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Keeley Hawes to play Home Secretary in Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio’s new BBC drama Bodyguard

Richard Madden as David Budd and Keeley Hawes as Julia Montague in the new BBC1 drama Bodyguard (Des Willie/BBC/PA Wire)
Richard Madden as David Budd and Keeley Hawes as Julia Montague in the new BBC1 drama Bodyguard (Des Willie/BBC/PA Wire)

KEELEY HAWES has signed up to star as an ambitious Home Secretary in the new drama from Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio.

Game Of Thrones actor Richard Madden has been cast opposite Hawes, as the officer assigned to protect the dignitary, whose politics he “despises”.

Set “in and around the corridors of power,” Bodyguard will air in six parts on BBC1.

It will tell the fictional story of David Budd (Madden), “a heroic but volatile war veteran now working as a Specialist Protection Officer for the Royalty And Specialist Protection Branch (RaSP) of the Metropolitan Police”, the BBC said.

“When he is assigned to protect the ambitious and powerful Home Secretary Julia Montague (Hawes) whose politics stand for everything he despises, Budd finds himself torn between his duty and his beliefs.”

Hawes, who previously starred in Line Of Duty and whose recent credits also include The Durrells and The Missing, said: “I’m delighted to be working with Richard Madden and once again with Jed Mercurio, and the hugely talented team behind Line Of Duty.

“Bodyguard is such an exciting project. I can’t wait to get started.”

Madden said: “Jed has created a remarkable story that resonates with the very heart of modern-day London and real characters trying to survive in this world.”

The show’s creator and writer Mercurio, who worked with Madden on the TV adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, said that he was “delighted” to be teaming up with the actor and Hawes again.

The cast also includes Our Friends In The North actress Gina McKee and Peaky Blinders’ Sophie Rundle.