Poirot’s overdue return helps ITV secure Wednesday night
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (ITV, 8pm) finally returned to TV screens last night, four months after the series opening aired, indicating ITV is happy to drip feed agitated fans the last lot of episodes.
The second episode of the 13th – unlucky for our eponymous sleuth – and final series was pushed back from June, sending long-time fans (and it has been a very long time) into a feverish frenzy. After a whopping 24 year stretch, actor David Suchet will finally be released from the dungeons of ITV Studios and will be permitted to get on with what’s left of his life.
Last night’s The Big Four saw the world’s greatest detective reunite with plucky young sidekick Captain Hastings to help solve the Mystery of the Dead Russian Chess Player. As you do.
The second tale of WWII espionage, mystery and moustache twirling mirrored the performance of the series opener back at the start of the summer and secured an audience of 4.4 million viewers. The two hour episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot (when I was your age we just called him Poirot) attracted a 20% share and easily won its time slot.
Even though Poirot took on the shady world of espionage and won, surely the greatest victory of the night was the fact he took on BBC One’s house villain and won. Yes, Anne Robinson and her clueless henchmen (Matt Allwright and Chris Hollins) were back to scare up some ratings in the tabloid consumer outrage hour that is Watchdog (8pm).
Last night saw our fearless investigators take on the might of the corrupt train line operators. Not only did the BBC’s trinity of talent risk their own personal safety to tell us tickets are a bit overpriced, but the whistle-blowers also alerted viewers to the fact packaged bank accounts are a wee bit rubbish.
3.9 million viewers felt they could handle Watchdog‘s shocking truths, securing a 18% share.
Meanwhile on Channel 4, Harry Hill donned a wig and invited the viewing public into his country retreat in River Cottage to the Core (8pm).
A little more subdued than audiences are used to, the TV funny man took a sombre approach to cooking, insisted on being called Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (the funniest part of the show) and lacked any of the slapstick wit viewers have come to expect. 983,000 viewers watched as Harry and his new wig made a bit of food but mostly talked a lot, netting a 5% share.
Later at 9pm on BBC One, The Great British Year came to a close a few months prematurely. The fourth and final episode dealt with the thrilling developments of Autumn. 2.6 million viewers watched as leaves fell from the trees, birds fecked off to warmer climes and humans built bonfires. The moving desktop wallpaper secured a 12% share but couldn’t compete with ITV’s eccentric investigator.
At the same time on Channel 4, yet another professional with extra money and more refined organisational skills than you erected their dream ‘space’ in Grand Designs (9pm). Kevin McCloud’s trip to Devon brought in the channel’s biggest audience of the day with 2.5 million viewers (an 11% share) tuning in.
Meanwhile on BBC Two, David Mitchell and Robert Webb returned to the grand old broadcaster with a three part ‘dramedy’ series Ambassadors (9pm). Much more refined than Peep Show, the new show focused on two British diplomats in one of those fictional countries that is always trying to kill Jack Bauer in 24, Tazbekistan.
Viewers seemed to be able to adapt to a full hour of the non-Mark and Jeremy antics with 1.2 million viewers tuning in.
Former Spooks star Keeley Hawes had a bit of an omnipresence last night, appearing simultaneously in Tazbekistan while also being spotted wandering around The Tunnel (Sky Atlantic, 9pm) at the exact same time.
A remake of the critically acclaimed Danish/Swedish co-production The Bridge, the English/French mash up dealt with the discovery of a mutilated politician in the Channel Tunnel. The ambitious series brought in Sky Atlantics biggest audience of the day, with 236,000 people and a 1% share watching the clash of cultures.
As usual Wednesday’s biggest activity evolved around single episode soaps in the early evening with yesterday’s high drama belonging solely to ITV. Emmerdale at 7pm was still riding high from the post stunt-episode action, securing just under 7 million viewers and a 35% share.
But it was Coronation Street that ruled the roost at 7:30pm as Hayley Cropper continued to die at an extremely slow pace. 8.2 million viewers tuned in to see the waitress fight off another infection, securing the day’s biggest audience and a 38% share.
This all meant that Wednesday evening clearly belonged to ITV, with a mixture of single episode soaps and a feature length drama helping to fight off the appeal of BBC One’s autumnal wall calendar.
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.