Big Chef takes on Elephants and loses

BBC One’s The Secret Life of Elephants was the ratings winner in last night’s all important 9pm slot, just edging out Heston Blumenthal’s attempt to improve the menu at Little Chef in Big Chef Takes on Little Chef on Channel 4.

The Secret Life of Elephants, a documentary revealing the emotional and dramatic lives of elephants in Kenya’s Samburu reserve, had a peak audience of 4.5 million viewers – a 19.5% share of the audience.

Over on Channel 4, the final part of Big Chef Takes on Little Chef hit a high of four million, a 17.4% share of the audience.

The programme, part of the broadcaster’s Great British Food Fight season, ended on a high as Heston revamped a dilapidated Little Chef and finally pleased the boss with a reasonably down-to-earth menu.

On ITV1 at 9pm was Stockwell, a dramatisation of the events that led to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell tube station on 22 July 2005.

Perhaps the harrowing subject matter put people off watching, as the programme could only manage a peak of 1.6 million viewers, a 7% share of the audience.

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