Bake Off’s Victorian gelatine nightmare nets nearly 10m for BBC One
Wednesday night saw The Great British Bake Off (BBC One, 8pm) continue its confident stride towards prime time glory with the seventh episode seeing the sixth series go all Victorian as the bakers were challenged with some ‘classic’ recipes.
While a pie, a cake and…eh…a charlotte russe may seem like a straightforward-enough task for the six remaining (and by now fairly experienced) participants, yesterday’s historic recipe raiding provided the usual twists and turns, as one of the more jovial contestants were sent their matching orders.
A little under 10 million viewers watched as the game pies rose to fruition, continuing the latest run’s insanely impressive winning streak and securing a very healthy 44% share.
Straight up afterwards was the second episode of prime time TV’s hardest working actress (who isn’t Sheridan Smith or one of those long-suffering soap stars) as Suranne Jones’ Doctor Foster (BBC One, 9pm) continued to watch her life crumble in an avalanche of paranoia-fuelled revelations.
Perhaps thanks to its post Bake Off time slot, last week’s tense début episode saw the small town GP ride a tidal wave of marital suspicion to its inevitable conclusion and secured 6.1 million viewers for BBC One.
Last night saw the good Doctor continue to compromise her career as the scorned woman let the destructive fury fly, resulting in a solid 5.7 million viewers and a 28% share.
At the same time, commercial broadcaster ITV continued to milk its free 60th anniversary pass by continuing to pump the schedule with randomly generated archive-powered programming.
Last night’s cobbled-together fun was The Sound of ITV: The Nation’s Favourite Theme (8pm) which saw Victoria Wood count down the top 20 theme tunes from throughout ITV’s history, resulting in 2.2 million viewers and a 10% share.
At 9pm, ITV’s latest cop doc The Nick came to a close after three episodes with the final slice of Brighton-based fun saw the coppers deal with a dead body in a public loo in the middle of a children’s parade. Originally 2.5 million viewers tuned in for the first episode, with last night seeing the audience fall to 1.8 million viewers and a 9% share.
[advert position=”left”]Over on BBC Two, Horizon (8pm) turned its comedy magnifying glass onto that white-hot and totally now topic of computer games and how they send the kids crazy. Are Video Games Really That Bad? featured lots of interviews with brain academics and seriously suspect tests (remember Going Live’s archaic Feed The Frog game?) and was watched by 479,000 viewers and a 2% share.
At 9pm, Dr Amanda Foreman’s epic journey throughout history continued with the third instalment of The Ascent of Woman (BBC Two), documenting the women that held power. 567,000 joined in on the fascinating quest, resulting in 567,000 viewers and a 3% share.
On Channel 4, Posh Pawn (8pm) was watched by 1 million viewers and a 5% share while Kevin McCloud met a sea-obsessed eccentric in the latest Grand Designs and brought in 1.9 million viewers and a 9% share.
Channel 5 brought viewers another instalment of The Nightmare Neighbour Next Door at 8pm and secured 948,000 viewers (a 4% share) but Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) took the channel’s top spot with 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
After BBC One’s baking success it was ITV’s soaps that took the second and third spot, with Coronation Street (7:30pm) bringing in 6.7 million viewers (a 34% share) while less popular OTT sibling Emmerdale netted 5.5 million viewers and a 32% share at 7pm.
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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