Happy Valley continues to impress on BBC One
After a triumphant return last week, the second series of actually-really-good-I-swear regional cop show Happy Valley (9pm) continued to deliver the goods yesterday as Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) experienced yet another trying week.
The biggest audience in the 9pm slot tuned in to see Cawood taser a sex trafficker’s personal area in the opening montage, which makes a refreshing change from last week’s cold opener which saw her smash an injured sheep’s skull in with a dulled rock.
While the first series was mainly concerned about Sergeant Cawood intensely laser-focused drive to take down the man she held responsible for her daughter’s suicide, the second series has offered viewers multiple narrative strands to get attached to.
So far that’s not been a problem – last week’s return secured a series high for the lawless Yorkshire drama with 6.5 million live viewers tuning in after a long, 18 month wait.
While the plot seems to be unintentionally focused at this point, Sally Wainwright’s energizing take of the banality and vulgarity of small town crime, sprinkled with heroes with heavily broken hearts, still impressed.
A total of 6.2 million viewers (just slightly below the first series’ highest rated episode) tuned in to see Cawood’s no-nonsense approach continue to alienate her damaged family while winning the respect of her colleagues, resulting in a strong 29% share.
Elsewhere, the 9pm schedule looked fairly void with all of the other main channels struggling to attract respectable audiences. The second biggest show in the slot was Channel 4’s The Supervet, which saw Dr Noel struggle to save some broken doggies.
1.6 million viewers tuned in for the reality medical drama, with the abundance of fluffy critters securing a 7% share.
Next up was the latest episode of Car Crash Britain: Caught on Camera (ITV, 9pm) awkwardly titled Heroes and Villains: Caught on Camera, which showed CCTV footage of a supermarket pervert and a burglar-defeating granddad and secured 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share.
Over on BBC Two was the third and final episode of Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth which saw presenter Kate Humble once again team up with the Hairy Bikers in Hong Kong.
Focusing on what happens after all the festivities are done and dusted, the concluding look at the mega-event pulled in 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share.
Channel 5’s latest foray into its never ending welfare-based output continued with ‘social experiment’ The Great British Benefits Handout, whose title alone should send you running for the hills.
Just 1.1 million viewers tuned in for the second episode which saw another batch of family’s handed a cash lump sum in exchange for singing off. What followed couldn’t have been made up, with one family spending £18,000 in just one month on exotic animals. The exploitive ‘comedy’ bagged a 5% share for the channel.
Earlier at 8pm, BBC One’s Holby City once again did its thing and brought in 4.6 million viewers and a 22% share while the all-round teatime silliness of Back in Time for the Weekend (8pm) was watched by 2.2 million viewers and a 10% share.
At the same time, ITV launched a brand new technology entertainment show It’s Not Rocket Science (8pm), hosted by two grumpy middle aged male comedians and a young perma-smiling blonde lady.
Ben Miller and Romesh Ranganathan were joined by Countdown tottie Rachel Riley as they made their (Joey Essex-level) celebrity guests attempt to complete silly challenges with the aid of some gimmicky tech, resulting in 1.9 million viewers and a 9% share.
[advert position=”left”]Channel 4 continued their lets-make-everything-into-a-fly-on-the-wall-style-doc mandate at 8pm, with the latest episode of The Secret Life of the Zoo. Turns out, it contains exactly the type of thing you’d expect to happen at a zoo, with pregnant giraffes and anti-social aardvarks causing havoc and netting 1.8 million viewers and a 9% share.
At 7pm, ITV’s rural soap Emmerdale continued to make the Yorkshire countryside look as gritty as Walford, with 6.1 million viewers and a 30% share tuning in for the latest shouty action.
Speaking of which, BBC One’s EastEnders took Tuesday’s number one spot at 7:30pm as resurrected Kathy Beale had another encounter with her demented ex-husband (and Sharon-spawner) Gavin. 6.5 million viewers tuned in for the latest developments from E20, resulting in a 31% share.
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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