One week after Aidan Turner’s Poldark (9pm) sent hearts aflutter by galloping back onto TV screens after a 40 year absence, the romantic reboot continued to pull in a strong audience last night as a result of some gratuitous Georgian skinny dipping.
The tale of a British Army officer returning to a very different Cornwall after years of fighting those pesky American revolutionaries is ripe for Sunday night drama, with the lashings of hocey dialogue and am-dram acting all smoothed over with smouldering looks and flashes of flesh.
After opening up with 6.9 million viewers last week, the second part of the Cornish Tourism Board advert fell slightly to 6.6 million viewers, although the period drama still bagged the biggest 9pm audience.
An audience share of 28% joined randy kitchen urchin Demelza as she caught an eyeful of her boss while he indulged in a bit of shameless au naturel bathing in the Cornish sea.
Over on ITV at the same time, stumbling retail kingpin Mr Selfridge (9pm) managed a standard audience of just over 3 million viewers and a 13% share, while Channel 4’s Indian Summers (9pm) still struggled to make an impact with 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 5 decided to provide some drama but held back on the quality aspect in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. Killer Elite (9pm), a bizarre and forgettable British/Australian crime thriller starring Jason Statham and Robert De Niro, secured 802,000 viewers and a 5% share.
On BBC Two, the Dragon’s Den (9pm) line-up continued to transform at a faster rate than the Power Rangers and the Sugababes put together, with the latest episode netting 2.1 million viewers and a 9% share.
Filling the giant Call the Midwife-shaped void in the 8pm slot was the weekend’s second slice of The Voice UK (8pm) as Tom, Will.i.am and interchangeable youth-appealing ‘sassy’ female ‘artist’ reached the end of something called the knockout rounds.
The day’s biggest audience of 7.5 million viewers watched as more dreams were broken (but in a nice BBC way), resulting in a 32% share.
Beforehand, the traditional Sunday teatime dose of Valium known as Countryfile (BBC One, 7pm) continued to prove its worth by luring 6.2 million viewers into its vortex of rose-tinted and patriotic rural ideals.
A 30% share watched as Matt, Tom, Adam and Helen wandered around Northern Ireland, producing piece-to-cameras about the most irrelevant topics available.
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.
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