Jed Mercurio

Jed Mercurio (born 1966) is a British television writer-producer-director and novelist. He is reported to be one of the few British script-writers to work as a US-style showrunner.[1] A former hospital physician and RAF officer,[2] Mercurio has been ranked among UK television's leading writers by TV-industry magazine Broadcast.[3]

His chief works for television are the series Line of Duty, Bodies (based on his 2002 novel), The Grimleys and Cardiac Arrest.[4] His books are Bodies (2002), Ascent (2007), American Adulterer (2009) and, for children, The Penguin Expedition (2003).[5]

Early life

Mercurio was born in Nelson, Lancashire but grew up in Cannock, Staffordshire.[6] While an undergraduate at the University of Birmingham Medical School, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and underwent pilot training with the intention of specialising in aviation medicine.[7][8] Instead, during subsequent practice as a hospital physician, Mercurio answered an advertisement in the British Medical Journal and, despite negligible writing experience,[2] scripted the BBC medical drama Cardiac Arrest under the pseudonym John MacUre.[9] Subsequently he retired from medicine and the military to pursue a writing career under his own name.[10]

Career

Mercurio's writing debut, Cardiac Arrest (1994-96), caused controversy due to its revisionist depiction of hospital life,[11][12] though the series was twice nominated in the Best Original Drama category by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain[13] and topped a poll of UK medical professionals as the most realistic medical drama of all time.[14] Mercurio served as medical advisor on the second series of Cardiac Arrest, which he cites as his apprenticeship in producing/directing.[7]

Mercurio adapted his first novel, Bodies (2002),[15] into an award-winning television series.[16] Mercurio assumed the producer/show-runner position for the first time on Bodies (2004-06), a role he has fulfilled on all his subsequent original series.[7] The Times ranked Bodies in "Shows of the Decade" and The Guardian placed it in "The Greatest TV Dramas of All Time."[17] The series won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series, was twice nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series and Mercurio was also twice nominated as Best Drama Writer by the Royal Television Society.[18]

His critically acclaimed second novel, Ascent (2007),[19] was ranked among 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read.[20]

Mercurio's next original drama series, Line of Duty (first broadcast 26 June, 2012), premiered as BBC2's then best-performing drama series in 10 years with 4.1 million viewers.[21] A well-received second series (first broadcast 12 February 2014) [22] resulted in the BBC commissioning two further series for production in 2015 and 2016.[23] The first series was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series and earned Mercurio his third nominations as Best Drama Writer by the Royal Television Society and The Writers' Guild of Great Britain.[24] In 2014, Line of Duty was named in the Top 50 BBC2 Shows of All-Time,[25] and named best television drama of the year by The Observer.[26] In 2015, the second series won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series.[27] and was nominated for four BAFTA Awards.[28][29] Season 3 of Line of Duty became the most watched drama broadcast on BBC2 in the multichannel era.[30]

Jed Mercurio was showrunner on his third medical drama series, Critical, which began a run of 13 episodes on Sky1 on 24 February, 2015.[31][32][33][34]

Filmography

Bibliography

Awards and nominations

Year Association Category Work(s) Result
1994 Writers' Guild of Great Britain Best Original Drama Serial Cardiac ArrestNominated
1996 Best Original Drama Series Nominated
2003 Sheffield Children's Book Awards Shorter Novel The Penguin ExpeditionNominated
2004 Royal Television Society Best Drama Series BodiesNominated
Royal Television Society Best Drama WriterNominated
BAFTA Best Drama Series Nominated
2005 Royal Television Society Best Drama Series Won
Royal Television Society Best Drama Writer Nominated
BAFTA Best Drama Series Nominated
2012 Crime Thriller Awards The TV Dagger Line of DutyNominated
2013 Broadcast Awards Best Drama Series or Serial Nominated
Broadcasting Press Guild Awards Best TV Drama Nominated
South Bank Sky Arts Award TV Drama Nominated
Royal Television Society Best Drama Series Nominated
Royal Television Society Best Drama Writer Nominated
2014 Freesat Awards Best TV Drama Won
Crime Thriller Awards The TV Dagger Nominated
Writers' Guild of Great Britain TV Drama - Long Form Nominated
2015 Broadcast Awards Best Drama Series or Serial Nominated
Broadcasting Press Guild Awards Best Drama Series Nominated
Best Drama Writer Nominated
2015 Royal Television Society AwardsBest Drama Series Won
BAFTA Television Craft AwardsWriter: DramaNominated
BAFTA Television AwardsBest Drama SeriesNominated
2015 South Bank Sky Arts Awards TV Drama Nominated

