Jed Mercurio’s ‘Bodyguard’ The Biggest Show To Launch On British In Over A Decade

0

When ‘Line Of Duty’s’ Jed Mercurio sets about writing a drama, you know it’s going to be good. Add Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes to that mix, and you end up with BBC One’s ‘Bodyguard‘ getting the highest launch figure for any new drama across all UK channels since 2006.

Set in and around the corridors of power, ‘Bodyguard’ tells the fictional story of David Budd (Madden), a heroic but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch (RaSP) of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. When he is assigned to protect the ambitious and powerful Home Secretary Julia Montague (Hawes), whose politics stand for everything he despises, Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs. Responsible for her safety, is he actually her biggest threat?

Episode one of the drama received a consolidated figure of 10.4 million viewers, with a 40.9% share, The seven-day consolidated figure for episode one saw an increase of 3.6m on its overnight audience (6.8m), an impressive uplift of 54%. It’s the highest launch figure for a new drama on BBC One since at least 2002, when current records began.

“The success of Bodyguard is a tribute to the magnetism of our two leads, Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes,” comments Bodyguard’s showrunner Jed Mercurio. “I’m exceedingly grateful to World Productions and to the BBC who have supported the project throughout production, and to the viewers who’ve responded with such enthusiasm.”

‘Bodyguard’ is the number one drama of 2018 so far. The series opener has proved a hit with 16-34-year-olds, with 1.2million watching the first episode making it the biggest non-soap drama of the year for the demographic. It’s also broken drama debut records on BBC iPlayer, with episode one getting 2.2million requests in its first seven days – and three million requests to date.

“I’m thrilled with the response to BBC One’s new Sunday night drama Bodyguard, the figures are extraordinary and all credit to the mastermind creator and writer Jed Mercurio who is surprising the audience at every turn,” adds Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content.

‘Bodyguard‘ continues on BBC One this Sunday at 9pm. The first three episodes are all available on BBC iPlayer. The six-part series was commissioned by Charlotte Moore for BBC One and is executive produced by Jed Mercurio, Simon Heath for World Productions, and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for BBC One. There’s no news on whether the drama has been renewed for a 2nd Season yet, but I think its fair to assume it will be back if Mercurio wants to write more.