“’Frankenstein’ is a timeless classic. As science advances, it becomes more relevant, not less. Its fantasy moves closer to fact, its horrors closer to reality.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I believe that properly regulated research in stem-cell biotechnology will lead to many valuable improvements in medical treatment and that objections on religious or ethical grounds should be vigorously opposed.”
― Jed Mercurio
“There is an apparatus set up to protect politicians, but those within that apparatus will have their own political views. I’ve got mates who are police officers and mates who are in the military, and they often have a very different view to the policy they’re asked to carry out.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The success of ‘Bodyguard’ is a tribute to the magnetism of our two leads, Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Standards in public life have decayed over time… Incompetence is the norm.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Nowadays, you can’t broadcast dodgy special effects and then put up a caption saying, ‘Sorry, this is what the budget was.’ You have to do it with high production values because the audience has been spoilt by the special effects on things like ‘The X Files’ and ‘Independence Day.’”
― Jed Mercurio
“I want to be one of those serious, moody writers.”
― Jed Mercurio
“In real constabularies, the relevant department that is the subject of ‘Line of Duty’ is called Professional Standards. However, ‘Line of Duty’ is set in a fictional anticorruption department, AC-12, in order to prevent any unintentional resemblance to actual units, cases, or individuals.”
― Jed Mercurio
“There aren’t a lot of political dramas on TV, and those that are tend to be American.”
― Jed Mercurio
“We earned the ‘Line of Duty’ audience’s loyalty over a number of years, and I feel privileged to have that.”
― Jed Mercurio
“For something like ‘Line of Duty’ to work, it has to be both plausible and unexpected.”
― Jed Mercurio
“It’s always useful to know that people are emotionally invested in a series because it means that you can take them down a certain road, and they should be interested.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I love to do things that kind of mess with the movie formula that you can always find the right place to park; you’ve always got a phone signal. And I think audiences really respond to the limitations of real life when they intrude on drama.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I think once you do the unexpected, and you take the viewers to a position of discomfort about being able to rely on characters surviving, then it does completely affect the way in which the drama is viewed.”
― Jed Mercurio
“There’s a classic medical aphorism: ‘Listen to the patient; they’re telling you the diagnosis.’ Actually, a lot of patients are just telling you a lot of rubbish, and you have to stop them and ask the pertinent questions. But, yes, in both drama and medicine, isolated facts can accumulate to create the narrative.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I’ve never reached the point where I was ready to abandon a series.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I think it’s hugely important to have a strong episode one; you can lose an audience so quickly now. You can’t afford to take the attitude that you will use the first one as an introduction and save the high drama for later.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I remember watching TV as a kid, and whenever there was some sort of jeopardy involving the hero, I could reassure myself that they were what I’d call a ‘can’t-die’ character, so everything would be OK.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Some shows do nosedive at the end, or some piece of content could become incredibly controversial and affect the way the show is seen.”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Line of Duty’ is a social realist drama, so it’s set in a world that has the recognisable features of the authentic world we see around us.”
― Jed Mercurio
“In the modern workplace, sexism has adopted a more subtle persona; therefore, people can be accused of sexism where it’s far harder to determine whether they’re actually committing sexism or thinking in a sexist way.”
― Jed Mercurio
“You can have characters that say one thing and do another, and in certain kinds of drama, you can’t get away with that because the audience will become confused – or certainly, the commissioners will become confused and tell you to stop doing it!”
― Jed Mercurio
“The idea of a physical stigma is quite appealing. When I wrote the book of ‘Bodies,’ there was a lot of that in the book about how there are physical manifestations of psychological problems – I think it’s described as ‘Narrativizing The Body.’”
― Jed Mercurio
“I tell the truth where it’s the ethical thing to do, but in terms of entertainment, there’s a certain fun and enjoyment that can be added to the experience by a few judicious lies.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Cannock is a friendly place. You can stroll down the road to a decent pub and have a good curry, and it is not too faceless.”
― Jed Mercurio
“When I’m writing, I am just doing what feels right for me.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I believe that attributing flaws to medical characters makes them not just doctors but something more. It makes them people.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I like to stay away from writing about good versus evil. I think the world is more complicated.”
― Jed Mercurio
“With the police thriller genre, people come to it with an expectation. It allows you to get away with a bit of violence, edginess, darkness.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I am a social realist writer.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I like to write about characters who are conflicted.”
