The magnificent MR MERCURIO
How Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio rose to the summit of TV drama
Afew days ago, the fourth episode of Line Of Duty series five aired on BBC1, and climaxed with a huge shock moment. And while we’re still recovering from the stunning turn of events, it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from the
master of TV thrillers, Jed Mercurio. After all, this is the man who, back in 2014, cast rising star Jessica Raine in the second series of Line Of Duty, making a big deal of the fact that the Call The Midwife actress was the new team member joining our heroes in anti-corruption unit AC-12 – only to have her unceremoniously chucked out of a hospital window and plummet to her death at the end of the first episode. Such set-piece moments are a key part of why Mercurio has become the most successful showrunner in British TV history. But they’re not the whole story…
KING OF THE PRECINCT
Twenty-six years ago, Mercurio was working as an NHS doctor. He saw an ad placed by a TV production company in the British Medical Journal asking for experts to help with a new drama series set in a hospital. He ended up writing the show Cardiac Arrest, which aired on BBC1 and was immediately well received. The show lasted three series, and swiftly established that Mercurio (then writing under the pseudonym John Macure) could authentically dramatise his hospital experiences. But that show was just the prelude to Mercurio’s second big TV drama achievement in 2004. BBC3’S Bodies was a razor-sharp, no-holds-barred depiction of NHS life, which only lasted two series, but was massively lauded. It’s just arrived back on iplayer, and its brilliantly visceral style is still in evidence. Mercurio had become a master of the “precinct” series – shows with a specific workplace setting and built around professionals doing their jobs, but turned into riveting drama. And then came the crucial
pivot to the crime genre, with Line Of Duty.
Prince of the Plausible
“I’m interested in very direct forms of storytelling,” Mercurio said recently. “If you have a scene that isn’t advancing the story, why is it there?” This was clearly his mantra when creating his masterpiece, right from when it arrived in 2012. The show took the deep-dive authenticity that was the hallmark of Bodies and applied it to the world of law enforcement, with a particular laser focus on anti-corruption. He cast superbly naturalistic actors Vicky Mcclure, Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar as the show’s core team and, as the saga developed, gave us big guest star lead antagonists for them to investigate – Lennie James in series one, then Keeley Hawes, Daniel Mays (killed off in episode one of series three!) and Thandie Newton. Throughout every single Line Of Duty episode so far, there are narrative shocks and twists, plus spine-tingling moments when the rug is pulled out from under us, many of which can tread the line of credibility. But Mercurio’s real genius is in making even his most outrageous plot turns seem so plausible.
Master of suspense
Now, we’re deep into series five of Line Of Duty, which is getting huge ratings every Sunday night on BBC1. It’s easy to forget it started out on BBC2 with about 3.5 million viewers, as it’s now getting four times that number off the back of the unparalleled success of Mercurio’s other TV thriller phenomenon, Bodyguard – the most-watched TV drama in UK history. So, what’s the secret of Mercurio’s unmatched success?
The clues are surely in the qualities that connect Bodies, Bodyguard and Line Of Duty: the perfect casting – he favours working-class actors unaffected by drama school training; the authenticity – every detail of setting, jargon and professional behaviour is meticulously researched; and the storytelling – his lean, taut plotting, mastery of set-piece suspense sequences and dazzling shocks make for the most addictive of all viewing experiences.
Now, with only two episodes to go of this current Line Of Duty series, we cannot imagine where Mercurio will take us next. We’re just grateful to be living in this Golden Age of Jed TV. n
Line Of Duty continues on BBC1, Sundays, 9pm. Bodies Series 1&2 are on BBC iplayer now