Introduction

Bodyguard is a British police-thriller television series created and written by Jed Mercurio and produced by World Productions as part of ITV Studios for the BBC.

The six-part series features Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes, and includes Gina McKee, Sophie Rundle, Vincent Franklin, Pippa Haywood, Paul Ready, Tom Brooke, Nicholas Gleaves, Stuart Bowman, Stephanie Hyam, David Westhead, Matt Stokoe, Nina Toussaint-White, Ash Tandon, and Anjli Mohindra.

Outline

Aikens abducts Budd and fits him in a suicide vest with a dead man’s switch. The police are called, but they do not believe his story and instead suspect Budd’s involvement in the conspiracy due to his newly revealed connection to Apsted, which Budd insists he lied about so that he would not become a fall guy.

MI5 is monitoring the scene; suspecting that he is being watched, Budd gives false information about the location of the kompromat, and MI5 sends Longcross to retrieve it. However, Budd has booby-trapped the flat with pepper spray, temporarily blinding Longcross, who is then arrested.

After a stand-off, Vicky runs towards Budd to prevent the police from shooting him. Still wearing the vest, Budd leads the police to his flat, where Vicky gives them the kompromat and the blank rounds that confirm Budd’s innocence. The explosives officer helps Budd disarm the vest and Budd escapes so he can prove his innocence.

He discovers Craddock is Aikens’s police insider and stops himself from shooting Aikens dead. The two are arrested and Craddock confesses to leaking Montague’s movements and enabling her assassination. She also admits that she chose Budd to be Montague’s PPO because his background made him a perfect fall guy.

Nadia is interviewed again and reveals she lied about recognising Longcross’s E-FIT. Nadia built the explosive devices and remembered the details Budd told her about his children during the disarming of the first suicide vest, which resulted in the attack on their school.

The kompromat is leaked, apparently by Sampson, and she tells Budd that the Prime Minister and the Director-General of MI5 will resign. Budd starts occupational health treatment, and he and Vicky travel with their children to visit his parents.

Bodyguard Series

You can find a full index of the Bodyguard series here.

Production & Filming Details

• Creator(s): Jed Mercurio.
• Director(s): Thomas Vincent and John Strickland.
• Producer(s): Simon Heath, Jed Mercurio, Elizabeth Kilgarriff, Priscilla Parish, and Eric Coulter.
• Writer(s): Jed Mercurio.
• Music: Ruth Barrett and Ruskin Williamson.
• Cinematography: John Lee.
• Editor(s): Steve Singleton and Andrew John McClelland.
• Production: World Productions.
• Distributor(s): ITV Studios Global Entertainment.
• Original Network: BBC One.
• Release Date: 23 September 2018.
• Running Time: 60 minutes.
• Country: UK.
• Language: English.