― Jed Mercurio
“One of the things I learned on medical drama ‘Bodies’ was that actors can’t play ambiguity.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Part of me isn’t that interested as a person and a viewer in people’s personal lives. I’m much more interested in what people do in the workplace and what goals they set themselves. I guess that’s why I write a lot of precinct drama.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I think that the audience is smart enough to know that just because a drama is relating to real-world parallels, it doesn’t mean that its story is exactly that story.”
― Jed Mercurio
“People are used to watching cop shows in which the cops are very straight down the line and they solve the crimes, but I think people actually have a much more sophisticated and varied view of the police.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I like to sit at my desk… sometimes I get inspiration when I’m going about my normal day-to-day life.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I always try and distinguish between facts and opinions.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I like the differences between American and British television dramas.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I don’t normally think of a specific actor. I concentrate on the character, and then when we get into pre-production, that’s how names come up.”
― Jed Mercurio
“When ‘Line of Duty’ started on BBC2, there was a feeling that it couldn’t ever become a big show because the BBC2 drama budget is much smaller, and a returning cop series would take away from the Stephen Poliakoff/David Hare stuff that they love to commission.”
― Jed Mercurio
“People don’t always understand the way it works with casting. TV projects tend to be commissioned to screen at a particular time of year, so your shooting dates are chosen to meet that. And then the casting is a matter of choosing from the actors who are available for those dates.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Between the ages of 12 and 15, I wanted to be a pilot because I thought it would be glamorous and dangerous.”
― Jed Mercurio
“In my third year at medical school in Birmingham, I joined the Air Force as a medical cadet so that I was sponsored to become a doctor.”
― Jed Mercurio
“As a teenager, I read a lot of science-fiction, but then I read ‘Catch-22’ and ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ and started reading more literary fiction.”
― Jed Mercurio
“If we have friends over for dinner, I do the cooking. I like the pressure of a big meal and the technical challenges of a roast.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I love writing thrillers.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I come from gender-balanced workplaces. I started off working in medicine, and when I went through med school, it’s 50/50 men and women. And when I started working as a doctor, it’s 50/50 men and women. So I’ve always been very accustomed to women occupying pivotal roles in the professional environment.”
― Jed Mercurio
“There are great female role models out there, and I just feel very proud to be able to represent them in my work.”
― Jed Mercurio
“As a content creator, all you can do is do your best work and then hope that it resonates somehow with an audience.”
― Jed Mercurio
“We’re living in interesting times, where people seem to be able to say things which are contrary to what you would call rationalism.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I’m interested in institutions, particularly in the way institutions close ranks. They have hierarchies and their own ethics.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I write what I call precinct drama, and I tend to write things set in the workplace. Having an institution which gives a workplace its distinctive identity is really important to creating something which feels different.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I think a lot of police procedurals are very conventional. With the stuff I’m doing, I’m trying to approach the institution of the police in a different way.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The advantage you get of something having been on the air for a while is people get to know the characters more, and they get to be more invested in the world.”
― Jed Mercurio
“If you’re a drama writer, obviously you always have to tell the truth; there’s no element of fiction in at all.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The things I discovered when writing ‘Line of Duty’ were the tools you have available to write a thriller.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The footballer I’ve admired most in the last ten years is Zinedine Zidane… one of those rare individuals who had the skill but also incredible vision.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I’m reading ‘Ten Storey Love Song’ by Richard Milward. I read his first novel, ‘Apples,’ after hearing a reading of his in the Hague. I really enjoyed it, so I’ve started this one.”
― Jed Mercurio
“It was an absolute pleasure working with Stephen Graham. I’ve admired his work for many years, and what he brings is that real sense of authenticity.”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Bodies’ remains the drama I’m most proud of.”
― Jed Mercurio
“When a critic or journalist writes, ‘It’s too complex,’ or, ‘It’s full of plot holes,’ they very rarely take the step of identifying what they mean. The reason they do that is to protect themselves, because they don’t want to reveal that they may have misunderstood or missed something.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The problem with individual opinion is that it doesn’t necessary correlate with what the mass audience is thinking.”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Line Of Duty,’ for dramatic purposes, tends to create characters whose corruption is balanced on certain ethical conflicts, whereas the majority of corruption in the real world is simply based on greed.”
― Jed Mercurio
“It’s important that the actor doesn’t feel like they’re working in a vacuum. If the actor is told, ‘Oh, it’s a secret; just play it this way or that way,’ it’s a bit patronising. I think you have to bring the actor into your thinking and explain things.”
