Northern Irish police drama series Line of Duty returned to BBC One for its sixth season on Sunday night with a record audience of 9.56 million viewers tuning in for the season opener.
Written and created by Jed Mercurio, and produced by World Productions, last night’s record breaking episode of Line of Duty makes it the best performing drama on UK television since the finale of Bodyguard aired in 2018, which was also written and created by Jed Merurio.
Line of Duty has continued to go from success to success, beating its previous best overnight performance of 9.1m viewers, which come following its Season 5 finale in 2019.
Although the show set a new viewing figures record on the BBC, it was not however able to outperform Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, which earned an astonishing audience of 11.3m viewers when it aired on ITV earlier this month.
Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar and Martin Compston all return for the sixth instalment of Line of Duty with Shalom Brune-Franklin, a new addition to the AC-12 team. Kelly Macdonald also makes her debut as guest lead Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson, the senior investigating officer on an unsolved murder case whose suspicious conduct attracts the attention of Anti-Corruption.
Produced by Ken Horn, the executive producers are Jed Mercurio, Simon Heath for World Productions and Tommy Bulfin for the BBC. The series is directed by Daniel Nettheim, Gareth Bryn and Jennie Darnell. Line of Duty is made with support from Northern Ireland Screen and international distribution is handled by ITV Studios.
Line of Duty airs Sundays at 9pm on BBC One.
