Jed Mercurio is famously not worried about killing off our favourite characters - see Bodyguard - but he has now opened up about why he has never killed off three main characters of Line of Duty, despite being tempted! Chatting at The South Bank Show, Jed revealed that Steve, Kate and Ted were all safe because the actors all get along so well!
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He explained: "I mean, they’re really good actors. But of course they get on really well with each other, we all get on very well, and if that hadn’t happened, one of them would have been – you know – killed. In an unexpected way that would propel the story forward... It's always got to be about what’s in the best interests of the series, because it’s not in the best interests of the character to be dead."
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Stephen Graham wasn't so lucky!
He continued: "So the way I would approach it is to look at what new story you get from that. And if the audience has got a real attachment to the character, it means that they’re invested in whether there will be justice for that character – or if it’s a mystery, whether they’ll be invested in finding out what might have actually befallen them." Of course, Jed doesn't hesitate in killing off other characters - which Stephen Graham knows all too well! Speaking to Esquire about starring as John Corbett, an undercover officer, he said: "Of course everyone wants one of those [interrogation] scenes. I think they're brilliant especially with someone like Anna Maxwell Martin – she's unbelievable. But unfortunately it didn't happen. I had my choice, did I want one of them, or do I want a good slice of the throat!"
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