BBC One nets 9pm with 4.6m for Blessed’s bombastic WDYTYA?
Thursday night saw the 11th series of the celebrity genealogy service Who Do You Think You Are? once again walk away with the 9pm slot, with the second episode of the current run putting beloved brash actor Brian Blessed through the sad story mill.
Last night’s instalment gave viewers one of those episodes where the researchers struck gold, slowly revealing a dramatic and sorrowful tale of a family torn about by circumstance and tragedy, with the renowned actor bellowing and grimacing loudly at every single turn.
4.6 million viewers tuned in to see the producers play with Blessed’s profound emotions by dropping in traumatic developments at every opportunity, mirroring the audience that tuned in for Julie Walters’ opening episode last week.
The sight of the imposing actor showering his ‘really great!’ great grandfather’s grave with a vivid and uncomfortable impassioned poem provided by Emily Bronte (it’s good to keep at least one handy in case of emergencies like this) took in a 23% share.
Also making a play for viewers’ emotions at the same time was Kids With Cameras: Diary of a Children’s Ward (9pm), although ITV’s documentary had more chance of getting the waterworks flowing without Blessed’s booming histrionics to distract from the sickly children.
The second episode of the show that hands over the production responsibility to ill kids saw the audience fall by 81,000 viewers week on week, to a total of 1.3 million viewers and a 7% share.
Over on BBC Two, it was time for the tense penultimate episode of The Honourable Woman (9pm) with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Nessa Stein not sure who to trust as she continued to get caught in a deadly game between Israel and Palestine.
1.6 million viewers watched as the second-to-last-ever shocking twist played out, resulting in an 8% share.
There was some particularly grizzly action over on Channel 5 at 9pm – just when you thought documentaries had covered every single angle of the World Trade Centre terrorist attack, The Last Secrets of 9/11 (9pm) was on hand to leave no stone unturned.
Proving that no part of the mourning process is too sacred to exploit, the documentary looked at the various ways in which the dead were identified, even if they were completely obliterated in the destruction. The debris-scraping fun brought in a little over 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
At the same time on Channel 4, Dr Christian was scraping some other samples of his own on the latest thrilling instalment of the show that strictly serves an educational purpose only, Embarrassing Bodies (9pm).
Yesterday’s slice of odd-looking penises heralded the end of the seventh series, resulting in Channel 4’s biggest hit of the day with just over 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Following the 10pm news on BBC One, the broadcaster gave a nod to the passing of Robin Williams by airing Good Will Hunting (10:30pm), the 1997 Gus Van Sant film that landed Williams a best supporting actor Oscar while dumping Ben Affleck and Matt Damon onto the world.
The late night screening of the classic film secured an impressive 1.5 million viewers and a16% share.
Earlier in the day, hard hitting teatime crime dramas family soaps Emmerdale (ITV) and EastEnders (BBC One) vied for Thursday’s top spot.
Yesterday’s action got under way with the countryside delinquency of Emmerdale, which was all getaway cars and brooding men in hoodies – as usual. 5.5 million viewers tuned in at 7pm to see terminally ill Donna and perfectly healthy Ross pose as police officers in order to infiltrate a corrupt club.
The abrupt return of fan favourite Aaron Livesy after a two year break helped secure a 31% share at 7pm.
Proving the rural soap is doing something right, the audience increased to 5.6 million at 8pm as the whole dangerous plan fell apart. The reunion of best buddies Adam and Aaron netted a lower 28% share.
Despite being double-whammied by an eventful time in the Yorkshire Dales, downtrodden soap EastEnders (BBC One, 7:30pm) managed to bag Thursday’s top spot, although the figures were nothing to write home about.
5.7 million viewers watched the aftermath of Ian Beale’s emotional appeal about the death of his daughter, while Phil Mitchell’s uncharacteristic acts of support raised some suspicion. The latest in the long-form storyline resulted in a 31% share for BBC One.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
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. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
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