Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio has suggested that the next series of the hit drama could be delayed until some point in 2021.
The show had completed just four weeks of filming on series six before the production was brought to an abrupt halt by the coronavirus pandemic.
The series was due to air on BBC One in September - a virtual impossibility now due to the UK shutdown - but Mercurio now thinks that it will be next year until filming can resume safely.
Asked whether filming could restart in 2020, Mercurio told The Andrew Marr Show: "I still think it's something that is in doubt.
"A lot of people are working very hard to come up with codes of practice within the TV industry.
"Until testing, trace and isolate is put into place in wider society it is going to be hard for anyone.
"We can't make productions in a bubble. The cast and crew go home and mix with others - they can't work in isolation."
The last series of the show averaged a mammoth 12.86 million viewers per episode.
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