Line Of Duty commissioned for two more series

The popular crime drama – written by Jed Mercurio, who grew up in Staffordshire – bowed out last weekend.

The final episode of the fourth series netted the highest viewing numbers in the programme's history, with 7.5 million tuning in.

While a fifth series was already on the cards, a sixth has now been confirmed by the BBC's director general.

Lord Hall said, while announcing other BBC commissions: "I am very excited to say there's not one, but two more series of Line Of Duty."

Referring to the series' anti-corruption unit, he added: "So hooray for AC-12."

Mr Mercurio grew up in Cannock and trained in medicine at Birmingham University.

He worked as a junior doctor at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton and drew on his own experiences to write Cardiac Arrest under the pseudonym ‘John MacUre’.

He wrote and directed The Grimleys, set on a council estate in Dudley and starring Noddy Holder as music teacher Neville Holder before moving on to Line of Duty.

Set in an unnamed Midland city, it is filmed in Birmingham with a former bank on Broad Street taking the part of the main police station.

The latest series starred Thandie Newton as Detective Chief Inspector Roz Huntley and regulars Martin Compston as Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott and Vicky McClure as Detective Sergeant Kate Fleming.

Audiences were kept on the edge of their seats with a tense storyline and plenty of plot twists, and the last episode saw the identity of the mysterious Balaclava Man identified to be several people rather than just one culprit.

Fans will have to wait for two years for the next outing, as the fifth series will not arrive on screens until 2019, Mr Mercurio said earlier this week.

He tsaid: "I hope it won't be too long, we are filming the next series next year, but it will be in the second half of next year so there is enough time to get the script right and get the cast together.

"The earliest I can imagine it will be on air is early 2019."