“The most enigmatic adversary AC-12 have ever faced.” Mother of God.

Of all the TV events in 2020, few will be as anticipated as the sixth season of Line of Duty, the wildly successful and nigh on unmissable BBC drama series about an anti-corruption police unit determined to rid the force of bent coppers at all costs. The many fans of the show will have derived great excitement from the arrival of the first images of Season 6, released by the BBC on Monday ahead of an as-yet-to-be-confirmed premiere date later in 2020. Two of the show’s three lead characters – DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) and Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) - can be seen in the images, which come courtesy of show creator Jed Mercurio. While there’s no sign of DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) in the two shots thus far, we do know that she is back once again this time around. A face you can also see in the first images – if you look hard enough – is that of new character DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly McDonald), who Mercurio has said "will prove the most enigmatic adversary AC-12 have ever faced". Given some of the characters to have crossed the path of AC-12 to date, such a description would surely prompt a response of “Mother of God” from Hastings himself. Apart from that description by Mercurio, all we know of DCI Davidson is that she will be the senior investigating officer on an unsolved murder case and that she will also be the focus of an investigation by AC-12, as is evident in the image above. The sixth series of the show is set a year and a half on from the events of the show’s fifth season and without wanting to spoil it for anyone yet to get that far, there are a few loose ends from the end of the last season that may need tying up in the new one. As well as Kelly McDonald, Season 6 will also feature new cast members such as Shalom Brune-Franklin (Our Girl, Cursed), Perry Fitzpatrick (This Is England, I Am Nicola), Andi Osho (Kiri, Curfew) and Prasanna Puwanarajah (Doctor Foster, Patrick Melrose). We can’t wait. Images via Jed Mercurio/BBC