Ashes to Ashes returns with 7m viewers

BBC One’s fantasy drama series Ashes to Ashes returned with an impressive 7 million viewers last night, banking the all-important peak-hour ratings.

The eighties drama, starring Philip Glenister and Keeley Hawes, attracted over 7.1 million peak viewers and a 29.1% average audience share between 9pm and 10pm.

At the same time, ITV1’s daily trip to Hell’s Kitchen, which saw Marco Pierre White turn up the heat on the novice celebrity chefs, pulled in a respectable 4.4 million viewers and a 18.6% share.

The remaining terrestrial channels battled it out for third place in the peak-hour ratings war – episode three in Channel 4’s Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant four-part documentary series just managed to pip Five with 1.6 million viewers and a 6.8% share.

However, Five’s ever-popular Extreme Fishing with Robson Green secured 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share, while BBC Two’s Heroes continued with just 1.2 million average viewers.

Earlier on in the evening, the soaps banked the overall highest ratings – BBC One’s Eastenders‘ claimed the top spot with 9 million peak viewers compared with Coronation Street‘s 8.9 million.

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.