The promo spot went on for a surprisingly long time, confusing for anyone who’d popped out to put the kettle on and was expecting to come back to Theo Walcott earnestly discussing Bukayo Saka’s fitness battle only to find Stephen Hawking trying to gun down a dignitary. The sort of thrilling moment that even VAR can’t spoil. A recycling of the Edward Fox movie, it’s a 10-parter and it’s quite good by all accounts.

Dave, the company man’s company man, said that he’d seen a preview of the first episode and that viewers up to and including Jamie Carragher are in for a treat. “Assassin?” said Roy Keane. “It’s the dream job isn’t it?” You imagine that Roy might be less likely to go for the faceless coward’s precision of the sniper rifle and more the blunt force trauma/hail of bullets/frying pan to the kisser methodology, but the look of pure happiness on his face as he, perhaps, briefly mulled where he’d start on what is a no-doubt exhaustive mental kill list warmed the cockles.

Dave and his Jackal bit is not the only drama/sport crossover currently doing the rounds. TNT, whose coverage of the rugby Premiership has been excellent if not yet widely watched, has got the help of some genuinely mega names to hopefully get some eyeballs on it before tackling the Autumn internationals starting this weekend.

No less a personage than Hollywood’s Dwayne Johnson (real name: The Rock) is helping advertise rugby on TNT, alongside Chris Evans (not Chris Evans the pinty 1990s TV host, but Chris Evans the Captain America Chris Evans), because Mr The Rock and Chris Evans have got a new film out called ‘Red One’. Both that movie and TNT hail from Warner Brothers Discovery.