Is BBC's Bodyguard being dragged out?

Like what seems the vast majority of the nation (although I have found a few colleagues who haven't even considered watching), I have been fully into BBC1's hit series Bodyguard, written by Line Of Duty legend Jed Mercurio. But has it perhaps gone on one episode too many?

For those somehow unaware, Bodyguard follows David Budd (Game Of Thrones' Richard Madden) as he protects Home Secretary Julia Montague (the always-enthralling Keeley Hawes) during various attacks on her life due to her policies. The big question is, how much is PTSD-suffering former soldier David involved in these attacks?

Well, after five episodes I'm still none the wiser. I flit between 'he definitely feels too guilty for some reason' and 'but he's way too sad at her death to be behind it'. Julia's death is one of the huge talking points about this series - and I'm still sure she's alive, probably hiding in Greece with the rest of the Durrells. Unless we see a cold, dead body, there's always that chance (this isn't Game Of Thrones people). Her hush-hush, private funeral is a bit of a hint too.

The last episode saw David doing a lot of snooping around, a trip to his ex-wife's hospital, and even buying an assault rifle in a dark alley. Purely for research purposes, obviously. But I feel like all of this could've been covered a bit quicker - but maybe I've just got used to the high-paced action of the other episodes. Certain things were confirmed to us, such as Richard Longcross being fully involved in whatever the heck is actually going on and Julia's former assistant Chanel being a bit of a bad'un. But we already knew this stuff and I don't think it has progressed the story much further.

But then again, the final episode is going to be 75 minutes long so it's clear that a lot of big stuff is going to go down - David's shiny new rifle will surely make an appearance - so maybe this fifth episode was the calm before the storm that we needed. With knowing how constantly gripping Line Of Duty has always been, Jed Mercurio won't add in anything that isn't important to the story so he perhaps needed a slower episode to get in some details that he couldn't slip in elsewhere. It may feel like the series is dragged out one episode too many but we're merely viewers to his mastery, what do we know?!

I have no idea how the final episode will play out - whether David has been helping the terrorists all along or if he's just a troubled guy trying to do his job. But considering I still think about that incredibly exciting opening scene with David stopping the female terrorist in the train toilet - I actually sat up in bed as it really heated up - all these weeks later, I cannot wait to see the explosive (literally) finish.