TV Overnights: Come Fly with Me and Not Going Out bank the top spot for BBC One

BBC One’s Thursday night peak-hour line-up attracted the top ratings ahead of ITV1’s new Martin Clunes documentary.

The third episode of the all-new six part series Come Fly with Me with comedy duo Matt Lucas and David Walliams pulled in 6.4 million viewers and a 25.2% average audience share between 9pm and 9.30pm, before the new series of Not Going Out.

Series four of the comedy drama starring Lee Mack and Tim Vine got off to a good start, banking 4.7 million viewers and a 19.4% average audience share during the second half of the 9pm to 10pm peak-hour.

Meanwhile, ITV1’s new Martin Clunes: Man to Manta – a documentary about the actor fulfilling his ambition to swim with giant manta rays – secured a lower 3.6 million viewers and a 14.4% average audience share during the all-important prime time slot.

Elsewhere, BBC Two also aired a new prime time drama – The Sinking of the Laconia, written by Alan Bleasdale. The 90-minute programme picked up a decent audience of three million peak viewers and a 12.1% average share between 9pm and 10.30pm.

It was a night for new series, as Channel 4’s schedule also included the all-new Derren Brown: Enigma show. Starting at the unusual time of 9.35pm following Famous and Fearless (which achieved 1.1 million average viewers), the illusionist’s theatrical show banked 1.7 million average viewers.

Over on Channel 5, 1.2 million average viewers tuned in to see the 9 o’clock film S.W.A.T with Samuel L Jackson and Colin Farrell.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps dominated the pre-watershed slots, with BBC One’s Eastenders enjoying the highest ratings of the night (10.1 million viewers).

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.