The Missing continues to impress, securing 5.7m for BBC One
Tuesday night saw the return of BBC One’s grim and challenging missing child drama The Missing (9pm), as James Nesbitt’s bereaved father continued the search for his misplaced five-year-old son across two separate time lines.
With an increasing sense of brutal dread running through every line and almost every scene hanging on Nesbitt’s frantically pained face, the bleak eight part drama might have originally seemed more suited to a slot on BBC Two.
Whether it’s down to the weight of the storyline or Nesbitt’s pulling power, last week’s opening episode opened with 5.8 million tuning in to see the harrowing initial scenes of the child’s disappearance while on holiday in France.
The impressive début was followed by another notable performance with last night’s hour of anguished torment seeing the investigation continue to unfold three days after the loss and the desperate attempt to reopen the case in the present day.
As a testament to the gripping drama of The Missing, the second episode attracted almost the same audience week on week, with 5.7 million viewers and a 25% share tuning in for more well-crafted grief and torment. Whether the momentum can be kept up for eight long episodes remains to be seen.
There wasn’t much respite from the worry over on BBC Two as Professor Brian Cox looked at the realistic limitations humanity faces in the battle for long-term survival.
The fifth and final episode of Human Universe (9pm) wasn’t all doom and gloom, with Cox’s sing song narrative offering up some hope for renewable energy, environmental harmony and space exploration in the final stirring coda.
Perhaps a bit heady for a Tuesday night, the epic rhapsody about the musings of humanity’s past and future opened with 2.3 million at the start of October but last night’s finale secured just 1.5 million and a 7% share.
The future of humanity must have been an overriding concern for anyone watching You Can’t Get the Staff (9pm) over on Channel 4. An audience of 996,000 viewers tuned in to see obsolete toffs validate themselves by playing up for the cameras, netting a 4% share.
At the same time, Channel 5 finally decided to turn its observational eye towards a topic that didn’t involve immigration or crime with Miracle Babies at 9pm. 867,000 people watched the sickly tiny tots fight against the odds, resulting in a 4% share.
Earlier in the topsy turvy land of soap, Emmerdale (ITV, 7pm) saw ex vicar’s wife Laurel get into a spot of drink-driving bother, securing 5.9 million viewers and a 30% share.
Straight afterwards on BBC One, EastEnders won Tuesday’s biggest audience as Mick Carter’s suspicions about his wife’s odd behaviour escalated. 6.6 million viewers watched as the Queen Vic’s latest patriarch realised his wife was pregnant without figuring out the rest of the troubling storyline (Christmas is just around the corner), securing a 31% share.
At 8pm Holby City brought in 4.3 million to BBC One, while MasterChef: The Professionals bagged 2.5 million (an 11% share) on BBC Two.
Channel 4 offered up viewers a chance to gawp at Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners (8pm), netting 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share.
ITV’s evening was taken up entirely by UEFA Champions League Live (7:30pm) as Real Madrid faced off against Liverpool in a game broadcast from Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
An average audience of 4.5 million viewers tuned in for the whole coverage, with Madrid’s Benzema scoring the game’s only goal in the 27th minute.
The audience peaked at 9pm in the opening fifteen minutes of the second half, reaching a high of 5.7 million viewers.
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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