Bodyguard was created and written by Jed Mercurio and produced by World Productions as part of ITV Studios for the BBC, with the BBC commissioning the series from the then-independent World Productions in 2016.

The series was largely filmed on location in London, including the Whittington Estate for Budd's flat and Battersea for Montague's flat, while the bomb scenes in the final episode were filmed around CityPoint near Moorgate and Woburn Square and Senate House in Bloomsbury.

The train scenes in the first episode were filmed on the Mid-Norfolk Railway.

Real BBC journalists including Andrew Marr, John Pienaar, John Humphrys, and Laura Kuenssberg appear as themselves in the series.

The series premiere was seen by 6.8 million viewers on BBC One, rising to over 10.4 million with catch-up and iPlayer viewing, making it the BBC's highest-rated drama premiere to date.

The finale averaged 10.4 million live viewers on BBC One and peaked at 11 million, becoming the BBC's most-watched drama since the Doctor Who Christmas special in 2008.

Because many viewers watched the show later via iPlayer, Bodyguard sparked a public debate about how the media should handle spoilers, after Radio Times revealed a key plot development about Montague's fate in a cover story during the show's original transmission.

Real security professionals publicly criticized the plot's realism: Intelligent Protection International's CEO Alex Bomberg and Detective Chief Inspector Steve Ray of the Royal and Specialist Protection Command both said the personal relationship Budd develops with his protectee would be considered unprofessional and would not be tolerated in real protection work.

A comedic skit titled 'Red Nose Bodyguard' was made for Comic Relief, featuring many cast members from the series alongside Joanna Lumley, Adrian Dunbar and Sanjeev Bhaskar, first broadcast on Red Nose Day 2019 on 15 March 2019; production designer Jamie Lapsley returned alongside Jed Mercurio for the skit.