Jed Mercurio rules out a US reboot of Line of Duty

\'Line of Duty\' creator Jed Mercurio has ruled out making a US reboot of the hit drama.

The 54-year-old writer of the BBC show - which stars Vicky McClure and Martin Compston - has revealed the series won\'t be heading across the pond anytime soon because he believes American viewers would prefer a "homegrown thing".

Jed said: "I think that if you look at the American television market it is so much larger than ours and there are so many more people pitching ideas that the idea of something set in what they call \'internal affairs\' has been pitched repeatedly.

"It\'s not something that hasn\'t been explored in pilots and by the writers who really know that world, it\'s just that there hasn\'t been a successful series."

Jed thinks the broad concept of the show could appeal to the US market, but he believes it would need to have an American focus in order to succeed.

Speaking to the \'A Stab in the Dark\' podcast, he said: "It does still feel like that ground is there to be won with the right approach.

"But I think in terms of the discussions with the American market, it has always been that they\'d prefer a homegrown thing rather than a version of a British series."

In May, Jed admitted the coronavirus pandemic had undermined his plans for the new series of the hit drama.

The show\'s creator revealed he was considering re-writing the new season due to the health crisis, after shooting "four weeks in a pre-lockdown world".

He explained: "We\'re all considering [a rewrite].

"We shot for four weeks in a pre-lockdown world, and all that material would have to be re-shot if we were going to change things. That would have huge cost implications, but we are considering it."