Have they really killed Keeley?
10 BODYGUARD THEORIES THAT WILL HAVE YOU HOOKED
ON SUNDAY night, ten million viewers were united in disbelief after Bodyguard’s Home Secretary Julia Montague apparently died in a terrorist bomb attack.
The drama has been detailing her rise as an ambitious politician who falls for her hunky but troubled bodyguard David Budd (a former soldier struggling with PTSD).
As played by Keeley Hawes, ambitious Julia — who clearly has her eyes on the keys to No 10 — had been trying to bring in a Snoopers’ Charter piece of legislation in the face of a series of terrorist attacks — a bomb on a train and at a school. It’s not yet clear who is behind these attacks.
Later in Sunday’s episode we see David (Richard Madden) shoot himself in the temple, before finding his gun was loaded with blanks. It’s no exaggeration to say viewers were as nonplussed as he was.
Indeed, after four hours of twists by writer Jed Mercurio, many of us feel none the wiser.
The central question, of course, is whether David is behind the terrorist attacks (he clearly loathes Julia’s hawkish policies) or a pawn in some deeper game.
But is his lover Julia really dead? Was there ever a bomb in the suitcase — and could David’s colleague Kim be responsible for the blast during the speech? And who is the mystery man eagle-eyed viewers think holds the key to the whole thing?
ALISON BOSHOFF asks the ten killer questions . . .
ONE: IS JULIA REALLY DEAD?
We ALL saw the explosion during her speech to launch the snoopers’ legislation, and saw David’s face as he tried to find her pulse while she was lying amid the debris.
But we saw nothing of her in hospital, just a long shot of surgeons passing on the news to her mother that she was dead.
This was followed by TV news reports and headlines suggesting she had succumbed to her injuries. But is it fake news? The Radio Times hinted as much: ‘We might be grasping at straws, but we don’t actually see her die.
‘The fact that she doesn’t die an on-screen death gives us hope that Julia might still be alive somehow. Perhaps it’s all a big conspiracy — is she pretending she’s dead as bait to catch the killer?
‘Perhaps she’ll soon jump out of her hospital bed and back into bed with David?’
That would be a most enormous twist, but if she was in on some sort of stunt that might explain why MI5 has been so hopeless at suggesting who could have been behind the attack — or why no device was detected beforehand.
And Julia was aware she had many enemies: she was distressed that no back-up police came to her aid when she was under sniper fire.
Could she have cooked up this drama with the help of the security services whom we know she was secretly meeting to keep her safe from the police?
And another theory is gaining currency — the series is a riff on Romeo and Juliet, with her name Julia Montague being a deliberate echo of Juliet Capulet — who married Romeo Montague.
Shakespeare students may remember that Juliet faked her death, leading Romeo Montague — unaware of the ploy — to drink poison and die. Juliet then awakens and kills herself. Could that nod to a final plot twist?
However, there are signs it could be — in fact — all over.
Keeley Hawes tweeted yesterday and it rather sounds as if it’s finished for her. She wrote: ‘It has been amazing to be part of #Bodyguard. everyone’s enthusiasm for the show has made it so exciting. Thanks again for watching and for the lovely messages.’
One of the Radio Times journalists has also since posted a cover ( purporting to be this week’s issue) on social media with ‘Why she had to die’ next to a picture of Julia and bylined to show writer Jed Mercurio — though many are saying it’s yet more misdirection.
She’s also not on the advance cast list for episode five.
TWO: DOES DAVID KNOW THE BOMBER?
IN THe opening scenes of the drama we see David risk his life to shield would-be suicide bomber Nadia — who failed to carry out the train attack. On Sunday, she finally gave some account of how she was coerced by her husband.
Was this simple gratitude, or did something more pass between Nadia and David?
Some viewers think she did recognise the bomb maker in the identity parade pictures she was given, but that David gave her a look to tell her to say nothing.
One wrote: ‘He was also trying to direct Nadia in the interview.’ (He prompted her that someone handed her husband ‘a piece of luggage’).
What if the bomb-maker who gave her husband the device was, in fact, David? It would explain her terror when they meet on the train, and his reassurances to her that she is ‘safe’ to talk to him.
THREE: WHO IS CHANEL’S DRIVER?
eAgLe- eYeD viewers have noticed that the man seen talking with and driving Julia’s sacked aide Chanel Dyson is the same individual seen minutes later in another scene at the Veteran’s Peace group (the camera zooms in on him for a split-second).
The peace group is run by Andy Apstead, an old Army friend of David’s who goes on to try to kill Julia in a sniper attack.
So who is the background man? Credits reveal his onscreen name is Luke Aitkens. He is played by actor Matt Stokoe, a recognisable face who was previously in the dramas Jamestown and Misfits. It seems unlikely the character would have been given a name and be played by a successful actor if it was a simple bit part. It’s also notable the programme-makers released an official photo of him.
So is he part of a conspiracy which links all three attacks?
FOUR: WHO PUT THE BLANKS IN THE GUN?
POLICe searched David’s home and we saw them finding the old hiding place of his gun, which he later used to try to take his life.
Did they find the new hiding place and, fearing he might harm himself, replace the bullets with blanks? But why wouldn’t they have simply removed it?
His estranged wife Vicky could have done it, too, but she seemed astonished by his suicide attempt and by the blanks in the gun.
