Coming from down under on a wave of positive buzz, Wentworth Prison opened up its door after 27 years and detailed the imprisonment of meek housewife Bea Smith – with the aim to chronicle her savage rise to Top Dog.

This week’s exciting repeat of DIY SOS: The Big Build (9pm) saw the team of big hearted builders descend upon Wales for a bit of makeover magic and quality scripted banter.

Garden-fresh whippersnapper Nicholas Lyndhurst (you may know him from edgy youth sitcom Only Fools and Horses) stepped up to become the fourth corner of the dusty UCOS team.

It was a clash of the grim and gritty later on as ITV’s third series premier of Vera (8pm) went head to head with BBC One’s new four part drama What Remains (9pm). The ITV show staring Brenda Blethyn as yet another maverick detective did get a head start on its two hour investigation.

5.9 million viewers tuned in at 8pm to see Paddy and Rhona’s marriage go supernova, resulting in a 33% share. As expected, the second episode of Emmerdale was down slightly, with the audience falling to 5.8 million viewers.

David Platt’s continuing trouble in Coronation Street (7:30pm) provided ITV with Wednesday’s biggest audience with a single outing for the Weatherfield drama.

Tuesday night heralded the return of BBC Two’s great hope as another round of determined yet bumbling contestants entered the quaint white tent of horror for The Great British Bake Off.

Channel 5 witnessed a pretty impressive above average start to the week with their late night line-up yesterday as a modest but consistent ratings draw came to a close and the latest buzz-producing American import was ushered in.

All of the country’s three most popular soaps were out in force last night and –unsurprisingly – took Thursday’s top four spots. First up was Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm & 8pm) which had to deal with the cheery matter of murder victim Gennie’s burial.

Scientifically proven by a team of experts to be simply the worst day of the week, Tuesday received an ITV-administered shot of excitement as the broadcaster chose to fill its hour long prime time slot with slow-motion shots of dogs running and jumping with long jets of saliva flying everywhere on The Secret Life of Dogs (ITV, 9pm).