{"id":20772,"date":"2022-08-24T12:51:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T10:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1697747"},"modified":"2022-08-24T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T11:07:11","slug":"line-of-dutys-adrian-dunbar-improvised-teds-iconic-wee-donkey-line","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/line-of-dutys-adrian-dunbar-improvised-teds-iconic-wee-donkey-line\/","title":{"rendered":"Line of Duty\u2019s Adrian Dunbar improvised Ted\u2019s iconic \u201cwee donkey\u201d line"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Lidia Molina-Whyte\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 24 August 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Line of Duty\u2019s Ted Hastings is known for two things: catching bent coppers and Ted-isms. The latter have gone on to appear on T-shirts, mugs, and even feature in a BBC song.<\/p>\n

And now, actor Adrian Dunbar has revealed the most famous of his catchphrases was actually improvised.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Radio Times<\/strong>, the actor, whose \u201cMother of God!\u201d exclamations punctuate the tense corruption drama<\/a>, revealed how adding \u201cthe wee donkey\u201d came about in what has become perhaps the most iconic moment of season 6.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cWhat happened was that Jed [Mercurio] had written in the script \u2018Jesus, Mary and Joseph\u2019. But in Ireland I\u2019d heard a woman, in frustration, go one Nativity character further, as it were. Brilliant! So I didn\u2019t say anything to anyone. We shot the scene a few times and I said the line as written but then, on one take, I dropped in \u2018and the wee donkey\u2019 and out of the corner of my eye I could see Jed, knowing he\u2019d got TV gold. It went nuts on social media, then T-shirts and mugs.\u201d<\/p>

Dunbar, who, like his character, was born in Northern Ireland, said that all the invocations of the Bethlehem stable are a genuine part of Irish Catholicism. \u201cAll the \u2018Mother of God\u2019 stuff is completely from my father,\u201d he said, before adding: \u201cOne of the things people don\u2019t get is that Ireland is the only English-speaking Catholic country in the world so, underneath this Shakespearean, mercantile Germanic language, we have this Latin underbelly and bits of Celtic all wrapped together.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at some point madre de dios has been translated and you end up with \u2018Mother of God!\u2019 becoming a catchphrase in a British TV series!\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor also revealed he didn\u2019t think \u2018H\u2019 was Buckells<\/a>, but rather a distraction. Does that mean there could be more Line of Duty in store? We\u2019ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n

You can read the full interview in this week\u2019s issue of Radio Times.<\/p>\n

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