TV Overnights: septuagenarian shenanigans secures a strong night for BBC One
Last night saw BBC One bring a little spice to Tuesday’s schedule with sextuagenarian romance Last Tango in Halifax (9pm). The drama saw Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid play long lost lovers, reunited through the voodoo magic of the new-fangled-internets.
Thankfully the tone was a little more The Archers than the risqué nature of its celluloid namesake; otherwise we’d have another enquiry on our hands. Not that there’s anything wrong with 70 year olds bumping uglies – it would just be a little traumatising.
The first of six episodes saw the former lovers meet up after 60 years. Conveniently the pair were both widowed, allowing them to reinstigate their steamy, passionate teenage affair. On the down side, each of them came with a suspicious and protective daughter in tow.
A truly impressive 6.2 million viewers tuned in for the new drama, securing a 26% share. This helped BBC One continue to secure the highest audience share for the majority of the evening.
At the same time over on ITV2, Cheryl Cole revealed the most intimate details of her life. Among the nuggets of gold that she shared – there is an album out that you can purchase and sometimes the intense public attention is all too much. She said this while speaking to a documentary crew she hired to film her. The irony.
Cheryl: Access All Areas (9pm) provided ITV2 with its second biggest audience of the day, with 811,000 viewers tuning in to discover that training for her first solo tour made her tired 🙁
The nation’s favourite wee pet gave us access to all of her most personal areas in the ground-breaking documentary, including the gob smacking reveal she has written her own autobiography. In stores now. Somewhere in the ether, the Lumière Brothers are looking down with pride, in awe of how far the medium they invented has come.
Meanwhile on BBC Four, Newsnight‘s culture correspondent, Stephen Smith, clambered together a few ideas in an excuse to travel around American under the guise of a high concept documentary. America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner (9pm) saw Smith explore the importance of diners on 20th century America, travelling across the entire country while stringing together a fairly lose narrative.
Luckily the pompous presenter had a tad better grasp of the genre than professional Wronged Lady Cheryl, making us almost believe in his quest to discover the ‘last vestige of a vital part of the American psyche’. While eating lots of food. 260,000 viewers tuned in to the digital arts channel, watching Smith’s leisurely road trip take him to famous diners from art and film.
The Juventus v Chelsea Group E game from UEFA Champions League (ITV1, 7:30pm) saved us all from another night of kangaroo testicle munching action on I’m a Celebrity. After 15 minutes of warm-up the fun got underway at 7:45pm, live from Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy. I say ‘fun’ but that doesn’t apply if you were a Chelsea fan.
The boys from Fulham put on a strong defence for nearly forty minutes, until Fabio Quagliarella broke through and scored the game’s first goal. Having awoken the fire in Juventus, teammate Vidal was up next, netting the ball in the 61st minute. The Italians team’s hat trick was completed by 12 year old striker Sebastian Giovinco in the 90th minute, signalling Chelsea’s Champions League doom.
The entire coverage was watched by 3.7 million viewers and netted a 30% share. This wasn’t enough to fight off BBC One, who retained the highest share from 7:30pm and throughout the evening. 598,000 of those watched on ITV1 HD, taking in Abramovich’s tears in glorious high definition.
Earlier on the same channel, Emmerdale (7pm) locked in ITV1’s biggest audience of the day with 6.7 million viewers and a 31% share. Up against the football was EastEnders (7:30pm) on BBC One. Tuesday’s visit to Walford saw Tanya discovering an age old soap staple – a long lost sister. 7.7 million people tuned in to find out her mystery sibling definitely wasn’t Sharon Watts, providing the day’s biggest audience and a 34% share.
Holby City followed afterwards, keeping the biggest audience share on BBC One, with 4.9 million viewers.
Sadly the second series of Fresh Meat edged closer to its finale on Channel 4 at 10pm. The penultimate episode saw Josie, once the house’s golden girl, slide in to further difficulties.
After getting kicked out of her dentistry course (by showing up drunk and drilling through a patience’s cheek) the Welsh tearaway spent her time lying to her house mates, gambling away all her money and eating Solero’s while on a playground swing. 977,000 people tuned in for the second to last taste of slothful uni life, netting a 5% share.
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.