Who killed Julia Montague? It's the question that at least seven million of us will be asking until Sunday, when the final episode of BBC One's Bodyguard__ - now the most-watched British TV drama of the last decade - will air and, we hope, finally provide us with some answers. As you'd expect from writer Jed Mercurio (the man behind the equally nerve-shredding Line of Duty), the last five episodes have been packed with internal corruption, political wrangling and characters whose motivations seem to exist in the grey hinterland between good and bad. As last night's penultimate installment provided us with yet more plot twists and question marks, here are some of the viewer theories that might illuminate what's to come...
Is Julia Montague really dead?
The death of Home Secretary Julia Montague (played by Keeley Hawes) was confirmed in episode four, but in certain corners of the Internet you’ll find fans who are convinced that she’s just biding her time for a big reveal in the show’s finale. Their Romeo and Juliet theory hinges upon – drum roll – the fact that the name Julia Montague is almost an amalgamation of Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, and Montague, the name of the other rival family in the play. Juliet, you’ll remember, faked her own death, causing Romeo to take his own life, and some viewers have pointed out how David (Richard Madden) attempted suicide in episode four, following the news that Julia had been killed in the bomb blast at St Matthew’s College. It’s certainly a creative theory, albeit a pretty tenuous one – and one that writer Jed Mercurio seems to have already debunked in interviews. ‘I like to try to do things that move the story on,’ he told the Radio Times after episode four was broadcast. ‘With Bodyguard, I wanted to have this event mid-series that would completely alter the dynamic.’
Chanel and her driver are implicated in some way
Cast your minds back to episode one, when Julia’s assistant Chanel caused a scene in Whitehall after being unceremoniously fired from her job. Instead of accepting David’s offer of a taxi, she flounced off in a black Range Rover, complete with moody driver – hardly the usual mode of transport for a parliamentary aide, however upper class their accent. In Sunday’s episode, Chanel was back, coincidentally bumping into David in a coffee shop and asking him out for a drink, with her fancy ride still looming in the background. After a few investigations, we learn that Chanel’s driver is named Luke Aitkens, who is involved in organised crime and his car is registered to the Cayman Islands (a location that also crops up in the kompromat which David researches in the Internet café earlier in the episode). The implication is that the driver might be part of some criminal or terrorist network: look closely and you’ll realise that Aitkens attended the anti-war vets’ meeting back in the first episode, led by future sniper Andy Apsted. Plus, we know that Julia's RIPA 2018 proposals would have impacted upon organised crime as well as terrorist groups, giving Aitkens a motive - but how is Chanel tied up in all of this?
Does David have a multiple personality disorder?
Another popular fan theory posits that David might have Disassociative Identity Disorder, a psychological condition which fragments a person’s identity into two or more distinct personalities. According to those viewers, this might account for the sudden shifts in his behaviour, and in his attitudes to others. However, this just doesn’t seem likely: though the show has focused extensively on David’s PTSD following his stint in the army and has explored his fraught mental state, it would seem like lazy plotting on behalf of Mercurio to conflate two very different conditions. This theory, too, seems to hinge upon a 'different' David deciding to switch the bullets in his pistol with blanks - when it's far more probable that the police or security services swapped the weapon when sweeping his house earlier in the series.
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1 of 10Les Misérables
Hold the rousing rendition of One Day More: the BBC's new version of Victor Hugo's sprawling epic tale has been adapted (by Andrew 'Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice,' Davies, no less) straight from the book, meaning there'll be no singing the songs of angry men. What the series will have in common with the recent movie musical, though, is an impressive cast. Lily Collins will play struggling single mother Fantine, The Affair's Dominic West is troubled hero Jean Valjean and David Oyelowo is his nemesis Inspector Javert. Plus, a handful of The Crown's new royals will be joining in, too: Olivia Colman plays the villainous Madame Thernardier and Josh O'Connor (the show's new Prince Charles) takes the Eddie Redmayne role as student revolutionary Marius. BBC One; expected later this winter
2 of 10The Little Drummer Girl
Two years after The Night Manager served as Tom Hiddleston's extended Bond audition, another John Le Carré novel, 1983's The Little Drummer Girl, is getting the big-budget miniseries treatment. The magnetic Florence Pugh gets a long-overdue lead TV role as Charlie, a young actress who gets caught up in a high stakes espionage plot when she becomes involved with an Israeli intelligence officer (played by Big Little Lies' Alexander Skarsgard). BBC One; expected later this autumn
3 of 10Black Earth Rising
Expect big things from Black Earth Rising. A cinematic thriller with a labyrinthine plot that explores the legacy of international war crimes and the West's relationship with Africa, it also marks the first partnership between the BBC and Netflix. Chewing Gum's Michaela Coel plays Kate Ashby, a young woman who was rescued from the Rwandan genocide as a child and adopted by a hotshot British barrister. When Kate's mother (The Crown's Harriet Walter) takes on a case involving an African militia leader, she becomes embroiled in a deeply person - and potentially perilous - quest for justice. BBC Two; expected later this autumn
