In just 10 minutes, show creator Jed Mercurio will lay claim to the next six hours of your life. Political conspiracy thriller “Bodyguard” is Britain’s biggest TV hit in years, and it’s easy to see why. With Jed Mercurio’s suspenseful story and mesmerizing performances by Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes, it’s an intoxicating and addictive television cocktail. Ten minutes in, and viewers will want to binge all six hours of the new Netflix-distributed series that examines how the London corridors of power grapple with the increased threat of terrorism. This is not a remake of the 1992 Whitney Houston-Kevin Costner thriller “The Bodyguard,” although it does feature a hardened private security specialist David Budd (Madden) assigned to protect a high-profile woman, who in this case is the implacable Home Secretary Julia Montague (Hawes). Both are accustomed to taking charge and forge a wary professional alliance that eventually crosses into the personal. Madden is already an international star after playing the ill-fated Robb Stark on “Game of Thrones,” the dashing Prince Charming in Disney’s live-action “Cinderella” reboot, and the irresistible EDM deejay in Netflix’s “Ibiza.” Even so, this is his most thrilling role to date and does much to bolster his name as a possible Bond successor to Daniel Craig. Part action hero, part brooding Heathcliff, Budd is a man whose skills for detection and defense have been honed by war. He also exhibits a remarkable humanity, such as in an early sequence involving a suicide bomber. Madden bristles with tightly reined tension, but in an instant can act with brutal efficiency or horrifying desperation to reveal cloaked PTSD. The strength of Madden’s commanding stare — at a faulty cell phone, or a quote during a news conference — invests viewers in minutiae. He puts the same barely leashed control into his speech. Ever proper, Budd loves the word “ma’am,” which would seem comical if it weren’t for his nuanced delivery that makes every monosyllabic address feel like a full, impassioned sentence. World Productions/Netflix Hawes, whose extensive TV resume includes starring in Mercurio’s “Line of Duty” and the charming family drama “The Durrells in Corfu,” is more than his match as a politician whose outspoken nature and policy of increased surveillance make her a target. She plays Julia as calculated yet confident, a woman who does not suffer fools or fragile male egos. Together, Madden and Hawes are electric; if the series were just a two-hander, their chemistry would be more than enough to keep watching. Thomas Vincent (“Versailles”) directed the first half of the series, which exponentially ratchets up the couple’s relationship. Nothing seems as important as their interactions, which rarely need dialogue to smolder. And yet, deceit, violence, government machinations, and terrorist plots dare to intrude. Those familiar with Mercurio’s acclaimed and ongoing police procedural “Line of Duty” (four seasons are currently available on Hulu) have tasted his brand of insidious, widespread corruption. Here, a broad network of government agents and other political players offer a range of suspects for the rampant malfeasance. No one can be trusted — Julia and David included. Careening from white-knuckled action sequences to excruciating moments of drawn-out suspense, the show is relentless in creating visceral reactions through the tension. Mercurio is bold enough to kill off characters, creating real stakes that don’t guarantee anyone’s safety, and throws in plenty of plot twists to keep viewers unsteady. Part of the fun is it doesn’t really matter if the audience can figure out who is behind which plot; it’s all about the way it unravels. It’s almost a shame that Netflix won’t release the show according to the UK’s weekly rollout. Not only does Mercurio excel at crafting clever cliffhangers that should be savored, but a break also would allow viewers the chance to digest the events, build anticipation, and perhaps ward off stress ulcers. The series finishes with an appropriately twisty ending that even the most perceptive viewers won’t predict; in that regard, Mercurio is successful in his narrative mastery. However, the choices he makes in order to create this surprise, and how he reveals it, are problematic. This takes viewers out of the moment and weakens what should be a satisfying cap to an engrossing series. Readers who have seen all six parts of “Bodyguard” can continue reading on the next page>> Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.<doc-sep>The British writer Jed Mercurio builds television shows the way the Cenobites build puzzle boxes in the “Hellraiser” movies. Get too close to one, and its intricate mechanism shoots its hooks into you, pulling you through a portal into a gyre of suspense from which there’s no escape. Mercurio’s most successful medium is a mash-up of the police procedural and the political conspiracy thriller, and his storytelling trademarks include severe psychological duress, inappropriate sex among public servants and the ease with which major characters are killed off. Most noticeably, he strives to keep every conspiratorial option open and every possible suspect in play for as long as possible. There are definite heroes and villains, but you might not know which is which until just before the final credits. The latest example of his infernal abilities is “Bodyguard,” a six-episode BBC potboiler whose finale was, according to different measurements, the highest-rated British drama since either the “Downton Abbey” Season 2 finale in 2011 or a “Doctor Who” Christmas special in 2008. Viewers in the rest of the world, including the United States, can see what the fuss is about when the series comes to Netflix on Wednesday. (A second season has not been announced but seems inevitable.) “Bodyguard” stars Richard Madden, who played the sad, short-lived Robb Stark on “Game of Thrones,” as David Budd, a war veteran now serving in a police unit that provides protection details. A long, tense, highly effective opening scene involving a suicide bomber on a train establishes Budd’s bona fides — he’s capable and compassionate in a crisis, but he’s got a twitch, a crack in his armor presumably caused by post-traumatic stress and associated problems with his marriage.