“It is a huge moment in any actor’s career, when he gets to play the titular character.”
Adrian Dunbar is back on television playing a police officer. He has done this before, of course. But similarities between his new role – as DI Alex Ridley in a major new ITV Sunday night detective drama Ridley – and his much-lauded turn as Superintendent Ted Hastings in BBC One’s ratings smash Line of Duty are hard to find.
Sure, there are a few. A keen sense of mission, a dedication to justice, some heartbreak lurking behind the eyes? But the differences are far more intriguing. Rather than Hastings’ interest in one thing and one thing only – bent coppers – Ridley has a keen ear for jazz (as well as an eye for injustice), and the series foregrounds grief, loneliness and the healing power of music.
This gives ITV’s big new Sunday night hope a nicely discordant edge, even as it sticks to many of the classic detective show structural standards.
There are big shoes to fill. Any Sunday night series, , , . But Dunbar is confident he has a head start with viewers, who already trust him implicitly following .
