EastEnders’ Mother’s Day fun continues, tops Tuesday viewing
For the fifth week in a row BBC One has claimed Tuesday night glory (a coveted achievement if ever there was one) with its gritty combination of never-ending misery-soaked soap EastEnders and the second series of refreshing brutal cop drama Happy Valley.
The long-running London soap, about a bunch of people cursed to live in the same shabby square while continuing to make bewilderingly questionable life decisions at every turn, secured the day’s biggest audience at 7:30pm.
Last night’s visit to the luminous borough of Walford saw the residents continue Sunday’s mother’s day celebrations in their uniquely unpredictable fashion, netting an audience of 6.5 million viewers.
A 32% share tuned in to see Richard Blackwood strangle his dear mother Claudette, right after she tried to kill Sharon’s dad, right before she admitting to murdering her husband in 1981, because – EastEnders.
At 8pm, Holby City helped BBC One continue its domination as 4.8 million viewers and a 23% share tuned in for the staff’s latest bout of professional and personal woes.
The penultimate episode of Happy Valley‘s second run kicked off at 9pm as the tension ramped up as put-upon West Yorkshire copper Sergeant Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) hurtled towards a thrilling climax.
Tuesday’s second biggest audience tuned in to see Tommy Lee Royce’s (James Norton) endgame come into fruition, with help from his softly-spoken mentally deranged side kick Frances (Shirley Henderson), as well as the little matter of catching a serial killer.
In total 6.4 million viewers, the 9pm slot’s biggest audience watched as Cawood was given a few welcome moments of light relief as she got hammered while watching an ABB tribute act, resulting in a 30% share.
ITV’s evening started off well enough with rural crime soap Emmerdale netting 5.7 million viewers at 7pm, with the latest dollop of countryside tragedy securing a 30% share.
At 8pm, bizarre misplaced Saturday morning kids show It’s Not Rocket Science (ITV) continued to be of no interest to anyone.
The fourth episode of the ill-thought venture saw Romesh Ranganathan use a ‘humble vacuum cleaner to help save him from the pit of hungry crocodiles he is being dangled over’ in another sounds-way-more-fun-than-it-is segment, bringing in 1.4 million viewers and a 7% share.
At 9pm, there was one final instalment of cobbled together CCTV show Car Crash Britain: Caught on Camera (ITV), with last night’s grand finale focusing on Frustrated Britain, netting 1.7 million viewers and an 8% share.
Over on BBC Two, the final episode of lets-pretend time travel show Back in Time for the Weekend (8pm) secured 2 million viewers and a 10% share as the Ashby-Hawkins family looked towards the future (cue: crap robot butlers).
At 9pm, The Apprentice and Gogglebox mash-up Who’s the Boss? (BBC Two) came to an end after three episodes, with 611,000 viewers and a 3% share tuning in to see who would get a job in a craft beer brewery.
Also wrapping up it storylines was Channel 4’s latest fixed-rig documentary The Secret Life of the Zoo (8pm) which saw some Rhinos delve in a spot of extinction-avoiding high risk danger mating, resulting in 1.8 million viewers and a 9% share.
9pm brought the concluding part of catch-up documentary Born to Be Different (Channel 4) with the approaching 16th birthday celebrations for the children bringing in 1 million viewers and a 5% share.
Meanwhile in the murky depths of Channel 5, Britain’s Horror Homes at 8pm saw lots of sad couples walking around their damp houses, witnessed by 881,000 viewers and a 4% share.
Afterwards, too-grim-for a-Tuesday Benefits by the Sea: Jaywick (Channel 5, 9pm) returned for a second series, with 1 million viewers watching the show tackle that difficult issue of balancing heroin-addiction and pregnancy , resulting in and a 5% 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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