TV Overnights: EastEnders’ latest casualty brings 7.9m to BBC One
There seems to be a lot of funny spells going around the eventful little village of Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) recently. A few days after Edna took a tumble, it was café worker Brenda’s turn to have a little sneaky nap. While driving in a van with a child.
Someone really needs to have a look at the water supply in that region of the Dales. Although, this being Emmerdale, they’d probably end up getting trapped down the well for two weeks.
6.6million viewers tuned in to see Brenda nearly plough down Val Pollard, which is as good a place to start a killing spree in that particular soap. The unfortunate near-miss featured in the first episode at 7pm on ITV and secured a 31% share.
The returning audience saw a slight dip an hour later as Brenda was rushed to hospital for tests. 6.2 million people showed up for the second helping at 8pm, bringing in a 28% share.
The absence of Coronation Street allowed EastEnders (BBC One, 7pm) to shine over on BBC One. Conveniently sandwiched between the Yorkshire-set double bill was the week’s second last visit to sunny Walford.
Last night saw Phil Mitchell lie on his death bed after been slapped a little by Jack Branning. Thankfully, old flame Sharon was there to hold his hand, guiding him away from the white light. As the two friends grew ever closer, Phil had to decide if he was going to press charges against Sharon’s new boyf.
Never a quiet night, eh? The depressive soap secured Thursday’s biggest audience, with 7.3 million viewers willing Phil to make it through the aggressive bruising on his cheek. The hard man’s latest adventure in brain cell destruction secured a 33% share.
On the same channel at 9pm was the second part of Child of Our Time (BBC One) an extremely obtrusive look at the lives of different willing families as they struggled with their teenage children. The show has followed the fortunes of 25 children born on the dawn of the new millennium.
Perhaps the producers had hoped for a brighter future when the concept was created, but last night was more value packed lunches than hover boards. The daring documentary’s audience fell by 8% night on night, but still remained the biggest draw in the 9pm slot with the second part securing 3.3 million viewers and a 15% share.
Since the dawn of television the detective/police procedural has been exhausted to within all limits of life, leading to broadcasters being forced to reinvent the wheel every now and again.
The BBC had recent success putting their own spin on things – there were two shows had the cops solving crimes in a coma victims head (or something like that) with Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, along with cops solving crimes in ye olden days on Ripper Street.
ITV even went as far as featuring not one, but two female detectives in the lead with Scott & Bailey. Truly ground breaking stuff.
So it was refreshing when last week Channel 5 took a risk with a regional variation that didn’t have much of a novelty trick up its sleeve. The twist here being that it’s not set in gritty London or the pleasant surrounds of Midsomer/Oxford. Instead the second episode of Jack Taylor (Channel 5, 9pm) brought us to the mean streets of Galway city centre as the private investigator was tasked with tracking down a murderer.
1.2 million people tuned in to see Scottish Game of Thrones actor Iain Glen play the troubled eponymous hero in the two hour event. The programme, originally broadcast by Ireland’s TV3 in 2010 netted a 6% share for Channel 5, easily beating Channel 4’s offerings over the 9-11pm slot.
Remember when vacuous observational reality shows like The Salon were the stuff of filler on the daytime schedules? Well now, in another sign of the impending apocalypse, they’re being passed off as prime time entertainment! Last night at 9pm, ITV debuted their one-off documentary The Wedding Shop, a show about things that happen in, you’ve guessed it, a wedding shop.
The programme didn’t hold back when lifting the veil of secrecy, showing brides-to -be coming in and browsing for dresses and other shocking revelations. And what characters (and suspiciously TV-ready) those real people were! For some reason the customers freely shared every detail of their personal lives with the staff plastered with hollow smiles and dead eyes.
The documentary, the televisual equivalent of over hearing annoying people’s boring conversation’s on the bus, attracted 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share.
Over on Channel 4, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wrapped up his fight to save the fish. They’re all safe now, by the way. He found a nice spot of the Outer Hebrides were no one will bother them. The final episode of Hugh’s Fish Fight (9pm) brought in an audience of 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Later in the nether regions of ITV2, Keith Lemmon kicked off another series of Celebrity Juice (10pm), as quick witted funny person Kelly Brooks replaced pregnant Fearne Cotton. 1.4 million viewers caught up with the début of the ninth series, securing a 8% share.
At 10pm on the other side, Channel 4 caught up with small town lender Dave Fishwick a year after we last saw him. Bank of Dave: Fighting the Fat Cats detailed the self-made millionaire and former DJ’s struggle with ‘the man’ and financial regulations blocking his path to a shared fiscal utopia.
Dave may have been cash-rich but last night he was in need of a few viewers as the fascinating follow up only managed to garner 920,000 viewers and a 6% 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.