The singing DETECTIVE!

Line of Duty's ADRIAN DUNBAR on playing a crooning ex-cop turned police consultant

RIDLEY NEW SUNDAY, 8 PM, ITV DRAMA

He's best known as Ted Hastings, Line of Duty's anti-corruption detective who loves catching bent coppers.

Now, Adrian Dunbar is taking the title role in ITV's new Lancashire-set crime drama Ridley, about a troubled ex-cop who runs a jazz club, where he occasionally performs, and is drawn back into police work by a former colleague.

This week, the first of four feature-length investigations sees retired Alex Ridley, still traumatised by the deaths of his wife and daughter, team up with his former protégée, newly promoted Carol Farman (The Fall's Bronagh Waugh), when a murder case she is working on appears linked to an unsolved missing-child investigation that continues to haunt her ex-boss.

We caught up with Adrian, 64, to find out more about the northern noir'...

How did you feel about playing a singing detective?

I’ve been interested in music all my life, and I’ve played in bands and even with an Elvis Presley impersonator!

I thought it would be really nice if there was a musical element to this character. So the idea was that, in his retirement, Ridley was going to run a jazz club.

He’s quite a traumatised character, isn’t he?

Yes, because of a tragedy that happened towards the end of his policing days, when his wife and daughter were tragically killed in a house fire.

How has he dealt with it?