Which leaves the possibility that an MI5 operative carried out the task. It has already been strongly implied MI5 deleted all the footage showing the security services coming and going at the hotel where they met Julia.
Why, though, would they have done this? Does this mean that they were pulling his strings throughout but have decided they needed him alive to take a fall for the bombing after all?
Or could Julia still be alive and be protecting David somehow, leaving the blanks in his gun as she knew he’d be so distraught at her death he might commit suicide?
Another theory: the other person with access to the property is Vicky’s (as yet unseen) boyfriend. Could he have had something to do with it? (More of which later).
FIVE: WHO IS THE SEX ATTACKER?
We HAVe seen Julia reading a secret document and have been able to read in glimpses about alcohol and drug abuse and a
‘serious sexual assault.’ It seems significant as it was included in the run-through at the start of this weekend’s episode.
After reading it, Julia says it is her ‘duty as a public servant to take action.’ Then she pays a visit to the Prime Minister.
Is this dynamite dossier the motivation for the attacks — meaning they are separate from the train terror attack, and that the PM may be behind the bombing of his own Home Secretary?
SIX: DID TAHIR SET OFF THE BOMB?
HOME office PR adviser Tahir Mahmood ‘died instantly’ in the blast. Police suspect him of bringing an explosive device in his briefcase, possibly unwittingly.
But MI5’s boss dismissed suspicions of him as circumstantial and says he was ‘vetted thoroughly’.
And was the bomb even in the briefcase? Tahir opened it for David to inspect — but we don’t see the ‘Home office documents’ which David said it contained.
When the police rewatch frame-by-frame footage of the bombing, they say they can’t determine where the bomb comes from.
The programme’s fans and conspiracy theorists say the bomb doesn’t come from his briefcase and that, having watched the sequence in freeze frame, it originates under the stage.
The vexed question of Tahir’s briefcase became even more complicated on Sunday. Shifty special adviser Rob Macdonald, who we saw giving the case to Tahir and insisting he take it to Julia, is being protected over a secret by acting Home Secretary Mike Travis.
Told that he will be interviewed by police, Rob says: ‘It wasn’t even my idea!’ His boss Mike says: ‘They won’t find anything. There’s a simple plausible story for you to stick to — and you will stick to it.’
SEVEN: WAS THE BOMBER FEMALE?
A FIGURE seen standing in the wings behind Julia looks very much like her sacked aide, Chanel. Could she be behind the bombing — but if so, how on earth would she have got in?
Another theory asks whether policewoman Kim, seen running towards Julia, could be the suicide bomber. Rather than dashing to try to prevent an attack, she could be running to carry one out.
It’s possible David had some suspicions about her — he asked, ‘What did Kim say?’ when giving his witness statement, not knowing that she was dead.
EIGHT: JUST WHO IS VICKY’S BOYFRIEND?
FOUR hours in and we haven’t yet seen the new boyfriend of Dave’s estranged wife, Vicky. Might he be an MI5 or police stooge? or, as a social media wit asked, will his name turn out to be ‘Terry Rist’?
After all, someone knows about David’s movements. He’s been mentioned in every episode, too, so clearly he will play a bigger role.
And who is ‘Richard Longcross’ who told David he was an MI5 operative visiting Julia on the eve of the bombing? He must be someone powerful enough to get the hotel CCTV footage altered. We have seen him asking MI5 boss Stephen Hunter-Dunn: ‘Do you want a plan put in place?’ Which seems ominous.
NINE: WILL THERE BE ANOTHER SERIES?
THE BBC will want one, and surely writer Jed Mercurio will have considered this. Perhaps this will guarantee that either David or Julia — or both — will survive.
He said: ‘I’m not projecting that far in the future. I think it’s hard to do that, particularly because there are no guarantees that something will get recommissioned.’
THE BIG QUESTION: IS DAVID BEHIND IT?
THERE must be a reason not to show us what was in the briefcase, and David’s face was inscrutable.
Also, of course, the drama has been at pains to set out that he is an unstable veteran, passionately opposed to the pro-war Home Secretary, and has drink problems and PTSD. Also, there has been no explanation as to why he switched off his phone at key periods.
Maybe David saw what was really inside Tahir’s briefcase — knew that it was a device and allowed the attack to go ahead?
Investigating officer DCI Deepak Sharma has his suspicions given that David was Julia’s Personal Protection officer during both of the attacks on her. Sharma said: ‘either you’ve got rotten luck, or it’s a coincidence, and I don’t believe in coincidences.’
If only we could see inside those sealed notes that suicidal David left for his wife and children to get a clue as to his intentions.
Did he try to kill himself because he was so consumed by grief over the death of Julia, the woman that he was coming to love? Was he tipped over the edge by a sense of professional failure?
or, as many viewers think, was David going to end it all because, having killed his target, his mission was accomplished?
Writer Jed Mercurio says that he has deliberately kept the status of the romance between the Home Secretary and her police bodyguard ambiguous.
He explained: ‘I felt that their relationship had become quite important to both of them.
‘You can argue that maybe it appears that they don’t like each other, but it’s very clear that they’re thinking about each other a lot, because David is clearly obsessed with her and her politics, and she’s someone who is in a situation where she’s fundamentally quite lonely and so they spend time together!
‘She’s also manipulative. one of the things that was introduced into the second episode was the idea that a politician who’s up to something, who needs secrets to be kept, has to win over the trust and loyalty of the protection officer, so maybe it’s in her interest to have seduced him.’