'I don't have many regrets in life, but that gives me cold sweats now and again'

Set to reprise the role that made him a household name for the long-awaited seventh season, Martin Compston talks to Katie Rosseinsky about 'Line of Duty' and his latest project

- 

Picture this. You’re in a supermarket in Las Vegas, on the edge of Sin City’s party strip. Then who should you see in the queue but Steve Arnott from Line of Duty – although instead of nicking bent coppers, he’s stocking up on a few groceries. You’d be forgiven for assuming you were still feeling the aftereffects of the previous night’s tequilas, but you’d be wrong.

It’s a scene in which Martin Compston, who has played Britain’s favourite waistcoat-wearing anti-corruption officer in Jed Mercurio’s blockbuster police drama since 2012, has inadvertently starred a few times. “You’re standing in the checkout lines and they’re doing the double, the triple and then the quadruple take, trying to work out if it’s you, because you’re standing there in shorts and flip-flops,” he says. “And also they hear the Scottish accent as well, it’s confusing to them.”

What is “some London detective” doing “standing in a Vegas shopping market”, sounding very Scottish indeed? When he’s not filming or spending time in his hometown of Greenock, Inverclyde, 41-year-old Compston lives out in Vegas; it’s where his wife, the actor and events planner Tianna Flynn, hails from.

And so, aside from the questioning glances from tourists or the odd American fan, the star of the biggest British TV show of the past 20 years - 12.8 million of us tuned in for Line of Duty’s divisive season six finale back in 2021, making it the most-watched drama episode since modern records began -manages to maintain a pretty low-key existence.

You get the impression he wouldn't have it any other way. Compston, who’s speaking over Zoom from a fancy hotel room, seems to wear all of