Big blow for Bodyguard fans
BODYGUARD fans were left reeling last night after Home Secretary Julia Montague, played by Keeley Hawes, was killed off.
The Bodyguard: Bomb detonates during Julie’s speech
In a shocking plot twist last night’s episode of the BBC six-parter revealed that Montague apparently died of her injuries in the bomb blast which ended last week’s episode.
Her troubled bodyguard and lover David Budd, played by Richard Madden, contemplated shooting himself after hearing the news of her death but changed his mind as a murder probe was launched.
At the end of the episode he came under suspicion of having some involvement in the attack.
The shock twist left viewers baffled as to how the tense political thriller will continue, with critics assuming the last two episodes will centre on the hunt for the killer.
Bodyguard writer Jed Mercurio is known for killing off popular characters to rack up dramatic tension.
Hawes’s character DCI Lindsay Denton in the writer’s other series Line Of Duty was also sacrificed.
Budd has already been shown to be hiding dark secrets.
The Afghanistan veteran turned police officer kept quiet about his post-traumatic stress disorder in order to be promoted to personal protection officer for the Home Secretary.
The show’s premise is we don’t know a whole lot about his motivations
Despite their steamy love scenes, it is unclear if Budd truly cared for her or wanted to kill the politicians who sent troops to die in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The show’s premise is we don’t know a whole lot about his motivations,” Mercurio said.
“He would appear to be a very highly respected and very proficient personal protection officer.
“But the idea is that actually, rather than protecting her, he may be involved in some conspiracy to do her harm.”
Hawes has joked that lugging around the heavy ministerial red box was enough of a work-out to get in shape for her love scenes.
She said: “Somebody decided our version should be made of solid wood.
"I swear my biceps grew bigger.”
However, as with all TV dramas, who knows if her character was really killed off or if she will later come back from the dead?