At the climax of its wildly popular sixth series, BBC One's corrupt cop drama Line of Duty finally revealed the identity of the bent officer pulling the strings of organised crime. Or did it?

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The finale – which aired in May – saw AC-12 discover that DSU Ian Buckells (Nigel Boyle) was the shady character previously known only as 'H'.

But in an interview with comedian Tom Allen on the Virgin Media BAFTA TV Awards red carpet, actor Adrian Dunbar – who plays AC-12's "gaffer" Ted Hastings – hinted that we still might not have all the answers.

Quizzed about knowing the identity of 'H', Dunbar gave an enigmatic response. "There may be a way to go with all that. We don't know yet, do we? There are rumours. Who knows?"

Intriguing... but it's as yet unclear if or when the story might continue, with Line of Duty yet to be recommissioned for a seventh series.

"Don't know about that, whether we'll see another series," Dunbar said. "I’m sure everybody wants one, we certainly want one."

Buckells in his AC-12 interview in Line of Duty

Prior to the big Buckells reveal, one of the top candidates to be 'H' – at least according to viewers' fan theories – was Chief Constable Philip Osborne, with his real-life alter-ego Owen Teale recently telling RadioTimes.com that fans still accuse him of being 'top dog'.

"I’m now defending myself in the shops, with people saying ‘I know you're H’. And I go ‘No, no, no, no, wait a minute, we all know who H is now’ and they go ‘no no no I don’t believe that for a second, there’s no way he would have had the power to do that. Your character was the original'. And they remember it, right from the beginning."

Maybe Adrian Dunbar's just teasing us and the true identity of 'H' has been definitively revealed, with no loose ends left to tie up. Then again, this is Line of Duty we're talking about...

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All episodes of Line of Duty are available now on BBC iPlayer – visit our Drama hub for all the latest news or find something to watch with our TV Guide.

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