TV

Gripping opening sequence of Bodyguard rewritten

The heart-in-mouth scene has everyone talking

The writer of new BBC drama Bodyguard has told Twitter fans that the heart-in-mouth opening sequence, which saw an off-duty policeman try to prevent a terror attack on a train, had to be entirely reworked.

Jed Mercurio, who also pens the stupendously brilliant Line of Duty, explained that the train was originally going to depart from Waterloo.

The whole sequence had to be rewritten when permission was revoked.

The scene which aired instead saw the train making its way to London.

The new six-part series stars Richard Madden as Sergeant David Budd, who is promoted after preventing the suicide bombing.

He is assigned as Police Protection Officer to the Home Secretary, Julia Montague (played by Keeley Hawes).

Budd is secretly hiding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, after serving in the army in Afghanistan, while Julia is vocally pro-war.

A combination of bad weather on a Bank Holiday and the popularity of Line of Duty earned Bodyguard highest overnight audience for a drama launch this year… and by more than one million viewers.

It had an average overnight rating of 6.7 million and an audience share of 35%, the BBC has said.

The programme peaked with 6.9 million viewers.

The second most-watched new drama launch of the year so far is BBC One’s McMafia, which had an average overnight audience of 5.6m when it aired on New Year’s Day, while ITV dramas Innocent and Girlfriends opened with 5.3 million and 5.2 million average viewers respectively.

The second episode of Bodyguard airs tonight at 9pm and, judging by the feedback on Twitter, viewers can’t wait.

“Opening twenty minutes most tense drama this year,” wrote one.

“Richard Madden is immense and Keeley Hawes is as excellent as ever”

Another posted: “#Bodyguard was brilliant!! omg literally on the edge of my seat!!

“OMG that opening scene, what?!?! My heart can’t take that much tension!!”

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