WE are currently in the midst of the two weeks every year where I need to utilise ITV4.

French Open tennis has taken over its schedule for its now annual two weeks fortnight of coverage.

I discovered it purely by chance a couple of years ago and as a committed tennis fan, it was an unexpected bit of luck, since none of the other programmes it screens are my idea of top viewing.

I am not sure of the demographic, but it is definitely for people who enjoy making money out of nothing and cars.

Last night's coverage finished early at Roland Garros, so we were treated to an episode of a US show I had never seen before which seemed to involve two large, heavily-tattooed men stalking drivers’ of vintage cars.

They seemed genuinely surprised when one poor man repeatedly refused to pull over – probably because he, understandably, thought they were going to car-jack him.

Eventually, no doubt thanks to the camera crew pointing out they came in peace, he did pull over and they got their chance to look in detail at his car.

I felt really sorry for him – they weren’t going to take no for an answer. Hopefully the tennis will be on long enough for the next few days for us to avoid catching any more of that.

The French Open coverage is a wholly different experience to following the action at Wimbledon, which is just a few weeks away now, because ITV4 has to fit adverts in.

When the players have a break, every two games or so, we get a couple of blokey adverts chucked at us.

They don’t have a round-up of the day’s events show either, probably because only die-hard fans, such as myself, are bothering to tune in.

But it is refreshing to be able to watch a non-British, but major, sporting event without having to fork out for a satellite subscription.

Andy Murray, whatever your view of him, and his phenomenal success in the past few years, has no doubt been partly responsible for a greater presence for tennis on terrestrial channels.

I for one hope it continues. I am really good at sitting in my armchair and telling him, and his fellow Britons, where they are going wrong.