Keeley Hawes: Real protest broke out while filming new BBC drama

Keeley Hawes has revealed a real protest broke out while she was filming a protest scene for her new BBC drama.

The Ashes To Ashes star was filming Bodyguard, in which she plays fictional home secretary Julia Montague when life imitated art.

She said: “During one of Julia’s speeches we had a few actors to protest as part of the scene, but then an actual protest kicked off for real outside.

“It was some students throwing flyers from a balcony and shouting down the hallway next to where we were shooting, so we couldn’t get our scene done.

“Someone, one of the production team, had to have a polite word with them – ‘come on now, that’s enough of that!’ – and they then came down and picked them all up again. It was all very British.

The series, which stars Games Of Thrones actor Richard Madden in the title role as her bodyguard, was written by Line Of Duty writer Jed Mercurio.

Hawes said: “It really is a thriller, right from the very first minute. You open a Jed Mercurio script and it’s like getting aboard a rollercoaster.

“And because much of it’s set in Westminster, the thing I really love about it is that it’s like looking behind the curtain into another world that you almost never have a chance to see up close.”

The actress said the insight convinced her she would never want to enter politics, adding: “You do get this sense that they just don’t ever stop.

“For the Home Secretary in particular there’s always so much in the news that concerns them, and it’s just relentless. And also they are on show the whole time.

“Politicians aren’t ever going to be popular with everybody. It becomes very personal. It is the toughest job – I wouldn’t want to be a politician. You just can’t win.”

Bodyguard begins on BBC One on Sunday night at 9pm, with episode two following on Monday at 9pm.