Creators:
Jed MercurioScreenplay:
Jed MercurioCinematography:
John LeeCast:
Richard Madden, Sophie Rundle, Vincent Franklin, Paul Ready, Nicholas Gleaves, Pippa Haywood, Gina McKee, Stuart Bowman, Ash Tandon, Richard Riddell (more)Episodes(6)
Plots(1)
British television drama in which war veteran-turned Police Sergeant David Budd (Richard Madden) must grapple with the conflict of his duties and his own core beliefs. Working for the Metropolitan Police's Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch, Budd is drafted in to be the chief protection officer of Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). Having served in Helmand and experienced first-hand trauma, David's mental stability is shattered underneath the surface, and his memories of the atrocities he encountered leaves him questioning his loyalty to Montague and her means of power. (ITV DVD)
(more)Reviews of this series by the user Marigold (1)
Bodyguard (2018)
A series that for a long time looks like an update of John le Carré's chess games, but in the end may only go down in history as a captivating audition tape by Richard Madden for the role of James Bond. On my god! The boy has it - a killer look, vulnerable charm and a special fragility. His body changes smoothly before the eyes from a powerful machine to a completely scattered trauma factory. Unfortunately, everything else in this world does not have a firm foundation. Until the fifth episode, these are slow promises, which are scattered by the sixth episode, which is overwhelmed by twists, meaningless explanations and the explicitly stupid motivations of the central conspiracy. As a political thriller, Bodyguard is, after all, not a carefully thought-out chess game, but rather stupid screenwriting work with holes in the logic. Unfortunately, the ridiculous structure devalues ambitious attempts at drama and makes it clear that the smiling clichés about the relationship between the bodyguard and his trustee were not just momentary flings. It's actually a cheap, albeit nicely filmed and modern-sounding B-movie. Too bad. but Madden is currently top on my 007 list.
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