Early Life
Adrian Dunbar was born on August 1, 1958, in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Eldest of seven children in a Catholic family, he grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles — context that gave him, by his own account, a grounded sense of what matters and what doesn’t. Before drama found him he worked in a factory and played country music in local venues. At eighteen he joined an amateur drama group while simultaneously performing in a cabaret Elvis act, which says something about his range even then.
Formal training came at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, graduating 1983. The move from Fermanagh to Guildhall was a serious one and he treated it seriously.
Early Career & First Roles
The late 1980s and early 90s were a strong period for Irish cinema and Dunbar was part of it. He appeared in The Dawning (1988) and Jim Sheridan’s My Left Foot (1989). The significant moment was Hear My Song (1991), which he co-wrote as well as starred in — a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Screenplay that established him as someone with a perspective beyond acting. Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game (1992) followed. These projects placed him in serious company early.
Major Roles
Superintendent Ted Hastings in Line of Duty
Six series of Line of Duty, and Dunbar’s Hastings was at the centre of every one. The premise of the character — a devout, principled Ulsterman who heads an anti-corruption unit while himself under sustained suspicion — required an actor who could hold moral ambiguity in place over years without resolving it prematurely. Dunbar managed it by playing Hastings’s decency as real and his compromises as separate, rather than suggesting the decency was a performance.
The catchphrases — “Mother of God,” “Now we’re sucking diesel” — became part of the cultural texture of the show’s audience, which is both a compliment to the writing and evidence of how Dunbar delivered them: with enough specificity that they landed as character rather than brand. He never winked at the camera. Hastings believed them and so did the audience.
The pressure the character operated under increased with each series, and Dunbar tracked that accumulation without letting it become melodrama. A raised eyebrow in an interview scene, the slight shift in how he held himself when the situation was worst — the performance was built on restraint deployed at precisely the right moments.
Detective Inspector Alex Ridley in Ridley
The ITV drama Ridley (2022–) gave Dunbar a different problem: a retired detective consultant drawn back into cases, haunted by an unsolved death that shaped his career. Where Hastings operated in the machinery of an institution, Ridley is apart from it — the authority without the uniform. Dunbar plays him with a world-weariness that Hastings never had room for.
The dynamic with Bronagh Waugh’s DS Carol Farman — built on history, mutual respect, unspoken understanding — provides the emotional structure the series runs on. Dunbar plays the relationship through restraint, which is the right choice. Ridley is a quieter show than Line of Duty and he calibrated accordingly.
Other Notable Work
Martin Summers in Ashes to Ashes — bureaucratic menace, understated and chilling. Father Peter Flaherty in Broken — compassionate and specific. His first episode of Cracker in 1993, playing an amnesiac murder suspect with genuine psychological complexity. Guest appearances in Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost. Across three decades of supporting and guest work he built a reputation for arriving in a role, doing the job properly, and leaving it richer than he found it.
Acting Style
Dunbar’s voice is an instrument — resonant, distinctly Northern Irish, capable of conveying authority or grief without the tone shifting dramatically between them. He plays men of position and responsibility, and the authority feels earned rather than performed. The interior life is always present; he doesn’t signal it, but it’s there in how the face responds when the character is listening.
He is particularly good at playing men whose public roles and private convictions are in tension — people who believe something specific and find the institution they work for doesn’t. That’s Hastings in miniature, and it’s the quality that made the character hold across six years of sustained audience scrutiny.
Personal Life
Dunbar has been married to Australian actress Anna Nygh since 1986. They have a daughter and a stepson and live in Crouch End, North London. He is a GAA supporter, a musician who has fronted his own band, and has narrated the Artemis Fowl audiobooks. His connection to Northern Ireland remains active — he has spoken publicly about Irish unification and the legacy of the Troubles with the directness of someone who grew up inside them.
Appeared In
- He starred as Superintendent Ted Hastings in the BBC crime drama Line of Duty from 2012 to 2021.
- He played Martin Summers in the second series of ‘Ashes to Ashes’ (2010).
- He appeared as Alan Cox in ‘The Jump’ (2016).
- He portrayed Richard Plantagenet in ‘The Hollow Crown’ (2012).
- He played Father Flaherty in ‘Broken’ (2017).
- He starred as Jim Hogan in the Virgin Media Television original drama ‘Blood’ (2018–2020).
- He played the title character in the BBC comedy drama ‘Walter’ (2014).
- He appeared in the first episode of Cracker (1993) as an innocent murder suspect with amnesia.
- He appeared in the last episode of A Touch of Frost (2010).
- He appeared in Inspector Morse (1990) as a guest.
In Closing
The journey from a factory in Enniskillen to Ted Hastings is not a conventional one, and that shows in the work. Dunbar brings something to authority roles that actors trained only in the conventions of television authority don’t always have: the actual knowledge of what it costs to hold a position and try to do it honestly. That is what makes Hastings credible and what will make whatever he does next worth watching.