Jed Mercurio once saved a crew member’s life while working on a medical drama.
The ‘Line of Duty’ creator – who was previously a hospital doctor – brought an assistant director back to life after his heart stopped while they were working on Jed’s BBC 1990s medical drama ‘Cardiac Arrest’, which he penned under the pseudonym John MacUre.
Maya Sondhi – who portrayed Maneet Bhandra in ‘Line of Duty’ – said: "He was on set one day and they were going to do a scene where they put a defibrillator on a young lad. Something happened where it got swapped out for a real one, or something went wrong with it.
"The first assistant director was mucking about with it and he stopped his own heart. Everyone panicked, but Jed gave him compressions and brought him back to life."
Maneet’s son appeared in the first episode of the latest ‘Line of Duty’ series, and Maya has revealed not only was it her real-life boy, he had to be given a pay rise after ad libbing during filming.
She said: "That’s my actual son.
"He filmed a bit more, because he’s only two. He filmed a bit which didn’t actually make it to the final cut.
"He was just waving bye to me as I was leaving the house, before the car gets crashed into.
"And because he decided to ad lib on the day and he started going, ‘Bye bye, mama, see you later’ they had to give him a pay rise because then he wasn’t an extra anymore.
"I was like, ‘Yes, that’s my boy.’ "
Maya’s character Maneet was shockingly killed off in the first episode, but she admits there are plenty more twists and turns to come in the nail-biting series.
Speaking on BBC Sounds podcast ‘Obsessed With’, she added: "There are so many more twists."
Jed Mercurio saved crew member’s life on medical drama
