Jed Mercurio worked as a hospital doctor for three years before he joined the Royal Air Force and learned flying training and aviation medicine. He was originally hired as a script consultant, before he was asked to write episodes on his own.

Credits include ‘Cardiac Arrest,’ ‘Bodies,’ ‘Line of Duty,’ and now ‘Bodyguard.’ In his latest series, a 6-episode mini-drama, Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) stars as David Budd, a Specialist in the Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service assigned to protect the ambitious Home Secretary, Julie Montague, portrayed by Keeley Hawes.

In this interview, the screenwriter discusses his journey from medicine to screenwriting, why he originally chose to write under a pseudonym, how to write a real-world political drama, and the difference between American and English political dramas.

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