Line of Duty actor Owen Teale has revealed that fans of the BBC drama still believe his character could be 'H'.
Owen, 60, plays Chief Constable Philip Osborne in the much-loved show and many viewers thought he was going to be unveiled as the mystery figure.
However, in the final episode of season six in May, it was confirmed that 'H' was Superintendent Ian Buckells in a shocking twist-of-fate.
But some fans refuse to believe it and still point the finger at Owen's character.
Speaking to the Radio Times, Owen admitted people are still coming up to him to say they "know" he is H.
"I'm now defending myself in the shops, with people saying, 'I know you're H', and I go, 'No, no, no, wait a minute, we all know who H is now'," he said.
"They go, 'No, no, no, no, I don't believe that for a second. There's no way he would have had the power to do that. But your character was the original'.
"They remember it, right from the beginning. He was the guy who actually messed with Steve Arnott, he bullied him and that's why he jumped into AC 12 and jumped out of firearms," the Game of Thrones star continued.
Owen went on to praise Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, calling him an "auteur of television".
"The respect for Jed Mercurio to have got so much when I only filmed for like two days," Owen explained.
"He said, 'Look, I just need you for two days, standing on the steps and doing the public announcement that these guys do' and I said, 'Yeah sure'.
"So I didn't know the full story until much later on, how much he was getting the finger pointed at him. But I'm very happy to be part of it – it's a lovely problem to have people coming up to you in the street."
When recently quizzed if the final episode of series six of Line of Duty was "a finale or a clearing-out of the past", Jed hinted that if he got the go-ahead to pen new scripts that there is room to focus on character Chief Constable Phillip Osborne.
Jed told Den of Geek : "I’d say it’s too soon. It’s too soon to draw that conclusion. It could be either of those, or it could be something different."
Suggesting that Owen's character could be a potential focus of any new instalments of the show, he added: "I think that if there is more Line of Duty then clearly there’s potential there," he said in reference to the figure.
