Line Of Duty star Martin Compston has shared the story of how he once got on the wrong side of co-star Adrian Dunbar after a few too many drinks.
As well as playing DI Steve Arnott in the award-winning police drama, Martin is one of the presenters of the podcast Restless Natives, with his fellow Line Of Duty actors Adrian Dunbar and Vicky McClure stopping by for the latest instalment.
During the interview, Martin revealed that he managed to rub Adrian up the wrong way after crashing a party at his flat.
Martin recalled: “We all got a lot of tickets to the UFC in Belfast and my mate Lee had flown over for the weekend and he’s a UFC fanatic. So, on the Friday night, Lee arrived, we went out and had a right good go at it and we were supposed to meet Adrian to watch the rugby at like 1pm the next day.
“I could tell even at rugby we were annoying Adrian, he was like ‘off you scoot, boys’.”
Following this, Martin revealed that he and his friend made it to the UFC game, where he bumped into footballer Kiean Tierney and managed to grab a photo with fighter Conor McGregor.
“So we’ve had a right good night and people keep sending me videos where you just hear me shouting like a lunatic, not knowing what I’m talking about,” he continue.
“And then we get back to Adrian’s house for a soirée after it.So we get back, and maybe me and Lee are on a different level to the guys, to put it mildly. Adrian said, ‘maybe you should go up the road now’, and Lee says ‘well, I’m taking my bottle of vodka with me’.
“Adrian said, ‘just get out’, and he had a tile floor, and Lee, holding this bottle of vodka, goes to shake Adrian’s hand again, forgetting he’s holding a bottle of vodka and this thing just smashed everywhere. I remember trying to clean up and being literally ushered through the door.”
It turned out that the Ted Hastings actor remembered the night slightly differently, though.
“UFC went fine, we all went back, Martin was obviously flying,” Adrian explained.
“We get back to my place, there were a number of us there, it was extremely civilised. A lot of very nice and interesting people sitting around having a decent conversation.
“Suddenly, the doors open, and in come these two idiots, both singing a really bad version of Grace. And then started falling into people everywhere around the room, trying to drag them into this.
“Some people joined in; I admittedly stupidly joined in for a while. But then it just went on and on and they were wrecking the vibe! And it wasn’t vodka [that was dropped], it was a full pint bottle of beer which as we all, stinks and sticks.
“But also it smashed into a million pieces, not three manageable pieces, but a billion. I mean, absolutely destroyed the party. Vicky, bless her, came over the next morning to help me tidy up.”
Martin and Adrian have played Arnott and Hastings in all six seasons of Line Of Duty, the most recent of which came to a divisive end in 2021.
In the past year, there’s been much speculation about whether a seventh series will be airing, though nothing has been confirmed yet.
Listen to Adrian Dunbar and Vicky McClure’s interview on Restless Natives here.
