5m viewers tune in for chilling ITV drama The Widower
Fresh off of BBC Two’s twisted Inside No. 9 (which wrapped up last Wednesday evening), Monday night saw former League of Gentlemen star Reece Shearsmith back on the nation’s screens in a rare bout of straight-laced psycho-killer antics, with not a moment of homage or satire to be found.
Based on a true story, The Widower (9pm) saw Shearsmith turn his creepier-than-your-Great-Aunt’s-doily-collection persona dial all the way down to ‘subtle’ as he plotted to kill off his wives, all for a shiny life insurance hoard.
The first of three episodes proved that not only can Shearsmith send a shiver through the soul in offbeat pastiches of Hammer Horror’s heyday, but also that his uncomfortable brand of seriously wrong translates chillingly well to drama.
Stranger yet, the impressively dreary real life tales came to viewers via the commercial broadcasting airwaves of ITV. Which helps to explain the appearance of Sheridan Smith, who is legally contracted to appear in each of ITV’s recently announced period dramas.
The formula proved a hit with the bleak Monday night audience, with the drama easily wrestling the 9pm slot away from BBC One. 5 million viewers tuned in to watch The Widower poison Smith before attempting to bag a new missus, resulting in a 22% share.
Naturally, last night’s unhinged and unpredictable nocturnal movements from ITV proved most concerning for those young energetic QCs on BBC One’s Silk (9pm).
The continuing adventures of the photogenic, single law people saw our heroine Maxine Peake once again attempt to balance her personal life – and all those feelings that come with it – against her super serious career.
A much lower than usual audience watched as Peake’s character, Martha Costello QC, attempted to block the extradition of a young Muslim man by the American government, proving that the show can deal with proper issues and stuff.
3.9 million viewers caught up with the latest stuffy drama from Silk – only slightly down from last week’s audience but significantly lower than series two’s 5.6 million average – with last night’s criminal Bar action netting a 17% share.
Meanwhile, over on Channel 5 tense viewers were anticipating the final episode of Can’t Pay? We’ll Take It Away! (9pm). Seemingly rushed out to spur on the spirit of outrage that captured roughly four people in the aftermath of Channel 4’s Benefits Street, the documentary followed around High Court enforcement officers as they repossessed houses and possessions from those who can’t actually afford them.
1.3 million viewers caught up with the reclaimed ructions, pulling in a 6% share and Channel 5’s biggest audience of the day.
Better still, at 10pm the broadcaster attempted to stir the intended outrage with a ‘balanced’ discussion show straight afterwards (it’s like fighting but instead of fists people use sentences and sometime expletives).
Hosted by radio talk show king, Nick Ferrari, The Big `Can’t Pay’ Debt Debate (Channel 5) was basically a platform for Katie Hopkins to once again upset people, who would in turn take to Twitter to vent their anger/unintentionally promote the show.
A paltry 786,000 viewers tuned in to see Jim Davidson and Liz Jones also wade out of the murky debts of self-promotion to throw their inane opinions into the ring, generating a 5% share.
Unfortunately for Channel 5, neither the main show or the conscientious tabloid tat that followed featured in the top ten most tweeted about shows of the day list.
Over on BBC Two in the 9pm slot, The Plantagenets netted 1.7 million viewers, with a 7% audience share tuning in for the story of one of history’s most messed up families.
At the same time on Channel 4, the unrelenting modern horror of One Born Every Minute continued unabated by right-minded citizens as 1.8 million viewers got the latest fix of trauma, resulting in an 8% share.
Earlier on BBC Two, Mary Berry once again stared down the eye of the camera, gave us her best Nigella and whipped up a culinary storm in the latest episode of Mary Berry Cooks (8:30pm). A healthy 2.6 million viewers learned how to make a perfect Sunday lunch, resulting in an 11% share.
Even earlier in the day, Emmerdale brought in 6.8 million viewers at 7pm on ITV, while EastEnders went one better with 7.1 million viewers and a 31% share.
As usual a double dollop of Coronation Street (ITV) blew away the competition, with 8.2 million viewers tuning in to see Tim learn that love rival Kevin Webster was making a return, translating to a 38% share. 7.6 million viewers returned an hour later, securing the day’s second biggest audience and a 32% share.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.