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'Bodyguard' creator Jed Mercurio confirms second series talks

Bodyguard (Credit: BBC)
Bodyguard (Credit: BBC)

Jed Mercurio, the writer and creator of Bodyguard, has confirmed that talks are taking place for a second season of the BBC drama.

Speaking at media conference in Canada, he said: “We're in talks. We're going through the logistics of it. There's no real update now.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mercurio, who also created Line of Duty, clarified that a second series has not yet got the green light from the BBC.

He added: “I know there's an adage that your failure should be surprising. But the level of success was surprising.”

Bodyguard clocked up record-breaking figures for the BBC.

Read more: Madden ‘broken’ by Bodyguard

It was the most-watched series since current records began in 2002, with 17.1 million people watching in a 28 day period.

It also receiving 38 million views on iPlayer and was a smash for Netflix around the world.

Richard Madden, who led the drama as the close protection officer with PTSD David Budd, has previously said that a second series is likely in the offing.

Jed Mercurio during the BFI and Radio Times Television Festival at the BFI Southbank, London. (Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)
Jed Mercurio (Credit: Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)

“I spoke to Jed about a month after the show had finished airing over in the UK and we sat and decided let’s give it at least a year while we work out how to do something better,” he said at a Netflix event in Los Angeles.

“A couple of things. A, you cannot jump into it. David Budd definitely needs a vacation after that. He’s not going to go back to work, is he?

“Also he’s the most famous man in London because of what happens at the end of episode six. He couldn’t just go straight back to work.

“Me and Jed both agree that there’s something much more interesting in ‘let’s catch up with him 18 months later, two months later after this has happened and say where is he now? What happened to him?’”

Read more: Madden favourite for Bond

However, he did add in another recent interview that making the show left him 'broken'.

“You spend more time in someone else's clothes, saying someone else's words, thinking someone else's thoughts. You do lose a bit of yourself,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

“I'm not a method actor in any way, but you get a huge hangover from this. At the end of this, I felt very isolated and broken, much like the character was.”