Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Richard Madden, Keeley Hawes, Gina McKee, Sophie Rundle, Paul Ready, Vincent Franklin, Stuart Bowman, Nina Toussaint-White, Stephanie Hyam, Tom Brooke, Matt Stokoe, Pippa Haywood, Nicholas Gleaves, Shubham Saraf, Claire-Louise Cordwell, Michael Schaeffer, Richard Riddell, David Westhead, Anji Mohindra.
Trust, we can use it for the betterment of society, or, as is more often the case, we abuse it, we bring people into our confidence, the hope of a shared dream or thought, only to find that they are willing to betray the glowing forged link taking shape, for their own needs, their own goals. The sacrifice of such trust is to see the world in which we live in fall foul, we set up barriers, we build walls around ourselves, we live in a fear of repeating the cycle over and over again, until that one day when someone comes into our life, by design or by fortune, who will do everything possible to see that your soul is protected, that a Bodyguard who will not sleep whilst your life is threatened.
Trust, we are perhaps complicit in the hope that television will deliver us a worthy serial which addresses the complications of good drama and a story line which will leave an audience reeling in the final reveal; that even a sacred lamb of an actor is not above being killed off in the dream of revelation. It is an arrangement which is almost brutal, too many let downs, too many false starts; however in Bodyguard, that trust is rewarded, a sizzling affair of nerves and deception, and it is one that was bookended by the reminder that the biggest betrayal of trust is that operated between Government and its citizens.
In the modern age we are asked to rely ever more on those entrusted to look after our welfare but there is a war of ideology in this particular circus-like arrangement, a war played out with a keen eye by those pulling the strings on the marionette of life, like a nest of spiders feeding the matriarch, the security services, the Government, the police, officers of law and order jostle it seems for the very lives of those whose daily lives are filled with the simple pleasures, their children, their homes and the thought of a decent life for all.
It is conspiracy we have all bought into, one that is built on quicksand and smoke and mirrors, made more complicated by groups of people who see any country as a playground for war, criminals, terrorists, political insurgents; a conspiracy that Sergeant David Budd finds himself at the centre of as the whole circus joins forces to bring a rising star of British politics down.
In Richard Madden’s portrayal of David Budd, the brooding sense of injustice runs deep, a veteran of the latest British invasion of Afghanistan, the distrust of life is heightened by being appointed bodyguard to Keeley Hawes Right Wing Home Secretary. In both these actors the serial rejoiced in, their characters well written and intensely observed; and with great support from Nina Toussaint-White, Pippa Haywood and Anji Mohindra the storyline was one that loved up to its promise, one that earned the right to be considered as a classic of its time.
A far-reaching serial, Bodyguard asks questions of our relationship with the political elite and those who we suspect might not actually be completely honest with their assertion we need protecting; a marvellously entertaining Sunday night feast.
Ian D. Hall