BBC Two’s Life in Squares nets 1.9m for Bloomsbury Group
Last night’s TV options saw ITV’s short-lived fly-on-the-beat police documentary Rookies (9pm) wrap up after three successful weeks of trainee cop action.
The show followed a varied group of 24 nervous new recruits as they joined the Lincolnshire Police to clean up the mean metropolitan streets of Wrangle, North Hykeham and Scampton, to name but a few.
The first episode saw former lorry drivers, travel agents and a grandmother suit up and take their first few steps into their new authoritarian lives and netted 3.2 million viewers for ITV.
Last week’s instalment, in which our slightly less scared law enforcers lost some confidence by messing up on the job in a variety of manners, managed to secure the exact same audience for a second week running, indicating that the show had at least captivated its original audience.
Monday night’s finale saw the ever blossoming officers step up to the plate and go it alone without an experienced officer by their side. A slightly lower audience tuned in for the last portion of trainee tension, as 2.7 million viewers tuned in to see the new born PCs deal with some seriously violent attacks.
While the loss of half a million viewers wasn’t exactly a great way to top off the well-received and short series, it was enough to secure the 9pm slot for the third week running with a 14% audience share.
At the same time, BBC One was busying its viewers with another workplace documentary – because it seems we, the TV viewing nation, can’t get enough of rushing home from our own jobs to relax in the warm glow of a stranger with a job worse than you.
9pm saw the second part of Coral fluff piece Britain at the Bookies look at the hoopla surrounding a big race day at Doncaster, with the ever present battle between bookies and punters taking centre stage.
Last week, 2.2 million viewers tuned in to meet the host of characters who love/hate the gambling ‘lifestyle’, with last night’s middle instalment taking in 2.1 million viewers and an 11% share.
Meanwhile, BBC Two took a look at some important historical artistic figures with a very interesting ‘lifestyle’ of their own. The life and times of the ultimate hipster rich kids, the Bloomsbury Group, was the focus of self-serving drama Life in Squares (9pm).
Brought to you by the words ‘bohemian’, ‘flamboyant’, ‘promiscuous’ and ‘entitled’, the first episode saw sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf jump head first into a world of excitable artistic debate while meeting some YOLO-type characters who were determined to change the stuffy conventions.
1.9 million viewers tuned in to see the set of creatives begin the journey up their own imaginative holes, resulting in a 10% share.
Similar in intent to Rookies but using an entirely different angle was Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody (9pm), which returned for a third series, with the fixed camera set-up once again allowing viewers back into the Bedfordshire police station where the action takes place.
1.3 million viewers watched as the officers attempted to take down a teen gang running amok in Luton, resulting in a 7% share.
At the same time Channel 5 had the latest from Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild (9pm) as the adventuring presenter met a woman living an isolated life in the Australian outback. 1.8 million viewers joined Ben on his dusty trip, resulting in 1.8 million viewers and a 9% share.
Earlier, Jeremy Paxman and his sardonic tones helped University Challenge (BBC Two, 8pm) attract 2.7 million viewers and a 12% share while ITV’s Vet School (8pm) managed 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share.
On Channel 4, Jimmy Doherty managed to fill up another sixty minutes by talking about food in his fun, casual way as Food Unwrapped: Diets for Summer (8pm) netted 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share.
Meanwhile Channel 5 was busy out-Channel 5-ing itself with Stop! Roadworks Ahead (8pm) – a prime time documentary about maintenance. The third of eight episodes pulled in 805,000 captive viewers and a 4% share.
[advert position=”left”]As usual, Monday evening brought on a complete soap onslaught with Emmerdale kicking things off on ITV at 7pm. 6.1 million viewers tuned in to see some build up to next week’s latest disaster, resulting in a 33% share.
BBC One’s EastEnders (8pm) took the day’s second place, with 6.7 million viewers and a 31% share tuning in to see the latest round of mockney shouting matches, resulting in a 31% share.
Coronation Street (ITV) celebrated a half victory last night, with the earlier episode at 7:30pm taking Monday’s number one slot, with the second episode at 8:30pm falling to third place.
7.2 million viewers (a 35% share) watched as the charming little teatime show from Manchester saw terminally stupid teen Bethany offer to deliver drugs for Callum, with the later episode seeing the wayward girl make a move on her mother’s ex, resulting in 6.7 million viewers and 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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