Jed Mercurio

Jed Mercurio is a British television writer, producer, director and novelist. A former hospital physician and Royal Air Force officer, Mercurio has been ranked among UK television's leading writers. In 2017, Mercurio was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Television Society. His chief works for television are the series Line of Duty, Bodies (based on his 2002 novel), The Grimleys and Cardiac Arrest. His books are Bodies (2002), Ascent (2007), American Adulterer (2009) and, for children, The Penguin Expedition (2003). 2Early life Mercurio was born in Nelson, Lancashire but grew up in Cannock, Staffordshire. His parents were Italian immigrants, with his father working as a coal-miner. He studied at the University of Birmingham Medical School; in his third year, in August 1988, he was commissioned as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Medical Branch and received flying training with the University Air Squadron, with the intention of specialising in aviation medicine. He was promoted flying officer in Jun 1991, but resigned his commission in February 1992. During practice as a hospital physician, Mercurio answered an advertisement in the British Medical Journal and, despite negligible writing experience, scripted the BBC medical drama Cardiac Arrest under the pseudonym John MacUr