Jed Mercurio

Jed Mercurio (born 1966) is a British television writer-producer-director and novelist. He is reported to be one of the few British script-writers to work as a US-style showrunner.^[1] A former hospital physician and RAF officer,^[2] in December 2013, Mercurio was ranked among UK television's leading writers by TV-industry magazine Broadcast.^[3]

His chief works for television are the series Line of Duty, Bodies (based on his 2002 novel), The Grimleys and Cardiac Arrest.^[4] His books are Bodies (2002), Ascent (2007), American Adulterer (2009) and, for children, The Penguin Expedition (2003).^[5]

Biographical Information

Mercurio was born in Nelson, Lancashire but grew up in Cannock, Staffordshire.^[6] While an undergraduate at the University of Birmingham Medical School, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and underwent pilot training with the intention of specialising in aviation medicine.^[7][8][9] Instead, during subsequent practice as a hospital physician, Mercurio answered an advertisement in the British Medical Journal and, despite negligible writing experience,^[2] scripted the BBC medical drama Cardiac Arrest under the pseudonym John MacUre.^[10] Subsequently he retired from medicine and the military to pursue a writing career under his own name.^[7]

Selected Works

Mercurio's writing debut, Cardiac Arrest (1994-96), caused controversy due to its revisionist depiction of hospital life,^[11][12] though the series was twice nominated in the Best Original Drama category by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain^[13] and topped a poll of UK medical professionals as the most realistic medical drama of all time.^[14] Mercurio served as medical advisor on the second series of Cardiac Arrest, which he cites as his apprenticeship in producing/directing.^[8]

Mercurio adapted his first novel, Bodies (2002),^[15] into an award-winning television series.^[16] Mercurio assumed the producer/show-runner position for the first time on Bodies (2004-06), a role he has fulfilled on all his subsequent original series.^[8] The Times ranked Bodies in "Shows of the Decade" and The Guardian placed it in "The Greatest TV Dramas of All Time."^[17] The series won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series, was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series and Mercurio was also twice nominated as Best Drama Writer by the Royal Television Society.^[18]

His critically acclaimed second novel, Ascent (2007),^[19] was ranked among 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read.^[20]

Mercurio's next original drama series, Line of Duty (first broadcast 26 June, 2012), premiered as BBC2's then best-performing drama series in 10 years with 4.1 million viewers^[21] (since surpassed by The Fall and Wolf Hall);^[22] a well-received second series (first broadcast 12 February 2014) ^[23] resulted in the BBC commissioning two further series for production in 2015 and 2016.^[24] The first series was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series and earned Mercurio his third nominations as Best Drama Writer by the Royal Television Society^[25] and The Writers' Guild of Great Britain.^[26] In 2014, Line of Duty was named in the Top 50 BBC2 Shows of All-Time,^[27] and named best television drama of the year by The Observer.^[28] In 2015, the second series won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series.^[29] and was nominated for three BAFTA Awards.^[30]

Jed Mercurio was showrunner on his third medical drama series, Critical, which began a run of 13 episodes on Sky1 on 24 February, 2015.^{[31][32][33][34]}

Filmography

• Cardiac Arrest (1994–96)
• The Grimleys (TV film) (1997)
• Invasion: Earth (1998)
• The Grimleys (TV series) (1999–2001)
• The Legend of the Tamworth Two (2004)
• Bodies (2004–2006)
• Frankenstein (2007)
• Strike Back (2010)
• Line of Duty (2012–)
• Critical (2015)
• Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015)

Bibliography

• Bodies (2002)
• The Penguin Expedition (2003)
• Ascent (2007)
• American Adulterer (2009)
• Ascent (graphic novel – with Wesley Robins) (2011)

Awards and nominations

References