The PDC world darts championship is back, but could the new £1m winners’ cheque make this show too big?

A team of assistant referees walks into the Twelve Pins in Finsbury Park carrying linesmen’s flags and whistles. It’s 3pm on a Thursday, you think, they’ve probably just been reffing a local game. Then, you think, there isn’t a football pitch around here. And why haven’t they changed and showered? Then more referees walk in, more linesmen, one of them in a comedy wig. And eventually the penny drops.

Yes, “the Darts” is back: an indispensable festive trimming that – much like Christmas itself – always seems to roll around a little sooner every year. Fire up all the old cliches: “the beauty of set play”, “bent the wire”, “pressure the shot”. Wheel John Part out of the attic. Fingers poised on the 180 zoom. You know it’s serious, because it’s two hours before his match and Luke Littler is already on the practice board.

• Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton make BBC shortlist

• McIlroy, Littler, Norris and Kildunne also up for award

Three world champions, two European champions and the holder of a grand slam will face off next Thursday for the title of BBC Sports Personality of the Year, in a shortlist that provides a high-powered boost to the venerable prize show.

Following a triumphant summer for England’s women in both football and rugby, Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton of the Lionesses are nominated, as is the Red Roses’ Ellie Kildunne. They are joined in the six-person shortlist by Formula One champion Lando Norris, darts world champion Luke Littler and Masters champion Rory McIlroy, the bookies’ favourite.

Defending champion is a phenomenon and the indisputable titan of the game with a sense of inevitability at the Alexandra Palace extravaganza

You will be seeing plenty of Batman and Wonder Woman over the coming weeks; Spiderman, Mr Incredible, perhaps even a Ninja Turtle or two. Yes, Christmas at Alexandra Palace is always a good time for spotting superheroes. But only one of them will not be wearing a costume.

In fact, it is when he is in his normal human clothes, doing normal human things, that Luke Littler looks at his most incongruous. Standing with his fellow Manchester United fans in the away end at Molineux. Proudly brandishing a fresh driving certificate after finally passing his test. And it is in these more unguarded moments that you remember that the man they call The Nuke, the phenomenon who has detonated the sport of darts, is really still just a kid, a regular lad from Warrington with a deeply irregular talent.