‘I spent 30 years in the Met Police – here’s how accurate ITV thriller Protection is’

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ITV’s new edge-of-your-seat thriller Protection is already being hailed as the next Line of Duty – but is this really what it’s like in the law enforcement?

The six-part series stars Siobhan Finneran as DI Liz Nyles, a ‘smart, tough cop’ working in witness protection whose world collapses when one of the families she is taking care of is targeted in a deadly attack. 

The official synopsis continues: ‘Navigating the morally-grey, clandestine world of witness protection, Liz’s mission to find the truth will take her deep into the heart of the criminal underbelly and beyond as she becomes more and more torn between caring for her family, her loyalty to her lover and her duty as a police officer.’

The seed for this idea formed in 2018 when former detective Gary Madden was at a friend’s barbecue discussing his desire to see the work of Witness Protection Officers on screen.

‘I had seen all other police roles represented on TV and thought it would be interesting to show this unique policing role,’ he told Metro.

As luck would have it this friend had lucrative connections and some time later he found himself in a deal with ITV to bring his idea to life – with screenwriter Kris Mrska taking the reins as series creator.

Former witness protection officer Gary Madden inspired, and later acted as a consultant, for hit ITV series Protection (Picture: ITV/Thomas Wood)

Gary came on board as a consultant for the show, trying to make it as accurate as possible to his own life experiences – which have been vast to say the least.

In his 30 years in the Metropolitan Police, 27 years of them were spent as a detective and his list of expertise is like something out of James Bond.

‘I served on the Anti-Terrorist Branch, International & Organised Crime, Kidnap and Extortion, Hostage Negotiation and the Flying Squad as well as working at divisional CID offices and major incident units. 

‘I spent seven years working in witness protection – a role I found the most challenging and at the same time most rewarding,’ he listed.

There’s nothing British TV loves more than a gritty crime drama from the acclaimed Broadchurch to Sarah Lancashire’s Happy Valley to Netflix’s latest offering that has already stormed the charts, Adolescence.

He said Ashley Walters offered a refreshing portrayal of a police officer in Adolescence (Picture: Netflix)

As for how many are accurate reflections of the elusive industry – it’s a mixed bag. 

‘Police officers are often portrayed as hard macho cynical individuals, uncaring and lacking in human emotion. Programme makers assume that this is how the public perceive them and therefore its accurate,’ Gary said about the tropes he is tired of seeing.

He added: ‘There is rarely any portrayal of the normal characteristics of fear, fragility, sympathy, empathy, frustration and anger at injustices.

‘I watched Adolescence on Netflix and was really impressed with the programme and, in particular, the portrayal of the Detective Inspector by Ashley Walters.’

Another show that gets the thumbs from our seasoned pro is Happy Valley, that showed a uniform officer working their beat in the ‘old fashioned way’ through close contact with particular communities.

‘When I joined the Police in 1979, we had designated “Home Beat officers” who were attached to specific wards on a full-time basis so I knew the individuals within the community that they were policing,’ he explained.

As for Protection, the show is a culmination of five years worth of daily correspondence between Gary (his first time consulting for TV) and the crew to make sure it was ‘as close to real life as possible.’

Gary explained that in shows like Protection it’s all about getting the balance between accuracy and dramatic licence (Picture: ITV)

He said: ‘The term dramatic licence was fully explained to me and I found the concept interesting and realised that I needed to accept that the real world cannot be fully portrayed in one hour of TV. 

‘However, everyone connected with the show wanted my input to ensure that it was as near to reality as possible. 

‘The standout person for me was the Script editor Ali Ackland-Snow. I checked our WhatsApp group and from 2018 to 2023 we had almost daily contact dealing with all aspects of the series from selecting locations, discussing roles and, of course, amending the scripts.’

And the symbiotic relationship proved a success with the production team ‘adopting most of my suggestions’.

So what are some of the tweaks Gary was responsible for? (minor spoilers for episode one and two ahead).

During one scene when DC Raj Kholi (Chaneil Kular) is arrested in the office, Gary intervened to make sure the script followed actual police procedure. So that means, no handcuffs and his laptop being taken for forensic examining.

In another, he made sure the crew didn’t place a notice sign on the safe house ‘giving instructions to the protected witness’ as they just need to ‘look like normal visitors’.

He even offered examples of small changes – like the way in which DC Raj Kohli is detained in the second episode (Picture: ITV/Matt Squire)

Although, he caveated: ‘There were a couple of occasions for dramatic purposes that they needed to work around my advice which I fully understood.’

And dramatic storytelling wasn’t the only hurdle Gary faced.

‘It was a difficult process throughout for me as I had a constant struggle with portraying authenticity whilst maintaining the integrity/secrecy of the system and protecting witnesses who may have been in the programme and some of whom probably still are. 

‘This is the beauty of dramatic licence. It enables you to completely disguise specifics whilst still portraying the reality of working as a protection officer.’

And its clear his role is desperately needed in crime drama writers’ rooms.

‘The most surprising thing to me was the lack of law enforcement knowledge amongst the whole team – writers, directors, actors and production staff. 

He was surprised by how little the people behind-the-scenes actually knew about law enforcement – and it was not much (Picture: Thomas Wood)

‘I was constantly explaining how officers would interact with each other, how they would address each other, how the rank structure worked and what legal legislation would be applied to the different scenarios and so on.’

After all the hard work, Gary confirms that, for the most part – crime dramas like Protection are hitting the nail on the head, thanks to consultants like him.

‘It would be like a journalist consulting and advising programme makers on the day-to-day life of a journalist. There will still be colleagues who would look at the programme and say that’s not quite right and it wouldn’t be said like that,’ he reflected.

He already has his next TV idea with hopes of portraying a ‘very interesting investigation on a Caribbean island’ that he embarked on with his colleagues. 

And the appetite for these dramas lifting the lid on the underbelly of the police is not going anywhere anytime soon.

‘It’s the classic of the unknown.

‘The security services as a whole portray an air of excitement and fear which most people don’t experience. 

‘It’s a way of experiencing this aspect from the comfort of your armchair without actually being in danger. And we’re comforted by the knowledge that these individuals do what they do to keep us safe day in and day out.’

Protection airs every Sunday at 9pm on ITV. The boxset is available to stream on ITVX.

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