We revisit brilliant, unflinching UK medical drama Bodies by Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio.

This article originally appeared onDen of Geek UK.

Did you know umbilical cords can snap?

2004 medical dramaBodiescontains scenes that would put David Cronenberg off his dinner.

This is real horror.

That other stuff is for wimps.

Alongside professionalism and talent is laziness, rivalry, arrogance, venal ambition and incompetence.

Its the latter that forms the premise ofBodies two seasons.

Havent you ever killed a patient?

one anaesthetist is asked.

Ive been a doctor for thirteen years, she answers.

Of course I bloody have.

Fans of Jed MercuriosLine Of Dutywont be surprised byBodies ungarnished perspective.

His top-notch crime thriller focuses on an internal anti-corruption unit.

Its about police officers who abuse their power and the institutions in which they flourish.

Thats why, Mercuriotold us, the police refused to publicly co-operate withLine Of Duty.

They felt that they didnt want to support the view it gave of officers misbehaving.

We formed the conclusion that probably police co-operation with police dramas is PR-led.

As is hospital life,Bodiesshows.

Does that stop its management being slapped on the back and awarded three-star hospital status by the finale?

I refer you to the paragraph above.

Target-culture is one of the culprits.

When everything is judged on the figures, creative reporting becomes a survival method.

Youve heard the one about the wheels being taken off hospital gurneys so they can be reclassified as beds?

How about consultants pushing those with unhopeful survival prospects over to colleagues to protect their morbidity and mortality numbers?

Or waiting lists magically emptied of patients transferred to separate pre-admission lists?

Thats the kind of difficult scenarioBodiesexcels in presenting.

Will its characters do the right thing or the difficult thing?

What are they more willing to put in harms way: their patients or their career?

Blake and Hurley lock horns early on in an ongoing tussle that forms the spine of the two seasons.

The culture of closing ranks and doctors looking after doctors is the real focus ofBodies first series.

In true Mercurio style, Hurleys characterisation satisfyingly complicates straightforward notions of villainy.

At various points across the series its just as possible to feel sympathy for him as it is hatred.

He certainly doesnt believe himself to be incompetent.

Much of the time, Hurley isnt inept.

After an agonising wait, a baby mewls and everyone is congratulated on a job well done.

Until the next time hes paged to theatre, when the dread sets in afresh.

His car number plate reads VAG 1, if you want to get a quick sense of the man.

Thats not the case here for three reasons.

And the third is that the character, as played by Allen, is enormously entertaining.

Unlike Hurley, Whitman isnt a managerial toady.

His disrespect for humanity extends all the way to the top, which makes him enjoyable rather than despicable.

Or perhaps enjoyable and despicable.

South Central Infirmarys management arent rendered in anything like as attractive a light.

Mercurios experience was also the basis for the characters cynical gallows humour.

The language used inBodiesto describe patients is unsentimental and sometimes callous in the extreme.

Instead of turning them all into dislikeable beasts though, its humanising.

A word on that.

I wasnt kidding when I saidBodieshad horror movie-level gore.

It is to obstetrics surgery whatGirlsonce was to uncomfortable sex scenes.

The prosthetic effects are excellent.

Doctors and consultants said we had it bang-on, said Max Beesley.

Told you it was scary.