gaps in the story that are going to be filled in upcoming episodes, that's really gratifying.”
Jed admitted that rather than having an overarching plan for Line of Duty, he plotted an episode at a time.
“We kind of have a rough goal in mind of where we want to be down the line but we're not completely wedded to anything,” he explained.
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“Then once we're happy with an episode, we then move onto the next one and if we need to make any changes for consistency or logic then we can move backwards and forwards between the episodes as we go along the process,” he added.
Jed said that the same was true for the direction of Line of Duty as a whole and that there was no “overall vision”.
Reflecting on his influences, Jed said that he was initially inspired by The Shield but since Line of Duty has developed and grown, it now has its own identity.
Nevertheless, he appears to be influenced by the news. Season three made direct references to Jimmy Savile and focused on historic cases of child abuse involved a paedophile ring that included the upper echelons of society.
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Adrian Dunbar plays Ted Hastings in the BBC Two drama
Jed explained: “I think the fact is if you write about crime there will always be real-life parallels, unfortunately crime is a fact of life, so because we're writing about the types of crimes that do go on in the real world, that's inevitable.”
Referring specifically to the dark subject matter that season three focused on, Jed said he wanted to look at the police misconduct involved in these kind of cases.
He said that the decision by senior police officers to shut down investigations into child sex abuse felt like an “untold police story”.
“There does appear to be a reluctance to examine how senior police officers made those decisions, who those senior police officers were and why they made those decisions,” he explained.
Jed added that season three poses the pertinent question: What were senior police officers getting out of that relationship with Savile?
Sadly, for diehard Line of Duty fans, Jed says it’s “too early” to say what fans can expect from season four because there is “no definite story plan yet”.
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Wow! Did anybody see the first episode of this? The ending literally had my jaw dropping open! Absolutely brilliant. I wanted the next episode there and then. Jason Watkins is playing a very good part in this.
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Yes, thought it was very good!
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holy moly roz will do anything, thandie newton playing the role awesomely
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More tension, deception .. at least Michael Farmer has his nanna visit him.
Adrian Dunbar has just been on the breakfast news. No spoilers, Fella, give me strength!
