Hit Bodyguard series sent to China

BBC TV hit Bodyguard – Britain’s biggest drama of 2018 – is heading to China.

The finale of the drama, which starred Keeley Hawes as home secretary and Richard Madden as her bodyguard, was watched by 17 million people.

Madden played a protection officer guarding Hawes’s character in the ratings juggernaut, created by Jed Mercurio.

Produced by ITV studios for BBC One, it is expected to return for a second series in the UK.

ITV Studios global entertainment managing director Ruth Berry said the show would air on streaming service platform Huanxi, which has films and TV dramas produced domestically and from abroad.

“We are delighted that viewers in China will be able to enjoy Bodyguard,” she said.

Maddenpreviouslysaid:“i’m having a conversation with him [Mercurio] in about ten days or something, when I’m back in the country, and we are just going to chat through some ideas. We never intended to make another one and I don’t know, I’m excited to see what he’s got.”

Filming on the first season started in October 2017, with the premiere going out on BBC One in August last year.

That means any new series, if commissioned, would likely not be released until at least 2020. A sixth series of Mercurio’s other BBC hit series Line of Duty has already been commissioned.