9.6 million tune in for return of BBC ‘crown jewel’ Line of Duty

At its peak 9.8 million were watching the show centred on a police anti-corruption unit
BBC/World Productions/Steffan Hill
Robert Dex @RobDexES22 March 2021

Around 9.6 million people tuned in on Sunday night to watch the return of Line of Duty — a record audience for a launch episode of the hit BBC crime drama.

At its peak 9.8 million were watching the show centred on a police anti-corruption unit. That compares with the first episode of the last series which pulled in an average audience of 7.8 million and was being watched by more than nine million at the end of episode six.

The new series sees show stalwart DI Kate Fleming, played by Vicky McClure, quit the anti-corruption team at AC-12 to join a murder squad led by DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald), who is coming under suspicion from her old colleagues.

BBC bosses will be delighted with the success of the much hyped show but its audience is dwarfed by the 12.4 million who watched Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey on ITV — the most watched show of the year so far.

Line of Duty, which also stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar as anti-corruption officers, is regarded as one of the BBC’s jewels in the crown — so much so that just last week director-general Tim Davie included a trailer for the new series in his speech to staff about the future of the corporation.

The series started its life on BBC Two in 2012 and was that channel’s best-performing drama in a decade with 4.1 million viewers for its first series before moving over to BBC One and more mainstream success for the fourth series — a similar pattern to other huge hits including Miranda and The Great British Bake Off.

Line of Duty: Series 6

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Last night’s opening episode of series six had many of the hallmarks of writer Jed Mercurio with a complex plot revolving around an armed robbery, a bewildering array of acronyms as well as a mixture of old faces from previous series and new cast members like Macdonald who joins a list of guest stars from Daniel Mays and Keeley Hawes to Thandie Newton.

Ahead of the show’s return, Mercurio warned even its main characters could be killed off at any time. Asked if the leading roles would remain, he said: “Nobody is safe.”

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