Exclusive – Line of Duty star Owen Teale says people are still accusing him of being H

The actor, who played the extremely suspect Chief Constable Philip Osborne on the drama, said that several people have approached him to say they don't believe Buckells was the real big bad.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com to promote his new film Dream Horse, the Welshman said of his time on Line of Duty: "I just marvelled at Jed Mercurio for believing in himself, he's an auteur of television, he really is."

He added: "I'm now defending myself in the shops, with people saying ‘I know your H’. And I go 'No, no, no, no, wait a minute, we all know who H is now’ and they go ‘no no no I don't believe that for a second, there's no way he would have had the power to do that. But your character was the original’.

"And they remember it, right from the beginning. He was the guy who actually messed Steve Arnott, he messed with him, he bullied him and that's why he jumped into AC 12, he jumped out of firearms."

Teale only appeared relatively fleetingly in the sixth series – via news coverage of Osborne – and he said he had no idea how important his role was going to be until he watched the series unfold with the rest of us.

"I just... just the respect for Jed Mercurio to have got so much when I only filmed for like two days," he said.

"He said 'look, I just need you for two days, standing on the steps and doing the public announcement that these guys do' and I said 'yeah sure'.

"So I didn't know the full story until much later on, how much he was getting the finger pointed at him. But I'm very happy to be part of it - it's a lovely problem to have people coming up to you in the street."

In a previous interview with WalesOnline, the actor revealed that he hopes Mercurio will write another series of the show so that his character can get his comeuppance.

"I want to know if Jed Mercurio is going to do something about it," he said. "Sort out Osbourne!”

Line of Duty Series 1-6 is available on BBC iPlayer now, and Dream Horse is currently showing in cinemas. Check out the rest of our Drama coverage, or take a look at our TV Guide to find out what else is on.