BBC’s bout of patriotism wins over ITV’s gritty Whitechapel
Wednesday night saw both flagship BBC channels tick a box off the broadcaster’s remit as they ushered in a late evening of pure and unabashed patriotism in order to prop up the population with a warm fuzzy feeling, in preparation for the long cold months ahead.
On BBC Two at 9pm Professor Brian Cox spent an hour backslapping his fellow domestic scientists in the final episode of Science Britannica. For three weeks the genteel expert of all things brilliant has been on an odyssey of British discovery, looking back at the important leaps in science thanks to his fellow countrymen.
The final slice of navel gazing through big ideas did actually pause for a moment and admit that the vast majority of important discoveries were accidentally stumbled upon but that wasn’t to distract from the festivities.
The professor’s trademark whispered harmonics attracted 1.6 million viewers and a 6% share.
Meanwhile BBC One’s nationalistic celebration was slightly sketchier. Recently the country has been asked to swell with pride at the Bake Off, Sewing Bee and Glorious Food among other things.
But why be so specific? Last night the channel launched The Great British Year (9pm), a celebration of…well, everything it seems. Yes, the BBC’s national pride division now seems to be claiming responsibility for the dimension of time.
Don’t let the title fool you – the first episode only treated viewers to one quarter of the year, as narrator Joseph Fiennes took viewers on a stroll through Winter (a wondrous phenomenon not to be found outside the UK it would seem). 3.7 million viewers tuned in to see astounding scenes of a tree and mentally prepare themselves for the harsh season ahead, attracting an 18% share and the biggest audience in the 9pm slot.
Meanwhile, the evils of commercial television were all too apparent over on ITV as the broadcaster saw fit to depict the nation’s glorious capital as a dank and gritty playground for the criminally insane. While Whitechapel‘s fourth series hasn’t performed as well as expected it has managed to secure a steady audience over the past few weeks.
The modern cop drama (with a fondness for reminding viewers of London’s grotesque and recent past) entered its endgame as the penultimate episode kicked off a two part story. 3.1 million viewers were dragged into the rotten, grotty sewers underneath the city, securing a 15% share.
The palate was a lot brighter over on Channel 4 as Kevin McCloud met another couple attempting to prove their worth through a grandiose monument.
After last week’s refreshing build (that for once actually seemed quite necessary) we were back to familiar territory on Grand Designs (Channel 4, 9pm) last night as a couple were having a complete ‘mare building their ostentatious liveable shrine on their own airfield. The show, which turns pure unadulterated envy into entertainment, was Channel 4’s biggest show of the day, netting 2.1 million viewers and a 10% share.
Later at 10pm on Comedy Central, the satirical and political minefield that is South Park returned for a 17th series. The opening episode set its sights on the conflict between online privacy rules in the age when Twitter helps users overshare nearly every moment of their lives. The latest visit to sunny Colorado, which positioned Cartman as an uncharacteristically heroic Edward Snowden, only managed an audience of 110,000 viewers, translating to a 1% share.
Earlier on in the evening the high-drama, low-logic playing field was solely dominated by ITV’s soaps. The big drama of small town life in Emmerdale netted 6.6 million viewers and a 35% share at 7pm. But of course its rough Manchester cousin did much better straight afterwards.
8 million viewers caught up with Nick Tilsley on Coronation Street (ITV, 7:30pm) as he continued to just lay there in order to drag the storyline out til Christmas. The exciting goings on in Weatherfield brought in the biggest audience of the entire day and a whopping 40% share.
At 8pm Watchdog (BBC One) ruled over the timeslot with 4.1 million viewers. Pitched as Doctor Who for the elderly, Anne’s latest presentation of alarmist paranoia was scientifically designed to have your granny shaking behind her sofa in fear.
On BBC Two Ungrand Designs, The House That 100k Built (8pm) was watched by 1.9 million viewers, while the overconfident spawn of celebrities on Big Star’s Little Star (ITV, 8pm) netted 3.7 million souls.
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.