So, it really is true, then. They’ve killed off the Home Secretary. Over the past five weeks, Bodyguard has gripped our national consciousness so strongly that its fake news bulletins – featuring the likes of John Pienaar, Laura Kuenssberg amd Justin Webb – almost feel real.

Julia Montague! Dead! Who is responsible? What is the prime minister going to do about it? Or did he actually plot the assassination? What are the police not telling us? Are the rumours about Montague’s private life true? Who fired from the grassy knoll?

Maybe it will turn out that the death of Montague was deliberate disinformation – like the (real) recent incident when the Ukrainians falsely announced the death of an anti-Kremlin journalist in order to trick and catch the Russians who were actually out to kill him.

Erm, anyways... are we going a bit bonkers about Bodyguard?

Well, not really, and given everything happening in the real world, a little national distraction about fictional terror and the disintegration of civil order can be forgiven.

Forgiven, then, and still utterly enthralling, thanks to the tensile strength of Jed Mercurio’s script and the cast’s outstanding performances. Mercurio, once again, brilliantly and wickedly toys with dramatic conventions, and our expectations.

Audiences have been conditioned to believe that a main character cannot exit too early. That’s just the way it works. The stars are paid far too much to skive off, and the viewers would miss the “big name”. So Mercurio just went ahead and blew up Julia Montague at the end of the previous week’s episode, and gave us a double shock – her death, and the death of an established rule of drama. Hence, I think, the minor moral panic that has ensued.

Not content with that, the latest episode has the most violent plot twist since our eponymous bodyguard Sergeant David Budd (Richard Madden) executed a high speed handbrake turn in Montague’s ministerial limo in an earlier emergency. Having been led to believe that the police wanted Montague dead, and that the security services were intent on protecting her, we now realise that it might be the other way around.

TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Show all 17 1 /17 TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Maniac 21 September, Netflix Starring: Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Justin Theroux Emma Stone & Jonah Hill star as two people in a three-day drug trial which promises no complications or side-effects whatsoever… Things do not go as planned. Netflix TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 The Deuce 10 September, Sky Atlantic Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Franco, Dominique Fishback Picking up five years after the events of the first season, this new run will focus on the 'Golden Years' of the US porn industry in 1977. HBO TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 You 10 September, Netflix Starring: Penn Badgley, Shay Mitchell A dark 21st-century love story about an obsessive, yet brilliant twentysomething who uses the hyper-connectivity of today’s technology to make the woman of his dreams fall in love with him. Netflix TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 BoJack Horseman 14 September, Netflix Starring: Will Arnett, Paul F. Tompkins, Alison Brie The animated sitcom in which humans and animals live side-by-side returns for its fifth run. Netflix TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Killing Eve 15 September, BBC iPlayer Starring: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia Fleabag star Phoebe Waller Bridge's series follows a desk-bound MI5 officer, who begins to track down talented psychopathic assassin Villanelle. BBC America TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 American Horror Story: Apocalypse September TBA, FOX Starring: Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Cheyenne Jackson, Jessica Lange This crossover season featuring characters from 'Murder House' and 'Coven' will focus on Michaen Langdon, the antichrist born at the end of season 1. FOX TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Sick Of It September TBA, Sky One Starring: Karl Pilkington, Sondra James, Craig Parkinson A new scripted comedy set in the mind of Karl Pilkington. YouTube TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 The Walking Dead 8 October, FOX Starring: Andrew Lincoln, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan New threats surface a year-and-a-half after the climax of All Out War which saw Rick defeat Negan in the battle against The Saviours. Gene Page/AMC Studios TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 The Romanoffs 12 October, Amazon Prime Starring: Christina Hendricks, John Slattery, Isabelle Huppert Anthology series from the creators of ‘Mad Men’ about the descendants of the last dynasty to rule Russia. YouTube TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 26 October, Netflix Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Michelle Gomez, Miranda Otto Sabrina Spellman must reconcile her dual nature as a half-witch, half-mortal while fighting the evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit. Netflix TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Narcos: Mexico 16 November, Netflix Starring: Michael Peña, Diego Luna Episodes will chart the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s, with Luna playing Félix Gallardo and Peña playing the DEA agent chasing him. Netflix TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Cold Feet series 8 Autumn TBA, ITV1 Starring: James Nesbitt, Hermione Norris, Fay Ripley The five pals - now in their 50s - return to our screens once again. ITV TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Doctor Who Autumn TBA, Amazon Prime Starring: Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole. Mandip Gill. Bradley Walsh The 11th run sees Jodie Whittaker succeed Peter Capaldi as the beloved Time Lord. BBC TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 The First Autumn TBA, Channel 4 Starring: Sean Penn, Natasha McElhone, James Ransome New sci-fi drama about the first human mission to Mars from House of Cards' Beau Willimon. REX/Shutterstock TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 House of Cards season 6 2 November, Netflix Starring: Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Jayne Atkinson President Claire Underwood takes centre stage in the concluding chapter of the political drama. YouTube TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Kidding Autumn TBA, Sky Atlantic Starring: Jim Carrey, Judy Greer, Catherine Keener Following children’s TV star Mr Pickles whose off-screen life is much less of a fairytale than his on-screen persona. YouTube TV preview: The 18 shows to look out for before the end of 2018 Luther Autumn TBA, BBC One Starring: Idris Elba, Ruth Wilson The grizzled detective returns for a new story which unites him with serial killer-turned-ally, Alice Morgan. BBC

Now, I have to say that the role reversal between these two arms of the state is a bit untidy. Even in the hands of Gina McKee as the (previously) malign police chief Anne Sampson, and Vincent Franklin as Montague’s scheming junior minister Mike Travis (now acting home secretary), there are creaks.

There are just a few snatches of dialogue between Budd, Sampson and Travis that try to support the weight of all this, and they only just about manage. Once again, there is so much else going on, and we are so dazed by the death of “Julia” (as Budd revealingly and affectionately refers to her), that we hardly notice.

We are bombed-out by revelations. We learn that Budd’s sexual relationship with Montague is already well known to his bosses; that the drug-taking sex maniac mysteriously referred to in material sent to Montague by spies is indeed the prime minister; that her Muslim-heritage special adviser did not kill her; and that her current, creepy, special adviser didn’t kill her either.

Montague’s sacked former special adviser Chanel, absent since the first half of episode one, turns up again, “accidentally” bumping into Budd and asking him out for a drink. Hunk though he is, he knows she is up to something ulterior, not least because she makes off in a chauffeur-driven Range Rover. But what?

Other questions remain to be answered. When will Budd’s army service in Helmand, with a mate who tried to shoot Montague dead, be discovered? How is he linked to Islamists who try to blow up a train? And who replaced the bullets in his gun with blanks (thus saving his life when, grief stricken over Julia, he decides to blow his brains out)?

After five hours of superb tension, the best of its kind in years, we crave more, and in traditional instalments doses rather than bingeing on the BBC iPlayer. There are new questions, more material to discover. We are intrigued by the intrigues.