The creator of hit BBC drama Line of Duty has admitted he thinks about axing the show and will do so before fans lose interest.
The fifth series starts on March 31 and a sixth is commissioned for 2020 but boss Jed Mercurio says there may not be many more years of the police drama.
Asked how it will end, he said: “I have had some thoughts. I don’t know how long it can go on for. I think a lot depends on how people respond to it.
“I think we recognise that it has got a lifespan. We have to calibrate that against what the audience response is.”
At a screening for the new series, Adrian Dunbar, 60, who plays Superintendent Ted Hastings, told how he gets stopped by the police because of his role.
He said: “I can tell you they like it. They saw me at the bottom of the hill and screeched to a stop and rolled down the window and went, ‘Waahhhheeyyy’.”
Co-star Vicky McClure, 35, said the anti-corruption team would be at their best after the arrival of actor Stephen Graham, 45, to the cast as balaclava man John Corbett, who is part of an organised crime gang.
Vicky, who starred with Graham in This Is England, said: “Knowing Stephen was coming on this, the minute I found out, I went, ‘Oh, God, we are going to have to pull our socks up again’.
“He is a powerhouse.”
- Line Of Duty, BBC1, March 31, 9pm.
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