The actor said he ‘didn’t want to leave his grief behind’

Actor Adrian Dunbar has played the lead in ITV detective series Ridley since it first aired in 2022.

The Irish actor has starred in several big hitters, including Line of Duty and Channel 5 drama Blood.

And, in a recent interview, the star revealed how a friend’s response to his own personal tragedy inspired him to portray his current on-screen character in a particular way.

Adrian Dunbar as Ridley in the ITV drama (Credit: ITV)

Adrian Dunbar reveals heartbreaking tragedy at the heart of new Ridley series

The second series of Ridley starts tonight (August 10) and picks up two years after the events of the first. Adrian Dunbar is back in the driving seat as retired detective turned police consultant Alex Ridley.

In the first episode, Alex begins work with his former protégée DI Carol Farman, played by Bronagh Waugh.

He does so while still coping with the grief of losing his wife and daughter four years before. This grief causes him to imagine his daughter is still alive whenever he sees someone who looks like her.

And Adrian previously revealed in an interview that he drew inspiration from a friend’s real-life personal tragedy when preparing to portray his character’s response to his.

Ridley’s second series takes place two years after the events of the first (Credit: ITV)

‘He didn’t quite believe that she was dead’

“I remembered there was someone I knew, whose daughter had died tragically in a car crash, and he never quite got over it,” Adrian told RadioTimes ahead of series 2’s release.

“He never got over it to the extent that he didn’t quite believe that she was dead, and that somehow he would turn a corner and she’d be there. It’s a kind of strange reluctance of the mind to accept something.

“He would meet a young woman who was so close to the attributes of his daughter and it was almost like she had shown up. These things can be disturbing. So I thought, let’s use that element. I didn’t want to leave his grief behind.”

Adrian describes Alex Ridley’s grief of losing his wife and daughter as a kind of noise that will persist in the background for the rest of his life. It will never leave him.

At the same time, he wanted to leave audiences with the notion that it is possible to move on from grief. As humans, we have to, he said. But in this particular case, it happens in increments. And, if Ridley gets a third series, he added, they will be able to move Alex on even further.