Doc Martin’s prolonged holiday sees new series down -2m
After 686 long and agonising days off the nation’s screen, Monday night brought a chance for the TV viewing population to rejoice and welcome back Martin Clunes’ Doc Martin (9pm) for a seventh run of curmudgeony fish-out-of-water escapism.
Having spent the last two years narrating ITV documentaries about varying topics such as sick children, cute doggies, surly moggies and man’s intense and complicated relationship with animals (no, not like that – that’s more Channel 4’s remit), Clunes slipped back into his most famous role with ease.
The new series – about a snooty London doctor attempting to deal with a glut of painful seaside village Cornish stereotypes – found the temperamental doctor all alone once again after his wife fled to happier climes with their child, which is fair enough really.
Despite this, it was business as usual for last night’s return as Dr Martin Ellingham attempted to balance the local issue of the week (a boat accident) with a bout of testicular exams.
Going against the age-old idiom involving absence’s direct correlation with increased fondness, Doc Martin‘s two year sojourn seems to have backfired slightly.
Series six opened up in September 2013 with an audience of 7.6 million viewers tuning in to see TV’s other 900 year old Doctor get hitched, falling to a still-impressive 7 million viewers for the finale in October of the same year.
Last night’s return to Portwenn secured 5.6 million viewers, down -2 million viewers on the last series. Despite the audience cull, the easy-to-digest small town show secured the 9pm slot for ITV with a 27% share.
Meanwhile Channel 4 was at it again with its best equipment investment ever, this time attaching its omnipresent fixed-rig cameras to a fishing trawler, because every aspect of life on dry land has already been a prime time doc at this stage.
The second episode of The Catch (9pm) focused on a struggling ne’er-do-well vessel from Devon and brought in 889,000 viewers and a 4% share, with a further 145,000 viewers tuning in an hour later on Channel 4 +1.
At the same time the BBC was very much in a patriotic mood with The Queen’s Longest Reign: Elizabeth & Victoria (BBC One, 9pm) giving her nibs some much needed attention while BBC Two’s Bletchley Park: Code-Breaking’s Forgotten Genius (9pm) sang the praises of the clever clogs that helped to end the Second Word War.
2.9 million viewers and a 14% share tuned in to BBC One to learn all about Elizabeth II and her record breaking reign, while the impact of code breaking on modern international security took in 1.6 million viewers and an 8% share.
[advert position=”left”]On Channel 5, Celebrity Big Brother (9pm) showed a troupe of broken souls sitting around and reflecting on the meaning of life and brought in 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
Earlier in the day, Emmerdale (7pm) bagged fourth place for ITV with 5.6 million viewers (a 32% share) and ended up being narrowly beaten by BBC One’s EastEnders (8pm) which scored 6.6 million viewers and a 31% share.
But it was ITV’s double dollop of Weatherfield life that nabbed the first and second positon, with the 7:30pm trip to Coronation Street taking in 6.8 million viewers and a 35% share, falling slightly to 6.6 million and a 31% share for the 8:30pm viewing.
Sandwiched in between was Britain As Seen on ITV (8pm) a series made up of the most random of clips, all pulled together under a sketchy theme in order to ‘celebrate’ 60 years of ITV (ie filling up a chunk of the upcoming schedule at a relatively low cost).
Last night was all about ‘how we got around’, with the archived footage featuring awfully plummy men talking about buses, cars and diggers. 2.7 million viewers and a 13% tuned in for a trip down the broadcaster’s selective memory lane.
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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