If you’re a fan of small screen British drama, then the name Jed Mercurio probably needs no introduction, given that he’s responsible for two acclaimed BBC projects that managed to garner huge international audiences and more than a touch of awards season glory.
The former doctor and Royal Air Force officer turned writer, producer, director and novelist is the brains behind Line of Duty and The Bodyguard, a pair of the United Kingdom’s finest episodic efforts to come along in a long time. The latter saw Richard Madden win a Golden Globe for Best Actor, while the former currently ranks as one of the BBC’s most-watched shows of the decade.
Mercurio has attempted to crack the United States before to no avail, but he’s giving it another go after Deadline reported that he’d signed a first-look development deal with the Disney-owned 20th Television alongside his HTM Television partner Jimmy Mulville.
He did manage to sell sci-fi thriller series Transmission to Quibi, though, which obviously went up in smoke when the short-form streaming service imploded just months after its billion-dollar launch. With decades of television experience between them, largely in the realms of the police procedural, thriller or crime genres, a contract that falls under the Disney banner should give Mercurio and Mulville the scope to bring any number of fresh ideas to the screen on the other side of the Atlantic.