TV Overnights: BBC Two’s Inside Claridge’s bags 9pm slot with 4m viewers
It’s hard to tell if documentary Inside Claridge’s (BBC Two, 9pm) was openly going for the ‘real life Little Britain‘ angle but, intentional or not, it really has succeeded.
The show is the result of allowing camera’s inside the plush London hotel for one whole year and has allowed viewers to glimpse inside the bubble of extreme ego pampering.
No request is too extravagant, no wish too extreme for the bizarre and unintentionally hilarious staff, all who have seem to be recruited from a failed Bond villain expo.
The third and final episode saw the hotel, nay institution, host a culinary feast in which people with far too much money paid to eat a course of live ants. Seriously. Elsewhere, a soon-to-be-wed tweed clad couple from the state of Georgia thought having a vulgar amount of money could make them seem more British. Mrs. Claridge is surely spinning in her grave.
Word of mouth about the short series has spread, with the third and final episode witnessing a 35% rise in the audience in two short weeks. The final dollop of costly refined living pulled in 4 million viewers and a 17% share.
Over on ITV1 was the concluding part of moody drama The Poison Tree (ITV1, 9pm). The thriller followed Kill List and The Descent‘s MyAnna Buring as a ‘haunted woman’, struggling to get past a horrific incident that took place twelve years before.
Splitting the drama by apart by seven days really didn’t help the momentum of the drama, with the audience dropping by 22% week on week as a result. 3.7 million viewers (a 16% share) watched in hope that they’d find out at least a few answers following last week’s Pandora’s box of questions.
Another night on Sky Atlantic just means there’s another show receiving heaps of critical attention but a pitiful amount of viewers. Last night, the first series of Girls came to an end after receiving heaps of global attention over the past few months. Billed as a more realistic, less abhorrently evil Sex and the City, Girls follows the adventures of four broke, confused and extremely misguided young women as they try to figure out life and all that other stuff.
The good news is that it comes from HBO and star/writer/creator Lena Dunham takes plenty of advantage of the cable network’s loose moral code, sometimes to jaw dropping affect.
A teeny tiny audience of 19,000 viewers tuned in to see if lead lady Hannah could make amends with her room mate, Marnie, after last week’s fallout. If you were one of the paltry 0.1% audience share that enjoy the hipster adventures – don’t panic, the second series arrives in January.
Perhaps the target audience suffer more realistic financial woes than their fictional counterparts – meaning a Sky subscription might as well be a pair of top end Manolo Blahniks. Or whatever it is we’re told woman irrationally lust after these day.
Just when you thought it was safe to wash up those sticky spoons Nigella Lawson returned to our screens for a one-off seasonal special. The temperature outside may have been low but thankfully the high end scullery maid warmed up both the oven and her face (for those extravagant expressions).
A true miracle of Christmas saw the food obsessed shut-in leave her fake kitchen and travel to Venice for some inspiring ideas. So what was Nigella’s Italian twist on the traditional dinner? Nigellissima – An Italian Inspired Christmas (BBC Two, 8pm) culminated in a Italian turkey stuffed with Italian sausages. With a side of Italian pasta, naturally. The final serving of the phonetically-troubled show pulled in 2.3 million viewers for BBC Two, resulting in a 9% share.
Earlier in the day BBC One brought us on the week’s first trip to sunny Walford. EastEnders (8pm) saw Kat and Alfie’s marital issues grow as their German Christmas market transformed the Square in to a winter wonderland. Complete with Kat dressed as Stripper Snow White.
7.6 million viewers watched as Alfie realised his missus had been lying to him again, fuelling his extremely slow burning anger. Well, at least there is only seven days left until the momentous day when we celebrate the birthday of our saviour end of this nauseating storyline once and for all. 32% of the available audience tuned in for the latest drama from London’s fictional East End.
Try as they might, the good people of Albert Square couldn’t steal Monday’s biggest audience away from Coronation Street (ITV1). Monday saw Simon Barlow’s campaign of emotional torture continue as he tried to destroy surrogate mum Leanne’s engagement.
After tracking down his father to the airport and thwarting his escape plan, mini Terminator Simon Barlow continued to punish those closest to him. Having dispensed of Carla on Friday, the path was clear for the tiny tearaway to reform his family.
Holding Peter at emotional gun point, the tiny terror forced him to play happy families with Leanne as they all went ice skating and SMILED lots. 8.5 million viewers tuned in for the first episode at 7:30pm, resulting in a 36% share and the biggest audience of the day. Viewers were down an hour later with 8.1 million people tuning in at 8:30pm.
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.