New Line of Duty star Kelly Macdonald has said that she had not seen any of the BBC thriller before the makers contacted her about playing Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson in the upcoming sixth season.
The Trainspotting and Boardwalk Empire star makes her Line of Duty debut when the sixth season begins on BBC One next Sunday, 21 March.
When asked on Sunday's Andrew Marr Show on BBC One about "how big a deal" it was to be cast in the role, Macdonald replied: "It was a huge deal. It was an odd one because I hadn't actually watched any of the series when I got the offer, but even then I knew that it was a huge deal. I've been comparing it a bit to like being cast as Bond."
Macdonald said the dialogue "was the thing I was most worried about".
"I couldn't even think about the acting part of it because I was just so worried about cramming all these words into my head," she continued.
Macdonald said social distancing protocols had prevented some of the off-set camaraderie of previous seasons of Line of Duty.
"I was really disappointed because everybody was so friendly. I know in previous sort of seasons everybody would go out and if there had been a particularly tough day on set - you know, with the lockdown, the interview scenes, for instance - people would let off steam and go out for a curry. I was quite looking forward to that and we weren't able to."
"I was joking with friends when I got the part - I had been joking that I might be the one to 'break' Line of Duty. And then Covid came along and that wasn't my fault," she added. "I did feel slightly like, 'It's on my watch'."
