Neil Morrissey claims he helped friend of 40 years Adrian Dunbar land Line of Duty role

Neil Morrissey has claimed that Adrian Dunbar landed a role in Line of Duty because of him.

The actors have been close friends for 42 years since meeting on their audition day for Guildhall drama school in London.

And teasing his pal, the Men Behaving Badly star, 60, claimed he ‘got’ Adrian the job.

He said: ‘He will hate me telling you this but I got him the job.’

Adrian, 64, replied: ‘He does claim that if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have got the job. I’m absolutely fine with him claiming that.’

Adrian – best known for his role as Chief Superintendent Ted Hastings – appeared in all six series of the hit BBC drama.

Meanwhile, Neil starred in the first three seasons of Line of Duty as Nigel Morton and left after his character’s retirement.

The pair have just finished filming for an episode of ITV ‘s DNA Journey.

In the special, Neil is especially keen to find out about his family – after being taken into care when he was just 10 years old.

He discovers he is 1 per cent Scottish and 99 per cent Irish.

‘99%! I cannot wait to tell everyone I know,’ he says in the show.

It comes after Adrian revealed he’s keen on filming a seventh series of Line Of Duty since the shoot ‘wasn’t quite as fun’ with Covid restrictions.

The actor added fuel to speculation the BBC drama could be returning to the small screen.

He told Radio Times: ‘There’s no update yet on whether we can expect a seventh season. I think generally there’s a willingness amongst everybody to do something but I think we’re just gonna have to wait a little bit longer.

‘It wasn’t quite as fun. We couldn’t hangout, we couldn’t go out. We were all in a kind of bubble so it just didn’t have the same feel – which is one of the reasons we’d like to do another one.’

And when asked whether he would be available to reprise his role in a spin-off series, the Irish star replied: ‘You’ll always be in the market for considering whatever people throw at you.

‘So I mean, that would be interesting. Yes is the answer to that, I suppose.’

It comes after Adrian confirmed he helped to record a hilarious parody version of Line Of Duty that poked fun at former Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick.

Last year, the actor popped up in a viral video that showed him in character as Superintendent Ted Hastings as he gave Dame Cressida a grilling.

The video, created by the political campaign group Led By Donkeys, is edited with clips from the BBC show and clips of the retired senior officer speaking.

In the video, Dame Cressida is seen saying: ‘We have a long established and effective working relationship with the cabinet office.’

The camera then cuts to Hastings who replies: ‘Who exactly does the Metropolitan Police work for mam? Our citizens, or Boris Johnson?’

Dame Cressida, looking down at her notes, then says: ‘Downing Street’.

When the video was first released back in January, Dame Cressida was facing questions about No. 10’s Lockdown parties scandal.

There was speculation that Adrian had recorded his dialogue especially for the video.

In response, he told Radio Times: ‘Well, of course, I can neither confirm nor deny your theory. However, we did record stuff.’

The TV star confirmed that Led By Donkeys got in touch with Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio about making the video.

He said: ‘These guys are really good. Would you record this and that? So we did and I think they treated it a bit so it kind of sounds like us, but might not be. It was very good. It didn’t quite get rid of Johnson then but it got rid of Cressida Dick.’

Cressida Dick announced on February 10 2022 that she was leaving her role in the Metropolitan Police after losing the confidence of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Adrian noted that she had previously spoken negatively of Line Of Duty in the past, taking issue with the show’s depiction of corruption in the police force.

He said: ‘She gave us a terrible review, saying the series was completely wrong about everything. She really didn’t like us! Luckily lots of other people did.’

Adrian found himself catapulted into super stardom when the show from BBC2 to BBC1 in 2017, doubling its audience to around 10 million.

Before this he had worked successfully in the industry for 40-years including roles in films The Crying Game, Ashes to Ashes as well as TV’s broken. 

He admitted that he is in a WhatsApp group with fellow stars Martin Compston and Vicky McClure where they discuss the show’s possible future.

In October sources told The Sun BBC bosses had finally drawn up plans for new episodes of the beloved police drama after a string of secret meetings, bringing news that ‘millions of fans have been hoping for.’ 

Co-star Martin said recently he was desperate for series six of Line of Duty to come to an end after the making of it was drawn out over years due to the Covid pandemic.

The actor, who plays Steve Arnott in the series, said he found the build up to the final release ‘too much’, admitting the experience of starring in the most recent season was ‘intense’.

Television bosses commissioned the sixth series in May 2017 and filming begun in February 2020 but stopped a month later when the UK was put into lockdown as a result of COVID-19.

Filming resumed in September 2020 through to November that year, with the series finally launching on BBC One on 21 March 2021.