References

  1. ↑ Gilbert, Gerard (18 May 2014). "Meet the showrunners". The Independent.
  2. 1 2 Albiston, Isabel (24 February 2007). "The world of ...". The Telegraph.
  3. ↑ "Broadcast Hot 100 2013". broadcastnow.co.uk. 5 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Jed Mercurio filmography at the International Movie Database, IMDb.com, retrieved 6 October 2013
  5. ↑ Jed Mercurio Author Profile at Rogers, Coleridge & White Literary Agency website, Rcwlitagency.com, retrieved 6 October 2013
  6. ↑ Laws, Roz (7 April 2016). "Who is the man behind gripping TV drama Line of Duty?". Birmingham Mail.
  7. 1 2 3 Brown, Maggie (10 February 2014). "Line of Duty's Jed Mercurio". The Guardian.
  8. ↑ Llewellyn-Smith, Julia (23 March 2014). "Line of Duty:'Sometimes justice is not done in the real world'". Telegraph.
  9. ↑ Curtis, Chris (20 September 2012), Jed Mercurio: taking aim at the target culture, Broadcastnow.co.uk, retrieved 6 October 2013
  10. ↑ Laws, Roz (7 April 2016). "Who is the man behind gripping TV drama Line of Duty?". Birmingham Mail.
  11. ↑ Dillner, Louise (23 April 1994). "Frightening realism". The British Medical Journal.
  12. ↑ Revill, Jo (10 September 2006). "Nurse! Let's put this medical drama back on the screens". The Guardian.
  13. ↑ "Cardiac Arrest at the International Movie Data Base".
  14. ↑ "Top of the TV Medics". BBC Online. 9 November 1999.
  15. ↑ Myerson, Julie (6 April 2002). "Close to the Bone". The Guardian.
  16. ↑ Royal Television Society Programme Awards 2005, Rts.org.uk, retrieved 6 October 2013
  17. ↑ Lusher, Tim (12 January 2010). "The Top 50 TV Dramas of All Time". The Guardian.
  18. ↑ "Bodies at the International Movie Data Base".
  19. ↑ Faber, Michel (10 March 2007). "Rocket Man". The Guardian.
  20. ↑ "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read". The Guardian. 22 January 2009.
  21. ↑ Curtis, Chris (20 September 2012). "Jed Mercurio: taking aim at the target culture". Broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  22. ↑ Moir, Jan (17 March 2014). "Is Line of Duty the best cop show ever?". Daily Mail.
  23. ↑ Sweeney, Mark (8 April 2014). "Line of Duty set to return for third and fourth series". Guardian.
  24. ↑ Sandwell, Ian (5 December 2014). "Writers' Guild shortlist unveiled". Screen International.
  25. ↑ Hogan, Michael; et al. (18 April 2014). "The Top 50 BBC Two shows of all-time". The Telegraph.
  26. ↑ Ferguson, Euan (7 December 2014). "The best British TV Dramas of 2014". The Observer.
  27. ↑ Klompus, Jack (18 March 2015). "Casualty, Harry & Paul, Line of Duty win at RTS Programme awards". Digital Spy.
  28. ↑ "Bafta TV Awards 2015: Winners in full". BBC News. 10 May 2015.
  29. ↑ "BAFTA TV Craft Awards 2015".
  30. ↑ Plunkett, John (28 April 2016). "Line of Duty outranks Wolf Hall to take BBC2 ratings crown". The Guardian.
  31. ↑ Billen, Andrew (25 February 2015). "TV Review: Critical; Immigration Street". The Times.
  32. ↑ Jones, Ellen E. (25 February 2015). "Critical, Sky1 - TV Review". The Independent.
  33. ↑ Wollaston, Sam (25 February 2015). "Last Night's TV". The Guardian.
  34. ↑ Hogan, Michael (25 February 2015). "Critical episode 1 review". The Telegraph.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, May 01, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.