― Jed Mercurio
“One of the most significant threats to our national security was and is home-grown Islamist terrorism.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I didn’t study writing or drama or anything like that… that was not really a viable route for me.”
― Jed Mercurio
“There are some writers who don’t write about people who do jobs. I’m not going to name them, but you watch one of their films, or you read one of their books, and you think, ‘What job do they do?’ They seem to have a nice house and a nice income. How have they got it?”
― Jed Mercurio
“The part of my life where my character was defined was at work because of the decisions I make and the things I do, and I guess that’s what I feel qualifies me and attracts me to write the characters I do.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I’m always thinking about my work, always thinking about where it’s taking me.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I try and relate my writing to something I know about, and I had a primary experience of being in a competitive, military environment and being part of a squadron.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I do like books to be quite an intense experience, and that’s the kind of novel I respond to as a reader.”
― Jed Mercurio
“So with ‘Ascent,’ one of the things I wanted to do was not make it too remote from the reader, for it to be engaged with the human side and not just to be about the cold metal of planes and spacecraft.”
― Jed Mercurio
“No one was more surprised than me by the success of the first series of ‘Line of Duty.’”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Line of Duty’ had originally been conceived as a returnable drama, with the premise being that the fictional anticorruption unit AC-12 would move on to a new case in each series, centred on a high-profile antagonist accused of corruption.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I have a lot of respect for our police forces. They are generally honest and effective.”
― Jed Mercurio
“It was a strange feeling, filming a night scene in Selly Oak High Street with a television crew and famous actors in tow, when twenty years ago, at that time of night, I would’ve been stumbling around in search of a kebab.”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Line Of Duty’ is first and foremost a thriller. But I hope it will also be seen as a revisionist commentary on 21st century policing.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The doctor part of me recognises the light and shade of medical life, but the writer in me is more attracted by the darkness, perhaps because it is the road less travelled.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Part of what motivated my writing was anger. I was angry that the daily misery of doctors, nurses, and patients was being trivialised into soap opera. We were made to feel bad because we were not perfect like our television counterparts. We were resentful that our patients did not get better as quickly as they did on telly – or at all.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I think that the general public understands that its own doctors are human, fallible, and flawed.”
― Jed Mercurio
“The world is a horrible place, but no one worries because we have all been pacified by anodyne television in which incorruptible cops solve crimes, crusading lawyers keep the innocent out of prison, and streetwise social workers rescue children from abuse.”
― Jed Mercurio
“In ‘Bodies,’ we had a lot of gore because other medical dramas at the time had these hospitals where even a drop of blood seemed to be too much, which is clearly not what it’s like when you cut someone up.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I think you’ve got to be careful with gore. Different genres need different things.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Special effects are becoming more and more affordable and looking more and more like the real thing.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Certain people in politics and the press felt there was a political spin to ‘Cardiac Arrest,’ but there was no political agenda to what I was doing.”
― Jed Mercurio
“Sci-fi gives you the scope to do grand stories.”
― Jed Mercurio
“I would compare my ‘Frankenstein’ to Cronenberg’s remake of ‘The Fly.’ The monster in the original Fifties version of ‘The Fly’ was a crude, anatomical combination of man and insect, whereas Cronenberg’s version exploited knowledge of DNA to depict him as a transgenic chimera.”
― Jed Mercurio
“In ‘Bodies,’ we had a lot of gore because it was a medical drama. The gore was authentic.”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Cardiac Arrest’ was the first British drama to use a lot of medical jargon. ‘ER’ began the following year and was the first American drama to do that.”
― Jed Mercurio
“With ‘Cardiac Arrest,’ I wanted to show that there were times when doctors really didn’t care.”
― Jed Mercurio
“If you look at American medical fiction written by doctors, like ‘The House of God’ by Samuel Shem and ‘The Blood of Strangers’ by Frank Huyler, both have themes of cynicism and dysfunction running through them that you won’t find in ‘ER.’ You find it in ‘Scrubs,’ but because that’s a comedy, it gets away with it.”
― Jed Mercurio
“British drama can compete with America creatively. But the two systems are very different.”
― Jed Mercurio
“There’s something very frightening about the vulnerability of mothers and babies.”
― Jed Mercurio
“’Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ is a novel that constitutes a milestone of English literature.”
― Jed Mercurio
“It doesn’t excite me as a writer to write some swearing or sex scenes, because they don’t have any emotional content.”
― Jed Mercurio
“What makes an audience watch something and care about the characters is the emotional life of the characters.”
― Jed Mercurio
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