Updated Thursday, 31st December 2020, 12:14 pm Nelson born Jed Mercurio, who created Line of Duty and Bodyguard, has been made at OBE in the New Year's Honours List. (Getty Images) The writer and producer behind hits including Line of Duty and Bodyguard received the accolade for services to television drama. Mercurio (54) was born in Nelson but grew up in Cannock, Staffordshire. He studied at the University of Birmingham Medical School before he was commissioned as a pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Medical Branch, receiving flying training with the University Air Squadron. He had intended to specialise in aviation medicine and it was during his practice as a hospital physician that he answered an advertisement in the British Medical Journal and, despite little writing experience, scripted the BBC medical drama Cardiac Arrest under the pseudonym John MacUre.