# Bodyguard (2018)

> A troubled Afghanistan veteran assigned to guard a controversial Home Secretary must untangle a possible terror plot while distrusting everyone around him.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/68902

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, thriller
- Created by: Jed Mercurio
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Richard Madden, Keeley Hawes, Sophie Rundle, Gina McKee, Pippa Haywood, Stuart Bowman, Paul Ready, Ash Tandon
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7493974/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, paranoid, gritty, propulsive

## What critics say

Viewers and reviewers praise Bodyguard as a tense, well-made British thriller with strong immersion and realistic action, though some plotting is predictable.

## Synopsis

Bodyguard (2018) is a British national-television political thriller miniseries created by Jed Mercurio for BBC One. Richard Madden plays David Budd, a troubled former soldier who has served in Afghanistan and now works as a personal protection officer assigned to Home Secretary Julia Montague, played by Keeley Hawes, a politician whose agenda is as opaque as her ambition. Sophie Rundle plays Budd's wife Vicky, whose own sense of unease grows alongside his, while Gina McKee brings a steely presence to the political sphere. The engine of the six-episode limited series is simple and relentless: Budd must protect a figure who may herself be a target of a terror plot, while navigating a web of security services, Metropolitan Police officers and ministers who each hold competing secrets. Each hour moves brisk and tense, pairing close-quarters action with the back-room maneuvering of Westminster. Shot with vivid London vistas and grounded, realistic set pieces, the series is set in present-day Britain. Fans of Homeland and House of Cards will find resonance in its paranoid, morally compromised political intrigue and its wary study of a damaged protector who cannot trust the state he serves.

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