Jed Mercurio Quotes

I always try and distinguish between facts and opinions.

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.

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.

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.

When I’m writing, I am just doing what feels right for me.

In ‘Bodies,’ we had a lot of gore because it was a medical drama. The gore was authentic.

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.

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?

There’s something very frightening about the vulnerability of mothers and babies.

‘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.

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.

‘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.

‘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.

I’m always thinking about my work, always thinking about where it’s taking me.

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.

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.

I’m interested in institutions, particularly in the way institutions close ranks. They have hierarchies and their own ethics.

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.

The success of ‘Bodyguard‘ is a tribute to the magnetism of our two leads, Richard Madden and Keeley Hawes.

I didn’t study writing or drama or anything like that… that was not really a viable route for me.

‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover‘ is a novel that constitutes a milestone of English literature.

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.

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.

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.

Special effects are becoming more and more affordable and looking more and more like the real thing.

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.

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.

The problem with individual opinion is that it doesn’t necessary correlate with what the mass audience is thinking.

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.

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.

Standards in public life have decayed over time… Incompetence is the norm.

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!

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.

I think that the general public understands that its own doctors are human, fallible, and flawed.

I do like books to be quite an intense experience, and that’s the kind of novel I respond to as a reader.

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.

The things I discovered when writing ‘Line of Duty’ were the tools you have available to write a thriller.

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.

‘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.

Between the ages of 12 and 15, I wanted to be a pilot because I thought it would be glamorous and dangerous.

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.

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.’