Line of Duty fans hope for series 7 as boss Jed Mercurio shares cryptic tweet

LINE of Duty boss Jed Mercurio sent fans wild last night when he raised hopes there’ll be a season seven.

The showrunner shared a cryptic tweet within minutes of the series six finale.

He shared a photo of AC-12 and wrote: “Carry the fire”.

One person replied: “Looks like another season? Hope so. Finale was like a filler episode”

Another one said: “Either a hint at series seven, a plea for us all to direct our rage at incompetence and corruption in the very highest offices and do something about it…or both. On reflection, thank you@jed_mercurio not the easiest ending but a really good one. #LineOfDuty”

And one more wrote: “Haha the writers turned off the comments on his latest tweet so we can’t rant our disappointment to him.”

As another said: “Definitely set up for a 7th series. If not what a underwhelming finish”

Millions reacted to the BBC1 cop thriller after finding out the identity of “The Fourth Man” – the double dealing policeman who AC-12 have been hunting for years.

The bent copper turned out to be bungling Det Supt Ian Buckells.

But people at home were stunned by the outcome, with one writing on Twitter: “I can’t lie i didn’t expect ‘H’ to go out like this ( if that’s him ). We need more please #LineofDuty.”

Jed and the Beeb have given no firm indication since then whether there’ll be a seventh or eighth series, claiming they’ll prefer to wait for audience reaction before deciding whether to pen more episodes.

The closing episode of this series marked the end of a build up which saw several sinister figures in the frame to be The Fourth Man – or fourth woman.

They included DCSupt Patricia Carmichael, played by Anna Maxwell Martin; Chief Constable Philip Osborne, played by Owen Teale, and DCI Marcus Thurwell, played by Jimmy Nesbitt.

But Carmichael took a backseat in the show, Osborne was barely seen and it was confirmed that Thurwell was dead in the Spanish villa where he’d retired to.