Line of Duty: why there are so many Northern Irish coppers in British crime dramas

By Caroline Magennis, Reader in 20th and 21st Century Literature, University of Salford

There are few TV shows that light up social media quite like Line of Duty. At the core of the action is Northern Irish police officer Ted Hastings, played by Adrian Dunbar, a celebrated film and television actor from Enniskillen in County Fermanagh.

Hastings isn’t the only copper hailing from Northern Ireland on our screens in recent years.

Before the return of Line of Duty, Bloodlands filled its coveted Sunday 9pm slot on BBC One. A crime drama set in Northern Ireland, the ghosts of

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