Sun, sea and silly murders: Death in Paradise stays on top
BBC One’s escapist killing show Death in Paradise (9pm) once again walked away with its Thursday night slot, with the latest instalment of sun, sea, slow-witted police and slaughter sticking to the join-the-random-dots formula.
After already offing a millionaire scientist, a fashion model, and a governor this series, last night’s trip to the highly cursed and totally fictional Caribbean island of Sainte Marie tolled its bell for a celebrity chef, who was found stabbed in the freezer of his latest restaurant.
While it’s a wonder that anyone would still visit the hexed islet, with every previous guest somehow getting wrapped up in a comically brutal murder, there was no such problem for the show’s legion of fans.
The continuously popular, casually clothed police procedural has so far survived one main character change and 38 preposterous massacres, with last night’s frozen chef mystery bagging 6 million viewers and a 28% share for BBC One.
At the same time ITV offered viewers some more time with those dashing roguish cowboys and the totally-modern-and-ahead-of-their-time lady folk of Jericho (9pm).
An audience of 2.5 million viewers tuned in to get the latest drama from the 1870s-set Yorkshire Dales shanty town, resulting in a 12% share.
Michael Wood’s highly detailed documentary The Story of China continued over on BBC Two at 9pm with the Ming Dynasty getting their moment in the spotlight. 1.3 million viewers and a 6% share tuned in for their weekly dose of education in ancient Chinese culture.
Slightly less culturally enlightening was the second episode of Channel 4’s latest immigration doc, Keeping Up with the Khans (9pm). The second of four episodes continued to look at the varying levels of integration achieved by the influx of Roma families to Sheffield’s Page Hall.
Surprisingly, the doc actually improved slightly on last week’s underwhelming début audience, with 992,000 viewers and a 5% share tuning in.
Channel 5’s resident hard man journalist, Paul Connolly, was back with another attention-grabbing exposé, this time alerting viewers to the fact that our domestic jails might be a bit too soft on inmates.
The first of three instalments of Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons (9pm) saw Connolly spend some time in a maximum security facility in Poland to discover that conditions are, indeed, difficult. An audience of 1 million viewers and a 5% share joined in on the discovery.
8pm on BBC One saw Dickensian pull in 2.2 million viewers while The Frank Skinner Show Room 101 bagged 2.4 million viewers afterwards at 8:30pm.
Over on BBC Two, the second and final part of hard-hitting fact-finding mission Cats v Dogs: Which is Best? (8pm) finally answered one of lifes big questions.
[advert position=”left”]2.3 million viewers watched as the two species were put through some more entertaining tests, with scenes of presenter Liz Bonnin meeting a cat who can use a TV remote helping net an 11% share.
Sharon and Tracey were back on ITV at 8:30pm as Birds of a Feather lumbered on with 4.2 million viewers and a 20% share.
Earlier in the day, ITV’s Emmerdale grabbed the day’s second and third place, with the first visit to the Dales securing 6.2 million viewers at 7pm, followed by 6 million viewers at 8pm.
BBC One’s EastEnders took the day’s top spot at 7:30pm as Denise Fox was sent some more hardships to suffer, with the latest bout of urban trauma netting 6.4 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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