Bodyguard: who are Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes?

A new political drama is coming to BBC One on Sunday, from the creator of Line of Duty. Here’s all you need to know about the highly anticipated series, Bodyguard, and its two stars.

What is Bodyguard about?

The show is about heroic war veteran David Budd, played by Richard Madden, whose job is to protect Home Secretary Julia Montague, played by Keeley Hawes. Tension rises between the pair as they clash over politics and Julia realises that her bodyguard could soon become her biggest threat.

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When will Bodyguard air?

The first episode is at 9pm on Sunday 26 August.

Where have we seen Richard Madden before?

The 32-year-old Scottish actor is best known as Robb Stark in Game of Thrones. He also played Prince Kit in Disney’s 2015 remake of Cinderella

opposite Lily James. Before his TV and film career, he acted on stage, including a starring role in Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre.

He tells Metro it took a week of “really aggressive filming” to produce the 21-minute opening scene for Sunday night’s Bodyguard. He added: “We had to keep getting back to a peak of intensity day after day - that took a lot of black coffee and lack of sleep. Take a look at my eyes in that scene, I’m buzzing.”

And Keeley Hawes?

Hawes has previously worked with creator Jed Mercurio as DI Lindsay Denton on his series Line of Duty, for which she received a Bafta nomination. She also starred in Ashes to Ashes as DI Alex Drake. The 42-year-old trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School in London and was scouted by a modelling agency before she began her career as an actor.

Hawes describes her Bodyguard character as a “very serious woman in an incredibly serious job” with the appearance that she has no life outside work. “But everyone has a story and as the series goes on we start to see chinks in her armour,” she tells What’s On TV.

Who else is in the cast?

Gina McKee (Notting Hill), Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders) and Vincent Franklin (Happy Valley) are also in the line-up - and there is even a cameo from Andrew Marr.