Note: The following article contains spoilers for Bodyguard.
Bodyguard fans have endlessly speculated that Keeley Hawes's Julia Montague was based on Amber Rudd.
Those theories were everywhere when Bodyguard was becoming the biggest BBC One drama since records began, with opinion varying over whether Keeley's cutthroat portrayal was a coincidence or a snarky parody of the former Home Secretary and current Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Can you imagine how awkward it must have been when the two actually met? That's the experience Hawes described during a guest appearance on The Graham Norton Show on Friday (April 5).
"I bumped into Amber Rudd," Hawes revealed, with Graham chiming in: "Well, you wouldn't arrange to meet her!"
That zinger out of the way, Hawes went on reliving the uncomfortable meeting: "It's not an impersonation of Amber Rudd, but I did watch a lot of her for research.
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"I was in a restaurant, and I thought, 'Oh god, Amber Rudd is over there!' I carried on, I was having lunch with my husband. As she got up to leave, [she just said], 'Keeley!' That's all! It was very odd!"
Graham tried making sense of Rudd's behaviour, guessing: "She thought you were going to come back to life!"
If that was actually Amber's guess, she was right! Julia Montague did recently come back from the dead, albeit only for a special Bodyguard and Line of Duty crossover made for Comic Relief.
The Graham Norton Show airs on Fridays at 10.35pm on BBC One, and next week will feature Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Julianne Moore, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington and Tom Walker.
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Justin is a freelance entertainment journalist and writer. He first joined Digital Spy as a freelance entertainment reporter in 2010 and also worked as a sub-editor for the brand, serving as Night News Editor from 2016 to 2024. Over more than a decade, Justin has covered numerous major entertainment events from the US and has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo. He's written for titles across the Hearst network, plus the likes of CBR and Us Weekly.