<doc-sep>LONDON — It’s been pretty grim in Britain over the last few months. Brexit, Brexit, Brexit. Newspaper headlines and social media keep telling us that the country has never been more divided. “Brexit preppers” are stockpiling food and medication. Half the cabinet is in a perennial state of officially outraged fury and imminent resignation. The beleaguered prime minister, Theresa May, keeps insisting there is a way forward. But two months ago, the country found a way to come together, heal the divisions and ignore the politicians. Well, the real ones at least. The BBC One series “Bodyguard,” written by Jed Mercurio (“Line of Duty”), debuted here in late August, drawing more than 10 million television viewers over seven days for its first episode, the largest audience for a new drama on British TV since “Downton Abbey.” You may never have heard of this show, which stars Richard Madden (“Game of Thrones”) and Keeley Hawes (“The Durrells in Corfu”), but it had Britain riveted. [Read our TV critic’s review of “Bodyguard.”] Unfolding in unfashionable weekly installments, “Bodyguard” fueled nonstop speculation in the British media about the twists, turns, implications and resolution of its hall-of-mirrors plot, which involves an Afghanistan war veteran assigned to guard the chilly and ambitious home secretary, together with assorted terrorist threats and back-stabbing political intrigue.<doc-sep>
YOU’VE been hearing about it for weeks — a TV show that everyone in the UK is losing their minds over, the highest rated new drama in 10 years. What is this magical TV show, one that will convince a seen-it-all audience to go back to live TV, waiting, week after week to find out what happens next? Luckily for us, we don’t have to wait any longer. Bodyguard is finally available in Australia, and the whole lot has dropped on Netflix at once so you can binge all six hours and 15 minutes in one sitting — who needs sleep when there’s intrigue and conspiracies afoot? Tense, exciting and so, so watchable, Bodyguard is a political thriller that begins with a heart-stopping 10-minute sequence on a London-bound train. PTSD-affected former soldier David Budd (Richard Madden), now working for the police, is on-board and off-duty, returning home with his two young children, when he’s caught up in trying to talk down a suicide bomber. It’s nerve-shredding TV and not only establishes the character’s expertise and humanity in an impossible situation but also the show’s proficiency in executing such a high-pressured play — it’s not afraid of extreme close-ups to really wind you up. Bodyguard trailer... Bodyguard trailer It’s a bold declaration from the filmmakers — notably creator and writer Jed Mercurio — that Bodyguard isn’t here to be a breezy watch you can put on while playing a game on your smartphone or prepping veg for dinner. This is a show that commands all your attention and that edge-of-your-seat tension doesn’t really let up throughout the series’ run, though it does adeptly balance the intensity with calmer moments so you can remember to exhale. After the train incident, David is assigned to be the personal protection officer — a bodyguard — to UK Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes), a controversial government figure with prime ministerial ambitions who’s trying to pass severe national security legislation, nicknamed the “Snooper’s Charter”, that runs afoul of civil libertarians. To reveal any more is to rob you of the copious twists and turns Bodyguard will throw your way, or the audacious character choices it makes. It manages to cram in more conspiracies, power plots, backstabbing and explosive moments in six episodes than a season of 24 did in, well, 24 episodes. And there are some really dramatic, though stressful, action set pieces that are on a much bigger scale than you would normally get from a British production. As a viewer, at no point do you think you have a proper grasp on who, in the government, police, security services and more, can and can’t be trusted. It’s only in the season’s closing moments, when all the red herrings are revealed as such, does all the complexity start to strain the realms of possibility, but you’ve had such a fun time with it, it’s forgivable. Scottish actor Madden is best known to Australian audiences as the tragic Robb Stark in Game of Thrones, a role that generally saw him switch between broody and slightly broodier. But here, he’s really bringing that A-game. As David, Madden balances rage, trauma, pride, lust, pain and more, all while holding back secrets from those around him and from us. Hawes (Spooks) is also brilliant as Julia, who’s punished for being a ruthlessly ambitious woman rather than just for her ideology. Bodyguard is a perfectly calibrated thriller that cleverly builds up the tension so you’re always questioning what you see and hear, puzzling over everyone’s motivations and real loyalties, and to hook you from beginning to end. Bodyguard is available to stream on Netflix from 6pm AEDT tonight. Share your TV and movies obsessions with @wenleima on Twitter.