Panorama’s solemn Terror on the Beach nets 2.5m on BBC One
There was a sombre and sobering tone to BBC One’s 9pm airing last night as long-running current affairs programme Panorama (9pm) invited viewers to relive last month’s terror attack in Tunisia in harrowing detail.
Terror on the Beach provided commentary and previously unseen footage from eyewitnesses who watched the horrific scenario play out at the loss of 38 lives.
2.5 million viewers tuned in to hear the disturbing accounts of mass murder, while bringing some attention to the many examples of the heroism displayed by shocked tourists and staff.
While a 13% audience share wasn’t anything to write home about, among last night’s underwhelming line-up it was certainly enough to secure the time slot for BBC One, while the difficult hour of TV also prompted a lot of mentions on Twitter.
Meanwhile, ITV provided some sweet relief and closure for eager viewers who had to wait a whole agonising week to catch the concluding half of prime time aggression doc Britain Sees Red: Caught on Camera (9pm).
‘From angry outbursts to total meltdowns’, the show provided endless CCTV and smartphone footage featuring ordinary members of the public completely losing it. This provided ample entertainment for an audience of 2 million viewers and an 11% share, down from last week’s 3 million viewers.
On Channel 4 it was all skulduggery and back room plots to get Greece’s Prince Philip hooked up with a 13 year old Princess Elizabeth in an explosive tell-all documentary.
Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King (9pm) detailed Lord Mountbatten’s efforts to get the outsider into Buckingham palace (and elsewhere) and brought in 1.8 million viewers and a 10% share.
At the same time, Channel 5 provided its daily dose of prime time welfare/obesity panic, with 65 Stone & Trapped in My House: Supersized entertaining 751,000 viewers and a 4% share.
[advert position=”left”]BBC Two kicked off a new nature series at 9pm, with the Cillian Murphy-narrated Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth taking a look at the humans and animals whose lives are shaped by the world’s second largest sea.
The channel’s biggest audience of the day tuned in to see the first of three episodes, resulting in 2.2 million viewers and a 12% share.
An hour earlier, BBC Two was concerning itself with the waterways on the other side of Ireland as the tenth series of Coast (8pm) took a look at the comparably tiny but strategically important Irish Sea.
1.8 million viewers tuned in to see how the light and breezy tone of the show could navigate around the historically harsh waters of ‘the Irish question’, resulting in a 9% share.
At the same time on BBC One, the Crash Bang Wallop! fun of Traffic Cops (8pm) was watched by 3.1 million viewers and a 17% share while Channel 5’s The Holiday Airport: Sun, Sea & Scousers resulted in an audience of 575,000 viewers and a 3% share.
On Channel 4, Kevin McCloud’s best bits were once again on display, with Grand Designs: Living in the Country (8pm) bringing in 982,000 viewers and a 5% share.
Meanwhile, surely the show ITV commissioned purely for Twitter reactions, Flockstars (8:30pm) made its awful flocking début as some celebrities tried out competitive sheep herding because, it seems, literally everything else has been done.
Thankfully though, the horror show was only half an hour long as a dementedly cheerful Gabby Logan pretended this wasn’t the worst thing ever. 2.4 million viewers watched as very random selection of ‘personalities’ gave it a go, resulting in a 13% share and managing to be the fourth most mentioned show of the day on Twitter.
Way back in the realms of tea time, ITV brought the first of two episodes of Emmerdale (7pm) as Debbie Dingle’s latest ill-advised life choices brought in 5.4 million viewers and a 31% share. The second visit at 8:30pm repeated the 5.4 million viewers but the share fell to 29%.
But it was EastEnders and Carol Jackson’s pre-watershed mention of the word ‘bastard’ that topped Thursday’s TV as the soon-to-be-leaving long-standing character gave her brother a piece of her mind.
Scenes of Carol visiting Max Braning in prison and calling him out on his general fecklessness brought in 6 million viewers to BBC One, resulting in a 32% share and the most mentions on Twitter.
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.
To get all the latest Mediatel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.