Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has revealed that a major romantic storyline in the BBC drama's sixth series was scrapped - for a very practical reason.
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Throughout series six there were hints of romance developing between Vicky McClure's Kate Fleming and fellow officer, Joanne Davidson, played by guest star Kelly Macdonald. However, their relationship never progressed beyond a brief bit of hand-holding and an off-duty drink together, leading some fans to accuse the show of queer-baiting.
But now in a new interview, the showrunner has explained that their relationship would have gone further and "might have had more physical intimacy" had COVID-19 restrictions not got in the way.
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"It was about the practicalities of filming, so the physical distance between people," Jed told Den of Geek. "There's more distance between the characters than the intention was.
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"With the key personal relationships that were portrayed in the season, we did look very closely at how impractical it would be to have physical intimacy involving our main cast. That did affect some of the sequences we wanted to do and some of the personal stories we wanted to do."
He went on to clarify that it wasn't just Kate's storyline that was affected. "I'm talking about the trajectory for Steve and Steph, and Jo and Kate," he said. "Those were things that had very specific trajectories, and there were limitations on how we could approach them."
© Photo: BBCWould you have enjoyed seeing Kate and Jo's romance play out on screen?
Elsewhere in the interview, Jed also addressed the burning question of what the future holds for the much-loved series - but didn't give much away. In response to the question of whether the last episode of series six should be viewed as a finale, or a clearing-out of the past, ready for a fresh start, he said: "I'd say it's too soon.
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"It's too soon to draw that conclusion. It could be either of those, or it could be something different."
More than 12million people tuned in for the series six finale which saw AC-12 finally uncover the elusive 'H' who turned out to be under the noses the entire time. Check out the HELLO! TV team's breakdown of the episode here.
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