4 of 10Bodyguard
Whatever the current mania for re-making the entire '90s entertainment back catalogue might have you thinking, BBC's Bodyguard has nothing to do with the Whitney Houston movie. Rather, it's the latest series from Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, a stylish thriller which stars Keeley Hawes as a divisive Home Secretary and Game of Thrones's Richard Madden as the war veteran assigned as her new protection officer, despite his distaste for her political beliefs. BBC One; August 26th
5 of 10Wanderlust
A flurry of eye-brow raising headlines branding Wanderlust the 'most controversial' and 'most explicit' BBC drama to date has surely only served to raise anticipation for this new six-part series. Toni Collette stars as Joy, a therapist struggling to keep the spark alive in her marriage after an accident causes her to reassess the relationship. Potentially Ofcom-bothering sex scenes aside, it looks set to explore big questions about family, love and monogamy. BBC One; expected later this autumn
6 of 10Maniac
Emma Stone's Netflix debut also doubles up as a Superbad reunion. In Maniac, which has been adapted from a hit Norwegian series and directed by True Detective's Cary Fukunaga, she re-unites with her former co-star Jonah Hill. This time, the pair play strangers who take part in a pharmaceutical trial, testing out a wonder drug which promises to repair the mind entirely, be it from mental illness or heartbreak – until the side effects kick in, dragging participants into another dimension entirely.Netflix; September 21st
7 of 10The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
If there's currently a Riverdale shaped hole in your viewing schedule (no judgement here), steel yourself for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Netflix's reboot of the '90s teen classic. Don't expect much of the cosy comedy and talking cats that characterized the Melissa Joan Hart show, though: it's been reimagined as a dark coming of age story, with horror classics like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist cited as influences. Didn't see that coming, did you? Kiernan Shipka (aka Mad Men's Sally Draper) stars, plus it's set in the town along from Archie and co, leaving the door open for a crossover episode further down the line…Netflix; October 26th
8 of 10Killing Eve
How could Phoebe Waller Bridge top a hit like 2016's Fleabag? By stepping behind the camera to direct and produce Killing Eve, a new series that marries the pitch black humour of her debut with all the pacy, high-octane thrills of a spy drama. Based on a series of novels by Luke Jennings, it stars Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh as Eve, a bored, deskbound MI5 analyst who is suddenly tasked with bringing down Villanelle, a vicious but undeniably glamorous Russian assassin played by Jodie Comer. Soon, the two very different women are locked in mutual obsession, taking turns to trap one another in cat and mouse mind games. BBC One and BBC Three; expected in September
9 of 10Vanity Fair
Autumn wouldn't be autumn without the promise of a new period drama to schedule our Sunday evenings around. Stepping up to fill the old Downton slot is ITV's lavish new adaptation of Vanity Fair, Thackeray's sweeping satirical novel. The seven-part series follows the machinations of devious social climber Becky Sharp (played by rising star Olivia Cooke), a brash anti-heroine who's an anomaly in the ranks of simpering bonnet-clad women that tend to populate classic novels. ITV; expected September
10 of 10The Romanoffs
Ever had an inkling that you're a bit… different? Special, maybe? Potentially a long-lost member of Russia's royal dynasty? While we try to confine our own royal wish fulfillment to repeat viewings of The Princess Diaries, Amazon's intriguing new anthology series The Romanoffs tells the stories of people scattered around the world who have one deeply-held conviction in common: that they're the descendants of Russia's ill-fated Romanov dynasty. With showrunner Matthew Weiner at the helm, the show's cast has become a mini Mad Men reunion, featuring Christina Hendricks, John Slattery and costume designer Janie Bryant. Amazon Prime; October 12th
Julia's death was an inside job
It certainly seems that Julia knew too much, and that someone wanted rid of her – but who, exactly? The security services would seem like the prime contenders. After all, M15 head Stephen Hunter-Dunn and the supremely dodgy ‘Richard Longcross’ have definitely been framed as the villains so far: an ominous ‘bad guys’ theme tune might as well pipe up every time they appear on screen, swathed in shadows. They’re the only ones, surely, with the access and know how to keep deleting vast swathes of CCTV footage, and they seem very keen to retrieve the tablet containing the kompromat (details of various covered up scandals, including a historic sexual assault case and what appears to be tax evasion) following Julia’s death. One theory is that Julia got the security services on board by her RIPA proposal to curtail public freedoms, and they provided her with the compromising information about her political rivals in order to keep her sweet. Perhaps her late-night trip to Chequers (when, it seems, she must have blackmailed the Prime Minister) went beyond her deal with M15, and they bumped her off in retaliation? Seems a little far-fetched, yes, but it’s a theory that David himself seems to subscribe to, when he suggests that ‘Maybe the relationship went sour, and she became a liability.’ There’s always a chance, too, that the PM himself ordered the killing: at least one of the cases in the kompromat seems to pertain to him...
Bodyguard continues on BBC One on Sunday at 9pm