TV Overnights: BBC One leads a strong Tuesday night with Luther bagging 4.7m
Last night’s top shelf TV brought a change of heart for brooding man-mountain Luther (BBC One, 9pm) as the haunted cop attempted to get his love on in the second episode of the third series.
Clearly having never seen a cop show before, Luther made the crucial error of focusing on personal happiness than standing around, squinting into the distance and looking sullen.
Finally letting his guard down, the not-so-cuddly cop granted himself a romantic meal with a kooky but hot love interest straight from a Richard Curtis film (actually). Naturally – this being Luther and not The Vicar of Dibley, after all – it wasn’t long before the intense session of gooey eyes was interrupted by another dead corpse or two. Seriously, are there any women left alive in the greenish grim-filtered London of Luther?
The slightly insane police show captured the biggest audience in the all-important 9pm slot, with 4.7 million viewers tuning in for the hunt of the Shoreditch Creeper. The sexually deviant shenanigans helped pull in a 23% share for the channel.
Meanwhile, ITV offered up something completely different. The broadcaster’s inane habit of setting up random faces of the 90s with geological locations continued as Robson Green foolishly attempted to educate a primetime audience with facts about the past.
Much like Caroline Quentin’s recent plodathon around Cornwall, triple threat actor/fisherman/crooner Robson Green was tasked with wandering around the north of England, marvelling at appropriate points.
Robson Green: How the North Was Built (ITV, 9pm) was a celebration of the North’s industrial revolution but couldn’t quite reach Luther’s dizzying heights. Watching the former Fusilier shimmy his way down a mine shaft simply couldn’t compete with a serial killer fapping off while sucking on a dead woman’s toes – but that’s modern audiences for you.
2.2 million viewers caught up with Robson’s pilgrimage through the pure and just North realm, securing an 11% share.
The UK’s slow transformation into a full-on American ‘court tv’ situation became one step closer to reality last night as Channel 4 chose a real life murder trial to lure in aimless prime time viewers.
Fully embracing the highly divisive issue of allowing cameras into the court room, The Murder Trial (9pm) edited together six weeks’ worth of legal action and turned it into dramatic ‘must see’ TV. They didn’t even have to pay writers or anything.
The murder retrial, captured from a Scottish courtroom, managed to pull in 1.6 million viewers – the channel’s biggest hit of the day. The shock twists and emotional testimonies surrounding the case of a real life murdered woman, captured a 9% share.
It’s most likely that Channel 4 is currently working on a format change that would see viewers interact with the trial, casting their verdict via the magic of an app. Obviously, as is Channel 4’s responsibility, this would strictly be for educational purposes only.
Earlier on in the evening, Rhona’s roller-coaster ride of pain killer addiction came to a sudden stop upside down in a loop (metaphorically speaking) on Emmerdale at 7pm on ITV. Yesterday saw the quaint village vet go on a road trip around the Dales, fleecing every pharmacy of super strength Lemsip.
A surprisingly low audience of 5.4 million viewers tuned in to see the pleasant day out turn into a bit of a ‘mare due to a badly timed carjacking. The latest foibles of small town life captured a 33% share.
Straight afterwards over on BBC One was the latest visit to sunny Walford as a clean and fresh-faced Sharon returned to the Square. You’d think once you managed to get out of E20 you’d continue to stay well away from the misery trap but EastEnders‘ mainstay character is doomed to never learn from here mistakes.
Looking fresh faced and free of her happy pills (they are currently all the rage in soap land) Ms Watts Mitchell Rickman beamed positivity with her optimistic outlook. 6.2 million viewers tuned in in the hope that Sharon would be back sobbing on the kitchen floor by the 20 minute mark, securing a 36% share and Tuesday’s biggest audience.
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.