The time has come to allow the drama to do its own talking

The stinger is thrown across the street and the prison van flips onto its roof.

The two occupants hear gunfire and know it’s a battle between the villainous OCG and the police armed-response unit.

Detective Inspector Steve Arnott lifts his handgun from his hip, forcing the rear door ajar to obtain a closer look.

He glances upwards and sees the point of a rifle at the window on the third floor of the warehouse.

Arnott knows he has one shot. It’s all up to him.

He takes a deep breath. And another. There’s no putting it off. It’s now or never. It’s kill or be killed.

Arnott leans to his right and fires a bullet straight into the sniper’s forehead.

“And that, Steve McManaman, is why Steve Arnott has been such a hero for AC-12 in nearly six completed seasons of Line Of Duty,” says Darren Fletcher.

“Absolutely, Fletch. He knows the sniper is there. He knows he’s got one opportunity and he’s taken it with absolute aplomb.”

“Surely he’s got to be right up there to be your Man of the Series, Macca?”

“Well there’s still a couple of weeks to go, Fletch, and we all know anything can happen in the fight against police corruption...”

There were 11 million people who watched Line of Duty on Sunday - unbelievable viewing figures in an age when there are more than four TV channels and a host of other distractions which weren’t there when Dirty Den handed Angie Watts her divorce papers.

And the idea of having a couple of people talking us through the action and offering their observations is plainly absurd.

It would be a completely unnecessary distraction and inevitably provoke a barrage of complaints.

So it raises the question why it is so crucial to a football match.

After TV companies have gone to the trouble of piping in crowd noise to add a bit of atmosphere to empty stadia over the last 12 months, can they not just turn the fader down and give us the opportunity to enjoy a game without commentary?

I’ve watched so much football that I feel it does nothing to enhance my viewing experience except warn me I should look up from checking correspondence on my phone.

It's no reflection on the people involved. It's the concept.

I wouldn’t want to adopt a blanket approach, though, because I find some sports commentators are of great benefit.

Take the snooker in Sheffield this week.

All the ex-professionals who talk through the action are brilliant because they offer that crucial ingredient - insight.

They know where Neil Robertson needs to put the cue ball so he can attack the blue into the centre pocket and then cannon into the reds.

They know where Mark Allen needs to hit the cushion so he can safely navigate that snooker.

So they tell us.

And then there’s golf. While Nick Dougherty has been a great addition to the Sky team, I like to swerve the funereal Ewen Murray if I can and prefer the Stateside insight, particularly when Sir Nick Faldo offers analysis and gives viewers pointers as to how they can improve their own game.

It adds colour to what can be a pedestrian viewing experience.

I would not switch off the audio on either of these sports but I would happily do without football being talked through.

The last straw for me was early in the lockdown when, starved of domestic action, we all found ourselves watching the Bundesliga.

We could have had, say, journalist Raphael Honigstein telling us about some of the unfamiliar players, which could've been of great benefit.

But instead we had someone telling us that the centre forward should have had a shot rather than crossing the ball and then he should have crossed it rather than shooting at goal.

I know broadcasters pay these people lots of money, but I care about one thing and one thing only and that’s switching them off.

Stadium drinking laws need a rethink

Every football fan will be glad to see supporters being readmitted into grounds and it is understandable that the process is not being rushed after such a terrible year.

But one factor has been overlooked and now seems the ideal opportunity to amend the law so members of the crowd can drink alcohol within view of the pitch.

People congregating in enclosed spaces at half-time has been trumpeted as one of the top safety concerns, but its fundamental cause has not been addressed.

The whole situation has been created via a loophole to measures that were introduced to deal with hooliganism in the 1980s, when the game had to find a way of wining and dining corporate clients.

If you attend a match in an executive box, you still have to have the curtains drawn during the game or refrain from drinking. They come round and lock the fridges.

Equally puzzling is the rule that the lids of soft drinks have to be removed at the point of purchase.

It is regarded far more likely that the empty vessels will be filled with urine and thrown at opposition fans 100 yards away than that the contents will be spilt on the floor in family areas and cause treacherous and potentially lethal underfoot conditions.

It almost seems as if lawmakers are unaware that these situations exist, so it should be up to the football authorities to press for change.

The going-to-football experience has changed beyond comprehension in the last 40 years, so let’s get people back in their seats and not maintain the barriers that encourage congregations away from the action.

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