Line of Duty creator rules out US version of show

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 1mo

Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio rules out the possibility of the show being adapted for the US market.

Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has ruled out the possibility of a US adaptation of the popular spy drama.

The fifth series of the show averaged around 12.9 million viewers for BBC One last year, with a peak of almost 14 million for the finale.

The huge ratings - combined with the show's international popularity on Netflix - has naturally led to speculation that it could be picked up by a US network, but Mercurio thinks that the format may not translate as well.

"I think that if you look at the American television market it is so much larger than ours and there are so many more people pitching ideas that the idea of something set in what they call 'internal affairs' has been pitched repeatedly," he told the A Stab in the Dark podcast.

"It's not something that hasn't been explored in pilots and by the writers who really know that world, it's just that there hasn't been a successful series.

"So, it does still feel like that ground is there to be won with the right approach. But I think in terms of the discussions with the American market, it has always been that they'd prefer a homegrown thing rather than a version of a British series."

The sixth series of the show had been due to air this autumn but now looks set to be delayed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.