In a British world, tackling the subject of terrorism needs to be carried out sensitively; there’s the issue of appearing racially insensitive and continuing the stereotype that all Muslim or Asian people are terrorists which seems engrained in the British psyche. This has been completely ignored by the BBC and its new drama, The Bodyguard, where they power through with this stereotype and make some drama from it too.

Spanning over six episodes, the show follows David Budd, a former soldier in Afghanistan and now working for the police as a high-profile personal protection agent. The show opens with him on the train with his children travelling back to London. David has intel that there is a terror attack due to be carried out, and lo and behold, he’s on the train where the terrorists are. He talks the woman in a hijab down from detonating the bomb vest. As a result, he is promoted to becoming a full-time bodyguard, and the rest of the series is him guarding the attractive home secretary, Julia, whilst trying to keep a cool head with PTSD and stop the terrorists from carrying out any further attacks.

The ironic thing about this series is that it has some moments where it tackles the issue of terrorism and racism; the veteran in a support group meeting discusses how reacting to terrorism with more violence continues to breed more violence, and the home secretary, Julia, states that the reason anyone becomes a terrorist is that they’re excluded from society. However, the series deals with the subject of terrorism as heroes versus villains. The first twenty minutes of the show is a dashing white man talking down a hysterical Muslim woman, making him the hero and her this irrational villain. It’s hard to get past Episode One as it sets the tone for the rest of the series, and the tone is that terrorists are suicidal Asian people looking to bomb places for no discernible reason. In the history of Britain since 2000, terrorist attacks are few and far between, yet there’s a huge number of people who carry this prejudice that all Muslims are terrorists, with a significantly high number of hate crimes carried out towards people of Asian descent.

The show isn’t realistic, it’s all created merely for the drama. If this racist depiction of Muslim people is overlooked, what is left is a fairly wooden script and unengaging acting. Richard Madden as the protagonist lacks a great deal of charm and charisma, and instead brooding and repeating ‘ma’am’ in every scene. The characters swear in different points of the script, but it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the show and comes off as forced. Two characters with absolutely no chemistry begin a romantic relationship and it seems to come from nowhere; there’s no build up to it and no sense of attraction and heat between the characters. The show is hard to define, it has this romantic subplot to it whilst also being very politically centred and carry an air of mystery. The audience is left at the end of each episode wondering who there is to trust.

If you like a show with lots of intrigue and a heavy amount of stereotype, this show is for you. There’s also the option of creating a drinking game; every time David Budd says ‘ma’am’, take a drink. It makes this show a lot more watchable.

Creator: Jed Mercurio
Stars: Richard Madden, Sophie Rundle, Vincent Franklin
Lauren Jones
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