WHODUNNIT?

Writer Jed Mercurio has kept the focus shifting from the start. First, viewers were led to suspect Sergeant David Budd (Scotland’s Richard Madden), the new bodyguard of Home Secretary Julia Montague (Keeley Hawes). He was suffering PTSD and he despised war-supporting politicians like Montague. If not him, were common or garden terrorists to blame? Next in the line-up of suspects were Julia’s political colleagues, including her Chief Whip ex-husband. They thought she was blackmailing her way to Number Ten and had to be stopped. By the end of last week’s episode, the possibility was raised that organised crime, having much to fear from Montague’s surveillance bill, wanted her out of the picture. Then there is the mystery fella who is going out with Budd’s ex-wife. We have heard about him but never seen him. Why?

WHAT WOULD SHERLOCK HOLMES DO?

James O’Brien, author of The Scientific Sherlock Holmes (Oxford University Press), identified six ways by which the great consulting detective solved crimes. These included the use of fingerprints, analysis of typewritten documents and references to dogs. None of these is of any use in Bodyguard. Like other crime dramas, Bodyguard makes full use of CCTV and mobile phones in the plot. David’s phone is switched off when he wants to drop off the grid. He usually blames a dead battery.

IS JULIA MONTAGUE DEAD?

Ah, the big question. The evidence for: Mercurio is notorious for killing off key characters long before they would ever be prised out of another writer’s cold dead hands. He bumped off four characters in Line of Duty, including Hawes, who played troubled DI Lindsay Denton. The evidence against: all that business about Montague having a “private funeral” was suspicious, and while we saw her just after the bomb went off, there was no morgue shot later. If she has gone into hiding, only to appear again, she better have brought us a jolly nice gift to make up for the trauma.

IS BUDD TO BE TRUSTED?

Normally we would say yes, given the progression of his character from disgruntled ex-soldier to bodyguard lover hell bent on justice for Julia. But he has refused throughout to disclose that he knew the shooter behind the first assassination attempt. And why was he up a lane in the pouring rain last week buying a rifle from a Scouser? There has been internet speculation that Budd is a Manchurian Candidate-style puppet, being manipulated by a controller who is always one step ahead. See removal of bullets from gun with which Budd tried to kill himself and their replacement with blanks.

WILL BUDD’S JAWS EVER UNCLENCH?

Not since the days of Gary Cooper have we seen such old school jaw-rippling. One imagines when filming ended that a crack team of facial massage therapists descended on Madden to help him relax and smile again. Assuming he had something to smile about, that is. Mercurio, along with many others, is an admirer of the 32-year-old. “He’s the genuine article, a real leading man,” he told the Radio Times. Barring what happens in the finale, or being tapped as the new Bond, Madden looks a shoo-in for any second series. Coral has him tipped at 10-1 to be the next 007, with Idris Elba and Tom Hardy ahead of him.

WHY DOESN’T CHANEL THE PA WEAR CHANEL?

IT would not fit with her character of being a lowly civil servant. Chanel was sacked by Montague and bears a grudge. But judging by all those lifts in a Range Rover she has friends in high, or low but lucrative, places. In the last episode she asked Budd out for a drink. What is she up to, and will she stand her round?

WHAT WILL ALL THOSE STAR-STRUCK BBC JOURNOS DO NOW?

Newsreader Huw Edwards, asked why he had not taken a cameo role in Bodyguard like Laura Kuenssberg, Andrew Marr, et al, purred: “It seemed vulgar to join the 326 colleagues already taking part."

WILL THE BODYGUARD RETURN?

Longer term, Mercurio, interviewed in Radio Times, said he hoped for another series but wasn’t banking on anything till this first run is over (like the BBC is going to turn him down). Those missing Bodyguard already may like to know that another series of Line of Duty, with Scotland’s Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar as the anti-corruption cops who cannot be bought, is currently being filmed in Belfast.

WHAT WILL WE DO NOW ON SUNDAY NIGHTS?

Next week in the same slot a new drama starts, The Cry. Jenna Coleman and Ewen Leslie star as Joanna and Alistair, who are travelling from their home in Scotland to Melbourne with a new baby. They are hoping to gain custody of Alistair’s teenage daughter from a previous relationship. But best laid plans soon unravel, with momentous consequences.

WILL WE FINALLY HEAR THE DOLLY PARTON CLASSIC, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU*?

For the last time, that song featured in The Bodyguard, the 1992 romantic drama starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner as star and protection officer, which is not to be confused with Bodyguard. Obvious, really.

Bodyguard, BBC1, Sunday, 9pm