Line of Duty’s Martin Compston reveals the secret to perfecting Steve Arnott’s London accent

Greenock-born actor speaks with a strong Scottish accent in real life

Martin Compston has revealed how he perfected his London accent in Line of Duty.

While the BBC police drama is set in the Midlands, Compston’s character DI Steve Arnott speaks with a south-east London dialect which is world’s away from the actor’s own Scottish accent.

Appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show this Saturday (1 May) ahead of Sunday night’s series finale, Compston described how he makes sure he always gets Steve’s voice down perfectly.

“It can be hard, that dialogue on its own would be hard anyway, throw the accent in there,” he said.

“The scene we did the other night, 30-pager, trying to juggle the accent at the same time. When we’re away from it for a long time, when I do that voice I can hear him, it’s like a costume.”

In order to learn his lines in the accent, Compston revealed that someone with an accent similar to Steve’s records his lines for him, with the actor then “walking about all day with him in my ears”.

“It’s just graft,” he continued. “I’m not naturally good at accents. I need to work harder, which then makes me better because I’m not complacent with it. If you’re in these scenes with these amazing actors, amazing guest stars, it’s intimidating enough without worrying about the accent. Speaking to the wife and stuff I’ll drop it, I very much stay in it [on set].”

Line of Duty series six concludes Sunday 2 May at 9pm on BBC One.