TV Viewing Summary W/E 25/01/98
Eastenders has now been driven to try and match the depth of trauma that the residents of Weatherfield have been wallowing in for the past couple of weeks. Sanjay is the first victim, having seemingly ‘disposed’ of his pint-sized peril of a wife Gita. The police in Eastenders are pathetically unrealistic, all with the very same features and attitude and the approach of Mr Chisholm from the good old days of Minder – at least they seem to have managed to stop Sanjay from adding his catch phrase “yeah” into every sentence. Its amazing how a little police intimidation can improve a chap’s character!
Still, this coupled with the tragic illness of Susan Rose has had the effect of a drop on last week’s average audience figure, with the average for Eastenders this week only reaching 14.95 million. Coronation Street remains on top, with an average audience of 16.83 million, and carries on with the task of turning Emily Bishop into the talking point of many a Darby & Joan club across the land. If we thought playing the didgeridoo was a little extravert, she has now immersed herself in the local eco-protest. It brings a laugh I suppose, but the sooner they kill her off the better really. I can’t believe there is actually any hesitancy in axing her when we’ve seen some of the best characters of the show leave over the past year or so.
Heartbeat picks up some of the audience it seems to have lost over the past few weeks, watched by an impressive 16.33 million. Casualty and London’s Burning get their usual scores of 13.83 million and 12.43 million respectively. My discovery of the week has to be Jonathan Creek (unintentional rhyming). This is the best drama on TV at the moment, with an undeservingly low audience of 9.68 million (though it is shown on a Saturday night). This show is true British class, in the vein of the great Lovejoy. Alan Davies in his first major (and decent) role, supported by a brilliant Caroline Quentin weave their way through some of the best scripted mystery plots we’ve had for a while: top notch stuff, just a shame it means staying in on a Saturday night really.
The Vicar Of Dibley has now drawn to a close, the last episode being watched by 11.61 million. Last Of The Summer Wine even manages to creep back into the charts this week with an audience of 9.15 million. Best of all though was the final episode of last year’s Only Fools & Horses trilogy. What a great way for the Trotters to go out, including Uncle Albert’s best cock-up of the show’s entire history – the classic gravy granules/coffee swap-over incident whilst Del entertains Raquel’s parents for the first time. Making the Trotters rich was of course the only way to satisfy the nation at the close of one of our greatest TV comedies of all time. It just goes to show that “by this time next year, we’ll be millionaires” wasn’t such an empty threat after all.
Channel 5 had quite a good week, its top show being the film Original Sin (1.72 million), continuing its score of several shows over the million audience mark. Following on from last week’s column, I notice that George Clooney is now to be axed from E.R. (3.88 million this week on Channel 4). So he’s finally sold out and decided to go and earn billions. At least we’re now saved from having to watch his slimy moves on our own TV screens. Keep George Clooney fans locked up in cinemas and away from decent folk with taste.
Reviewer: Jim Sparkes
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