Record audience as Line of Duty reveals ‘fourth man’

Sunday night’s series finale of the BBC’s hit drama Line of Duty attracted the largest UK broadcast audience of modern times, the broadcaster has said.

The eagerly awaited episode commanded 56.2% of the UK’s TV audience, a record 12.8 million viewers. The BBC said that the overnight figures meant that it was the most watched episode of any drama since the beginning of modern records in 2002.

The show’s peak was 13.1 million between 9:45-9:50pm, during a key interrogation scene that revealed the mysterious ‘fourth man’ who had been a years-long source of speculation for fans. 

The wrap-up to series six – which may be the last series of the Jed Mercurio-created drama – attracted almost four million more viewers than the season five finale, which was watched by 9.07 million viewers in 2019. 

The cast and crew had publicly indicated that this would be the end of the anti-corruption police drama, but the BBC’s chief content officer Charlotte Moore hinted that there could be more to come.

She said: “Addictive event television, Line of Duty has kept the nation guessing for the last seven weeks, so it’s no surprise that last night’s jaw-dropping finale set a ratings record. Jed Mercurio is a master of his craft, and I would like to congratulate him and the entire cast and crew for delivering such an incredible drama series. I’m looking forward to having a conversation with the team about where we go next and what the future of the series might be.”